Time-saving Educational resources for K-2 Teachers
In terms of both support and resources, writing seems to take a back seat to reading in many districts. Some teachers are given curriculum that’s either overwhelming, not developmentally appropriate or nothing at all. So, today I want to go through each component of the Writing Workshop in detail to help you implement it in your classroom. There are many… Read More
You finished your writing unit and kids worked hard to plan, write, revise, and edit their stories. You worked hard conducting mini-lessons, conferencing, and guiding kids to become better writers. The writing unit is over and you’re about to start a new genre. But, wait! Celebrate all of that hard work with a writing celebration! A writing celebration is not… Read More
Procedural writing or “How-to” is one of my favorite units to teach during Writers’ Workshop! There are so many fun ways to introduce the unit that will engage students. One of the best ways to help students during any writing unit, however, is the use of mentor texts. Mentor texts provide concrete examples of great writing and are motivating! Like… Read More
If you teach kindergarten or first grade, you know what it’s like to be asked how to spell a word over and over. . . and over again. You likely have some sort of word wall or sound wall on display in your classroom. We often use these “walls” to help students learn sounds or spelling, but they can also… Read More
When we teach reading, we don’t expect our students to pick up a book and read, without explicitly teaching them everything from print concepts to decoding and comprehension strategies. So why don’t we do this with writing instruction? In many classrooms, students are expected to just write sentences- or even stories- with very minimal instruction on what a sentence even… Read More
You don’t have to wait for the end of the year to make a memory book! Make a yearlong scrapbook that doubles as a writing portfolio for kindergarten and first grade! It’s so great to see how your students’ writing progresses throughout the year and doing this little by little avoids trying to cram it all in at the end (which results in rushed and poor quality writing!). Read this post for some tips to make it easy and save you time.
A great way to scaffold for your emergent writers in kindergarten and first grade is using wordless picture books. These include pictures and students add the text. The word bank helps with spelling and vocabulary. They also include editing pages and students can add details to revise. Read this post to find out how to use these to help your beginning writers become more confident.
One of my favorite things about teaching kindergarten and first grade is reading students’ writing. Sometimes it takes pretty good detective work to decipher it, but you can get so much insight from their invented spelling. Plus, it’s super cute! Obviously, when children are first learning to write, they won’t spell every word correctly. So, they need encouragement to try… Read More
“Teacher, how do you spell (insert any word here)?” If you teach kindergarten or first grade, it’s a question you likely hear all. the. time! I know we wish we could clone ourselves during writing time so we could sit with each student and help them with their spelling, BUT of course we can’t. If we really could clone ourselves,… Read More
This book makes a great mentor text for a personal narrative genre writing unit! Kids can relate to Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe and use some of the strategies she uses to revise their writing workshop stories. Read this post for mini-lesson ideas, an anchor chart, and freebie for Show, not Tell! Great for kindergarten and first grade.