IEW
Supplies
1/2 inch binder with 15 sheet protectors
Glue Sticks
Sharpened pencils with erasers
Black Ball Point Pen
Colored pencils/crayons (up to you!)
Personal sharpener
Scissors
Ruler
Highlighter(s) - I will provide one
Hand Sanitizer
Overview
In-Class Updates
Week 1:
To start off our IEW class after recess, we reviewed our verse for the day (Jeremiah 51:15). Next I showed the students what the IEW book looks like and what it entails, none of the students had their books with them yet and so we had to improvise a little for our lesson. We then learnt about what a noun is (a person, place, or thing) and had some practice with a little class relay to further understand what sorts of things are considered nouns. Next, we added verbs (action words) to our vocabulary and continued the same relay activity. Lastly, we added in adjectives to our relay game and learnt that adjectives are "describing" words. Next, the students were able to watch a video on verbs to better understand what is considered an "action word". Following this, we did two mad-libs together as a class where the students provided me with a word I needed for the story (either a noun, verb, or adjective). They all did great and had such fun hearing the silly story they had all created together. We then completed page 9, about adjectives, in the IEW book together as a class. Next, we sung a song about the goodness of our God (this is found in their IEW books as well). Lastly, we finished our class with a game called "Thank you God" where the students had the opportunity to act out an animal for the other students to guess and say "Thank you God for Elephants!"
Week 2:
To begin IEW this week, we reviewed our nouns, verbs, and adjectives with the relay game. We then practiced and sang, "Our God is so Great", together as a class. Following this we had our first introduction to a Key Word Outline (KWO) for the school year. We touched on what a KWO is, what it entails, and how to complete one. We begun our outline together but were only able to complete the first line or two due to the fact that we were short on time because of Picture Day, and some students did not have the IEW book just yet. If you find the time before class next week, I encourage you to go over and try complete the first KWO, "God is so Good", with your student. It is by no means required but I do think it would be beneficial and helpful for them.
Week 3:
To begin IEW this week, we reviewed our verse from Genesis 1:31 “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” We then directed the rest of our class time to working on and finsihing off our very first KWO (Key Word Outline) "God is Good". We sat down together and went sentence by sentence and highlighted the words that matter, that tell us something important and necessary. We then transferred the words we highlighted, to our outline. We also discussed the use of symbols, and when we were presented with too many words for one line (as we are only allowed three words per line for our KWO's), the students worked together to come up with a symbol for certain words. By the end of the class, we were able to have completed our first outline together and the students all did a great job!
Week 4:
To begin IEW this week, we begun with a little practice activity. The idea of the activity was to get the students familiar with finding the three most important words in a sentence, as this is what is required for each line in our KWO. Each student received a notecard with a sentence on it and they were tasked with choosing the three most important words, coming up to the front of the class, saying them, and then having the other students guess what their sentence said. We used this as a learning opportunity to discuss what sort of words are important in sentences and what words don't tell us much and can be left out in our outlines. We learnt our next verse that accompanied our new story, Genesis 7:1. We then read our new story and begun working on our KWO for the story, together as a class.
Week 5:
To begin IEW this week, we begun with a little learning game. The idea of the game was for the students to work together to correctly identify and use adjectives. I split the students into three teams and we placed 15 adjective cards and 5 non-adjective cards face down. Each team would have a turn to choose a card and turn it over. If it was an adjective they had to use the adjective in a sentence to describe something. If it was not an adjective, they had to identify it was not one and it then counted as a "strike" against their team. Three strikes and they were out! Next, we reviewed our verse from the week before and then we began writing our very first story from the KWO we had created last week. We discussed the rules of writing a story, such as indenting the first line, double spacing, beginning sentences with capital letters and finishing them with periods, and underlining the adjectives in the story as our focus has been on adjectives. After we discussed our rules, we began writing together as a class. We didn't finish quite yet this week, but the students did a great job writing and I am hoping we will be able to finish it off this coming week.
Week 6:
To begin IEW this week, we begun with a little learning game. The students had the opportunity to come up to the front of the class and do anything they wanted. The other students then had to describe them using an adjective, since we have been working on our understanding of adjectives. Next, we moved on to finishing our written story of Righteous Noah. The students all did a great job at giving their input and using their creativity for their stories. After they completed their story, they placed it in their IEW binder in their bags.
Week 7:
This week in our IEW hour, we worked on a new Key Word Outline (KWO) about Abraham and his faith. We worked through the outline together as a class, with the students leading the way. We went step-by-step, with reading the story once through first, then going back and rereading it one sentence at a time. The students would highlight the important words and then we would move to our outline to see which words and/or symbols we would use for the corresponding line in the outline. We made it roughly half way through the outline this week, and will hopefully finish it off next week. All of your students are doing a great job with their writing!
Week 8:
This week in our IEW hour, we worked on completing our Key Word Outline (KWO) about Abraham and his faith. We worked through the outline together as a class, with the students leading the way. We went step-by-step, where the students would highlight the important words and then we would move to our outline to see which words and/or symbols we would use for the corresponding line in the outline. We made it through the rest of our outline this week and will write the story in our class next week!
Week 9:
This week in our IEW hour, we worked on completing our written stories from our KWO on Abraham that we finished last week. This time around we only did the first sentence of the story together and then they worked on the rest individually with one on one help as needed. They were all such troopers as I know writing can be a lot for them!
Week 10:
This week in our IEW hour, we worked on completing our written stories from our KWO on Abraham. Each student had the opportunity to work at their own pace and to add their own touch to their individual stories. Myself and Mrs Kelly went around helping students one by one to ensure they were getting the grasp of things. Writing tends to take slightly longer in our class due to a varying range of abilities, and we are completely okay with that! So we took the class slow and steady and worked on completing stories the students could be proud of. Once they completed their stories they each had the opportunity to read them to the class.
Week 11:
This week in our IEW hour, we started off by learning about "banned words", what they are and why we cannot use them in our writing. We then began our KWO for Joshua and the students had the opportunity to work on this for the rest of the class.
Week 12:
This week in our IEW hour, we started off by playing a game to review and further learn about "banned words". We then continued with our KWO for Joshua and following this we began our writing of our stories for Joshua and the students had the opportunity to work on this for the rest of the class.
Week 13:
This week in our IEW hour, students had the opportunity to finish off their stories for Joshua and read them to the rest of the class.
Week 15:
This week in our IEW hour we began learning something new! Over the next few weeks, we will be introducing and learning about Story Sequence Charts and the three parts of a story: the Characters and Setting, the Plot and Conflict, and the Climax and Resolution. We begun our class with learning about the three different parts in a story. We then played a fun learning game before beginning the tough part, writing! We played wolves in sheeps clothing, where students had to identify the banned words among a collection of qualtiy words. We then started with and focused on the Characters and Setting and began reading the story of David. We then begun completing our KWO together for this first part of the story.
Week 16:
This week in our IEW hour we reviewed the three main parts of a story that can be found in a Story Sequence Chart. We then moved on to continuing our KWO for the first part of the story, the characters and setting, for our David story. To break up some of our writing and work in IEW, after completeing the outline, we played the wolf in sheeps clothing again to refresh the students mind on banned words and I challeneged them a bit further to provide better word choices for the "wolf in sheeps clothing"/banned words. We then finished off our class with completeing a work page in our IEW books that reviewed quality words to use to describe our characters and setting.
Week 17-19:
Our past three weeks in IEW we have been working on the KWO's and the stories for David, for each of the three parts of our story sequence charts.
Week 20:
This week we begun our IEW hour with some fun valetines themed mad-libs! We then read a story called Saint Valentine. We then ended our class with each of the students having the opportunity to read the three parts to their David story that they completed last week.
Week 21:
This week we had Career Day!
Week 22-25:
These few weeks we have been utilizing our IEW hour to complete the three part story for Daniel. Students have worked part by part, completing the KWO first and then moving onto writing out the story. Each student has had the opportunity to move at their own pace while learning how to work individually with guidance from me. They have all done a fantastic job and I am so proud!
Week 26-28:
These few weeks we have been utilizing our IEW hour to introduce and complete summarizing references. The students have been introduced to a Topic Sentence and the Clincher, and have learnt that at least two to three words need to be reflected in the clincher from the topic sentence. We have discussed what summarizing is, why and how we do it and the students have had the opportunity to put their summarizing skills to the test. It is very similar to completeing a KWO but a topic sentence and clincher is included!
Week 29:
This week we begun something new in our IEW hour. We introduced how to write a story from pictures. Together we worked on beginning the outline, with a topic sentence and clincher included, and then the students had the opportunity to work individually to form their own unique story.