SOLSC Classroom Challenge

Classroom SOLSC Week 1- Away we go!

Kathleen Neagle Sokolowski

Welcome to the April 2021 Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge! 

If you haven’t signed up yet, please share your class’ blog information on the Padlet.

Click here for more information on what the Classroom Slice of Life Challenge is all about!

The April Classroom SOLSC begins on Thursday, April 1 and runs through Friday, April 30th. Many of us are on spring break this week and others will take spring break during April. State testing may be happening in your school during April as well. The spirit of the Classroom SOLSC is to encourage daily free choice writing within a community of writers, but make this work for you and your writers in a flexible way. I set my third graders up to start the challenge this week, even though we are on break and won’t  return to school until April 6th. I’m hoping some of my writers will start the challenge during the break but I know others will join in once w are back at school.

I created a video to explain the challenge to the families in my class:

 

I’ve also updated the badges I will award to students during the April Classroom SOLSC.  Feel free to use the badges with your students too!  If you would like to read more about how I’ve used badges during the challenge, you can check out this post and some updated badges here.

Be Inspired! 

While our challenge emphasizes telling stories about a “slice of life”, students may find inspiration and connection from photographs and videos. The Kids Should See This has a collection of interesting videos that might inspire your writers. National Geographic Kids has some Wacky Weekend animal photographs that might inspire curiosity, wonder and story telling. Beth Moore’s recent post on using humor in writing workshop included tons of inspiration for finding the lighter side, including writing memes and jokes.

Let’s Have a Conversation! 

How are you launching the April Classroom SOLSC? How did you get your students excited for this month of blogging? How has your own March SOLSC influenced and inspired how you will approach this challenge with your students? Please share your ideas, insights and questions in the comments so we can have a conversation.

Can’t wait to read the stories of the many students around the world who will be taking part in the April Classroom SOLSC! Thanks for being a teacher who writes and makes time for your students to write their stories.

Published by Kathleen Neagle Sokolowski

7 thoughts on “Classroom SOLSC Week 1- Away we go!”

  1. I shared with my class some of the writing I did for the SOLC and explained why I enjoyed the experience. I told my class they will be doing their writing in their notebooks, then I will transcribe their work onto my classroom blog. (I have ongoing wi-fi issues in my classroom – this is why my students are not doing KidBlog. I want them to focus on their writing – not be frustrated by technology.) The title of the blog posts will be Classroom Slice of Life + date https://primaryportrait.wordpress.com/ I will post at least 4 pieces of student writing on weekdays, excluding Easter long weekend.
    I have shifted my timetable for the month of April. We will start the day with #classroombookaday then we will launch into writing. I will project a Kidblog onto my Smartboard and share other students writing will my class. Then I will post comments on behalf of my students.
    I will be teaching a variety of poetry forms during the month of April to coincide with National Poetry month. I will also reviewing craft moves and teaching others I haven’t yet introduced.
    My focus is to do daily writing and for students to improve their craft. I’ll encourage them to write on the weekend. If they do write on the weekend I invite them to post their writing on their private channel on Microsoft Teams.

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  2. I introduced the Classroom Slice of Life by sharing my blog and reading a couple posts. We noticed all the different topics I wrote about and then started brainstorming our own. We started writing for three minutes last Monday, then five on Tuesday, etc. to build our stamina. Before we write we share our topic and help those who don’t know what to write about. Then I give them five minutes to walk around the room and share their posts with each other and three names are drawn to read to the whole class. Starting tomorrow we will keep building our stamina, as well as begin putting ideas on the board. We start our Easter break on Friday so my fingers are crossed that some of them will continue to post during our week off. We are excited!

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  3. Hi Kathleen,
    In your video, above, at the 6:23 mark you suggest checking out two of your blog posts. Could you please post the links for Writers Craft in the Classroom SOLC & Reflections on the Classroom SOLC? Thanks!
    PS Thanks for all the great info above.

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  4. I told my second graders all about how I was doing the Slice of Life Story Challenge and shared some of my slices in class. They have been working on creating mind maps and writing stories in their writing notebook. Last week, I told them there was a classroom challenge like mine but for kids. We’re planning to use the Seesaw blog (mostly because it’s there and we haven’t used that feature yet…they just post on their journal). We practiced how to type a slice in Google Docs and upload that to the Seesaw blog. We also practiced how to make meaningful comments. They’re excited and I am excited that they are!

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  5. I am working on convincing some of my students to participate (and even may be able to start a grade 3-5 group). I feel like having it on Seesaw blog is complicated because they post other things there too, so I may start a Kidblog just for this at the last minute…

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