Valentine Writing Celebration

Today we celebrated the effort and hard work of our nonfiction writing unit! Our kids have been writing books about subjects they are "experts" in: dogs, sharks, dance, arachnids, dinosaurs, swimming, video games and a wide range of other topics too. They have been practicing their craft to include comparisons to help readers visualize information, using keywords to help their readers learn the lingo on a subject (think tack, canter, trot, groom, and curry in a book about horses, for example), the features of nonfiction (like headings, tables of contents, glossaries, diagrams, and so forth), and many other features of powerful informational writing we learned from mentor authors.

As it is also Valentine's Day, we gave each child a heart shaped note to write what they "loved" about their buddy's book. We also told the kids a little about the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia - how young women wrote their names on slips of paper and placed them in an urn from which young men would select the girl who would be their partner for the games and dances of the festival. Many times these young companions would go on to marry. However, our version, of course, was based on more platonic couplings - friendships.

We also read a picture book about St. Valentine whose true legacy was in the type of love that comes from kindness, empathy, steadfast loyalty and putting others' needs before your own.

We put the names of the 1-2M kids in a jar and had each student from 1-2A choose a name to be their Lupercalia buddy for the day. Their buddy sat with them at lunch today and was the partner they shared and celebrated their book with. It was a fun celebration for all and now clears the deck for our upcoming units of study for after the vacation!

Enjoy the pictures below of buddies sharing their expert books.