Tried it Tuesday...writin', sniffin', and creatin'...

It's Tuesday and it's time again to link up with Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried it Tuesday.  I've been on fire the past week with my postin' of blogs.  

Shockin'...I know!

Tried it Awesomeness #1: Peer & Self-Assessing Writing

Readin' their own writing.

Color codin' writing rubric to match the 6 Traits of Writing.

Students had to do their second District Wide Writing Assessment last week.  I wrote about this here if you missed how and why we do this.  This week they are usin' a rubric provided by the District to self-assess themselves and then their peers.  We are usin' the 6 Traits of Writing and each trait requires a separate color when assessing.
These are the colors we use that you can find here on Smekens Education Solutions, Inc.
Ideas-blue
Organization-green
Voice-pink
Word Choice-red
Sentence Fluency-orange
Conventions-purple

After I graded the writin', students had to agree or disagree with the score I gave.  They had to go back and show me in their writin' and on the rubric, why they disagreed with me and give me the reason why.  A few disagreed and I was able to show them specifically why they scored what they did.

Tried it Awesomeness #2: Students Smellin' Scentsy
I can't pick a scent to save my life.  I set out a tray of 17 scents and students had to smell them all.
 They had to persuade me to buy a certain scent.  I will tally up the votes and order the winner, possibly...if my nose agrees with them.

 Takin' one scent out at a time to sniff.

More sniffin' of the scents.
This could possibly have been the quietest my students have been in awhile.
They were concentratin' for sure.

Tried It Awesomeness #3: My Create

My students and I are workin' on a technology project for our District after readin' the book Wonder by R.J.Palacio.  One of the technology pieces we are usin' in our Prezi is from the app My Create.

My Create allows you to take a picture with your phone and turn it into an animation. 

This app does cost almost $5, but I had a gift card for iTunes.  Thank you sweet families.  It's just a cute and fun way to share pictures...and watch them move really fast.

You can read more about Wonder in our classroom here.

I'll be puttin' up my whole presentation once it is finished.  

Be sure to check out the rest of the Tried it Tuesdays on Holly's blog!

Only 3 more days until I leave for Cali!