Spark Student Motivation-Fall Walk and Writing

How does the week get away from me? I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted! I'm thankful it is still Saturday so I can link up with Joanne for her linky party!

A few weeks ago I read this blog post from Polka Dot Lesson Plans. As soon as I read it I knew I wanted to take my kids on a fall walk. This past Friday was the day. My kiddos had computer class first thing in the morning so when they came back I read them the story In November by Cynthia Rylant. It is a beautiful book that is full of wonderful imagery. My students and I have been learning similes and metaphors so they were very quick to pick them out as I read them the story.

 

It was a cold morning-only 38 degrees, but we bundled up and went on our walk. The students used this foldable to record what they saw, felt, smelled, and heard. (We brainstormed what we thought the tastes of fall were.)

As you can see it was a cold, hazy morning, but the kids were great. We walked around outside for about 15 min. The kids wrote down a lot of great things about fall.

When they finished they came back inside and wrote fall poems. The students wrote off two different poem starters:

Fall is a time for...
or
In fall...

I wish I took pictures of their finished pieces. They were so motivated to write, some of them wrote two and three poems about fall in the time I gave them.

What do you do to motivate your students? Have any of you taken your students on a fall walk?