Lucky's Punctuation Patty-O

Goodness gracious! We have been unbelievably busy prepping for our state writing test... which is {ahem} tomorrow!!!! Like less than 24 hours...tomorrow! Say a little prayer for us tonight! For all of my SC peeps, best of luck! I know with teachers like you, your kiddos will do fabulous!

Well, we have been so busy in fact, that we haven't been able to do anything leprechaun/St. Patty's related. {insert sad face here} Although I am now in a "tested" grade {whatever that means...aren't all grade levels tested in their own *special* way?}, I still try really hard to make things fun interesting magical for my kiddos. I truly think this helps keep their fire burning for school and really makes that knowledge stick. So after seeing all of these cute little punctuation lessons using pasta swirling around Pinterest, I knew I wanted to do something using that idea...especially since our first state test is writing. Plus, we have been working on all kinds of editing skills and strategies, so this would fit right in! When I started thinking about how I wanted to tie this all in to St. Pat's Day, I remembered how Kim Bearden from RCA tied it into a restaurant theme. Perfect! 

So I give you...

When the kids came in this morning, I had the classroom ready to go! 

I made them believe that a little punctuation leprechaun entered our classroom on St. Patrick's Day and he wanted to make sure that we had our editing skills nailed down pat {no pun intended}! :)  

{Ignore the covered walls...we are all ready for testing!}

We even had little "signs" left from our leprechaun friend {see below} to remind us of all of the things that we should search for while editing! 

They were beyond excited and couldn't wait to find out what all of this craziness was about! Too bad they had to wait through a 45 minute activity block. Needless to say, they couldn't wait to get back into the classroom. 

When the returned, they found this...

Along with our "punctuation", we also had Lucky Snack Mix which gives us a huge burst of luck as we begin our editing {a.k.a. our sentences should be perfect}. 

They couldn't believe that our little friend Lucky {who usually trashes our classroom each St. Patrick's Day} turned our punctuation green! 

Can you believe that little jokester! I promise...even third graders love the magic! 

Then, I wrote a whole bunch of sentences that Lucky trashed {instead of trashing our room}. The kiddos had to use the pasta to edit the sentences and make them perfect for publishing. 

After I checked their sentence, they recorded their final editing on their recording sheet. 

Such a fun way to practice {one more time} all of the things that great writer's look for in their writing. After this lesson, we won't need any luck on PASS! {Let's hope!} ;) 

Now let's just pray for some sleep tonight! State testing makes me crazy nervous! 

Hope y'all had your best Monday yet!