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Tips for teaching first grade writing. Link to well organized (paid) interactive student workbook.

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It is tempting to write on a dry erase board, document camera, etc. Don't do it! Chart paper is perfect! I like to gather students around my easel. There are many advantages to using chart paper. First, it has lines so we can model correct letter formation. Next, it is large enough for all students to see easily. Most importantly, it preserves your work. I have had numerous times where I wrote something on the board and erased it, only to wish I had been able to access it again later in the year.

#3- Make copies of students work
Start keeping copies of students work (it can be a digital copy). When a student does something really great or their writing provides an opportunity for a teaching point, ask them if you can make a copy of it to use to help you teach writing. Keep a wide variety, and be sure to ask each student for at least one piece during the year (they will feel so proud!). The kids can learn SO much from other first graders work. It can be a great way to show students what "voice" sounds like, it is also great for revising and editing lessons. Here are a few things to keep in mind: Remove student names, especially if you are using it for a revising or editing lesson. Don't use work from students of the current year, unless it is to show something really wonderful, and you have their permission to share it THIS year.

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It is tempting to write on a dry erase board, document camera, etc. Don't do it! Chart paper is perfect! I like to gather students around my easel. There are many advantages to using chart paper. First, it has lines so we can model correct letter formation.

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Creative Journal prompt ideas for first grade.

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Writing can improve grammar and spelling. Use these fun and easy journal writing prompts for 1st grade students to improve their writing and reading skills!

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Online games great for at home or during free/reward/computer class time. Reinforces skills while playing video games.

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1st grade Reading & Writing Online Games

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First grade begins a whole new learning adventure, and our first grade reading and writing games will help your child build the skills they need to succeed!

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Great general resource for free first grade materials with many different writing activities.

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Teaches writing process basics in a fun way.

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"Bam!" "Pow!" Comic book writing is a great way to engage young learners in the writing and story-telling process. In this first grade reading and writing lesson plan, budding writers will be introduced to the genre writing category of comic books, as well as related terms such as "dialogue" and "speech bubbles." After reviewing sample comic strips, children will have a chance to brainstorm and create their own comic strips (or even comic books for those feeling more ambitious), complete with their own imagined storyline, characters, dialogue, and illustrations.

Students will be able to reflect on the elements of comic strip writing and create their own story using a comic strip format.

Gather students on the rug and show them your collection of comic books and/or graphic novels. Introduce the genre and ask students what are the important features of a comic book. What do they look like? How are they different from other picture books? During the discussion, find the right moment to introduce the words "dialogue" and "speech bubbles."

Tell students that today they will be comic strip writers and explain that comic books are made up of comic strips. They will just be writing a short scene where at least two characters are talking to each other.

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BAM! POW! Comic Strip Writing | Lesson Plan | Education.com

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"Bam!" "Pow!" Comic book writing is a great way to engage young learners in the writing and story-telling process. In this first grade reading and writing lesson plan, budding writers will be introduced to the genre writing category of comic books, as well as related terms such as "dialogue" and "speech bubbles."

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General quick reference for 7 helpful common modifications for all subjects.

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We ESL teachers are the experts in English language acquisition.

Our superhuman powers even allow us to impart knowledge to students through an osmosis-like processes.

Okay, not really. Excuse my wishful thinking.

Instead, we stay up late researching strategies to motivate our students.

We constantly seek new ways to liven up our ESL lessons, and we explore tools to meet the needs of various learning styles.

While all these things are great - and necessary - we need to make sure that we're supporting our students 100%.

This only occurs by implementing the necessary and appropriate modifications and accommodations in the classroom.

But many of us don't have firsthand experience learning a second language and, for those of us who do, most have had the benefit of receiving most or all of our education in our native language. Our students don't necessarily have that luxury.

In fact, the majority of them are learning to navigate a new language and culture while simultaneously learning their native language. With content area teachers, students are learning various concepts and ideas for the first time in a language that they have yet to master.

That's not an easy feat, to say the least.

So, how do we figure out which modifications and accommodations our students need to succeed?

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

The Importance of Implementing Modifications for ELLs

Many English Language Learners are identified as having Limited English Proficiency (LEP) and, in turn, struggle to access the material or concepts being taught in class. In this common situation, it's imperative for teachers to choose appropriate modifications and accommodations in order to make the content more accessible to them.

Although these modifications are insufficient to place our students on a level playing field with their English speaking counterparts, they do make a huge difference in our students' academic success.

The terms modifications and accommodations are often used interchangeably, but it's imperative that teachers understand the differences between the two.

Modifications are essentially changes made to the core content so that the learning objectives are different and more accessible for the student.

Accommodations, on the other hand, don't change the actual content being delivered. They're add-ons, tools that ensure that students can demonstrate what they know without lessening their expectations. Since modifications do usually lessen the expectations for the students, they're usually only used in extreme circumstances.

Both modifications and accommodations should be used carefully and with thoughtful consideration.

Let's discuss some ideas on how we can use accommodations and modifications to make learning easier for students with LEP.

1. Alternate Responses

When assessing your ESL students, be sure that you're clear on exactly what it is that you want them to demonstrate. Then, think of creative ways that they can demonstrate that knowledge. For instance, a teacher assessing students' understanding of causes of the Revolutionary War may traditionally have required that students write responses to a number of questions or prompts. For ELLs, this may be restrictive and prevent them from communicating what they actually know.

If you're not actually assessing their writing ability, then you can find alternate ways for the students to respond.

They can be allowed to draw a series of pictures with short captions or even speak their responses into a recorder in lieu of providing a written response. This way, you're giving them the chance to communicate their knowledge in a way that circumvents the language and/or writing barrier.

2. Advance Notes

Just thinking about the advanced French class that I took in college makes my head spin to this very day.

The instructor spoke in French the entire time. Although I had a decent grasp on speaking and understanding French, it was still difficult for me to keep up with everything that was covered.

Our students face a similar problem in many of our classes.

One way that we can make things easier is by preparing and distributing advance notes. This gives ELLs the opportunity to preview what will be taught and, in turn, aids in comprehension of the material.

If your students are required to take notes, your ELLs can use your advance notes and make small additions as necessary. This decreases the amount of writing required, allows the student to slow down and helps them make sense of what is being said. It's also a huge confidence booster that's been proven to increase student performance.

3. Extended Time

It's obvious that response time for ELLs is significantly greater than it is for students proficient in English. Given this, we know that ELLs may require more time to process and communicate information on assessments. To support your students in this area, give them additional time on tests to help. Extra time will also help to decrease anxiety, which often has a significant impact on test performance.

4. Teacher Modeling

As ESL teachers, we're always thinking about reducing Teacher Talking Time (TTT). One great way to do this is to focus on ways to communicate non-verbally.

Modeling and using gestures to aid in understanding can be a very effective accommodation for ELLs. Make sure that you're thoughtful about what you'll model and how you'll do it ahead of time. Also make sure that you're not only modeling during instruction, but that you also model directions as well.

So, let's say you're going to tell your students that they need to get folders from their backpacks. Place your own backpack on your desk, find a place to sit and support your ELLs by modeling each step as you say it. You can point to a desk when you ask them to place their folders on their desks. You can also pick up a folder and point to your backpack when you ask them to do the first step.

The key is to keep your actions clear and simple. Too much moving around can distract students from listening to what you're saying.

5. Simplified written and verbal instructions

Whether you're giving instructions for a test or assignment verbally or textually, you should simplify them as much as possible for students with LEP. Many times, this can be easily done by taking out extra words or turning complex sentences into simple ones. Consider these directions:
Carefully read each sentence below and determine its subject and predicate. Then, underline the subject once and the predicate twice.
These directions can be easily changed to this simpler version:
Read each sentence. Put one line under the subject. Put two lines under the predicate.
These simple changes require minimal effort and time, but actually do make a huge difference for our students!

6. Frequent breaks

Learning is fun, but it can also be hard work!

This is especially true for students learning a new language. All that hard work may mean that your ELLs need more frequent breaks than others. Give your students frequent breaks during class time or tests so that they can perform at their best. Simply stepping out in the hall, walking around the room or taking a trip to the water fountain can make a huge difference, leave them feeling refreshed and get them in the zone to be ready for more.

7. eDictionaries

When used correctly, technology never fails to transform a classroom. Allow your students to use eDictionaries in your classroom to look up unknown words. Any regular dictionary will do, but eDictionaries allow students to hear the pronunciations of words. As you might imagine, this is extremely helpful for anyone learning a second language. If students encounter an unknown word, they can type it into an eDictionary, hear the word pronounced and either read or listen to the definition. Also, if they aren't sure how to to spell a word, many eDictionaries will allow them to speak the word to have the correct spelling displayed.

Using Content Modifications When Necessary

There are definitely situations where accommodations are simply not enough. In these moments, you'll need to actually change or modify content and learning objectives.

In these instances, you'll actually change the overall expectations of the individual student and/or make the content less complex. The goal is that this will help the student to learn as much as possible while still working towards their overall learning goals.

So, if one learning objective for your students is to be able to identify the causes of the Revolutionary War, a modification could entail that one particular student only has to identify all parties involved in the war, dates, and other specific bits of information.

Evaluating Effectiveness of Instructional Accommodations

There are many, many options for accommodating your students.

All of these accommodations aren't equal.

What works for one student may not work for another, and what worked at one point in time may no longer be effective for your current classroom.

When implementing accommodations and modifications, be sure to continuously evaluate their effectiveness.

During this evaluation, it's important to solicit and consider student feedback. If something is working well, then great. If not, then you'll need to find other accommodations that are more effective. Talking to other teachers can be especially useful in this process. Many of your colleagues will have ideas and examples of accommodations that they've used successfully.

Keep in mind that the goal of the accommodation is to make the process of teaching and learning easier for the student. Put forth time and effort into carefully selecting accommodations and watch how these small changes make a world of difference!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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7 ESL Modifications for Lesson Plans That'll Make Learning Easier

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We ESL teachers are the experts in English language acquisition. Our superhuman powers even allow us to impart knowledge to students through an osmosis-like processes. Okay, not really. Excuse my wishful thinking. Instead, we stay up late researching strategies to motivate our students.

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Cross curricular unit with a particularity nice Build a Story activity. Various other writing and cross curriculum activities. Written by teacher Nancy VandenBerge

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Worksheets with various prompts and writing styles. First grade level.

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Worksheets for Kids & Free Printables | Education.com

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First grade writing worksheets teach 1st graders how write simple sentences. Use our first grade writing worksheets with your child.

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Create a writers workshop where students will write and illustrate pages and even share them with the class!

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TeachersFirst - Writer's Workshop - First Grade

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Writer's Workshop can also be paired with reading activities to create a powerful motivating tool when teaching literacy. A teacher can quickly see which words a student 'owns' by what they write; a teacher can see how a child approaches organization of thought by how a student presents ideas in a story and a teacher can see how a student's abilities grow through the year by the progression of plot and text in their writing.

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Great activity for first grade, easily modified to the classroom. Gets kids active, reading, and writing. Would work well as a scavenger hunt as well!

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Take a Closer Look: Write Around the Room

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This video shows how a parent and her three children participate in writing around the room using environmental print.

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So many wonderful technology based writing, reading, and literature activities. Too many to post individually

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Results on ReadWriteThink - ReadWriteThink

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Classroom Resources | Grades K - 8 | Student Interactive | Writing & Publishing Prose Book Cover Creator The Book Cover Creator is designed to allow users to type and illustrate front book covers, front and back covers, and full dust jackets.

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Great for ELL students. Could also be modified for whole class or small group spelling practice.

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This game is recommended for kids because of its simplicity, though if you are creative and want to raise the level of difficulty, it could also be used in adult classes if you want to have a change of pace in your lesson. For the Pass the Marker ESL Game, all you need is a marker and a board.

Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate

Pass the Marker ESL Game Guidelines:

All you need to prepare before class for this activity is a marker. It is a good idea to make sure that your classroom has enough space to move around as well, so you arrange the desks and chairs appropriately beforehand.

Pass the Marker ESL Game Guidelines:

Have the students form two lines in two teams. Having teams makes it more competitive and gets the class more interested in the activity. Make sure that the teams have similar abilities so that one group doesn't have a huge advantage over the other.

Explain to them that the goal of the game is to remember words that you hear, repeat them aloud and finally write the words on the board if you are the last person in the line closest to the board.

Do a practice run first. Tell the students that this example isn't worth any points. Go to the back of the lines with a couple board markers and whisper a simple word (like "cat") to the first students.

Then, pass the marker to them. They should then whisper the same word to the next student in their line and pass the marker forward again. Once the marker reaches the last student in the lines, they should say the word and write it on the board. The first team to write the word on the board wins the round.

After the trial run and once they understand the purpose of the game, start the game and start awarding points to the teams after each round. Note, if a student can't write the correct spelling of a word, he or she can ask their team for help.

By the end of the pass the marker game, every student should have had a chance to write a word on the board for their team. Everyone can go back to their seats. Remember to review any spelling errors that they had together as a class.

Follow-Up ESL Activities:

To conclude the activity, you could try a group "spelling bee" competition or even do a written dictation to reinforce what they learned. If you want to do something that is more interactive, try the Pictionary ESL Game using the vocabulary that they used in the game.

View more ESL vocabulary games.

View more ESL activities.

Related ESL Resources Online:
10 ESL Games for Teachers on TeachingEnglishinAsia.net

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Pass the Marker - ESL Vocabulary Games for Kids & Adults - ESL Expat

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This game is recommended for kids because of its simplicity, though if you are creative and want to raise the level of difficulty, it could also be used in adult classes if you want to have a change of pace in your lesson.

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Article on using interactive writing throughout the school year, with specific strategies for various grade levels and differentiating the instruction for ELL and struggling students.

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Rationale

The kindergarten teacher begins interactive writing in her class by writing "Today is ..." on a piece of chart paper. She asks for a volunteer to take the pen and write the day, which she has written on a sentence strip and clipped to the top of the chart. Michael raises his hand and the teacher offers him the pen. He comes forward proudly to take it and carefully starts to write "M" for Monday.

The teacher shares the writing experience with young students on chart paper or a whiteboard that is large enough for the whole class to see. Students participate by giving the teacher ideas and also by "taking the pen" and writing words, phrases, or sentences with the teacher's guidance. Older students can participate in shared and collaborative writing as well (Button, Johnson, & Fergerson, 1996; McCarrier, Pinnell, & Fountas, 2000).

Reading literature is an excellent way to initiate interactive writing in the class, and the teacher can continue using literature as the class does interactive writing with any new book that is read throughout the year. The teacher can begin with what is happening that day in class, or a holiday, or a special event in the school. Topics could also be any idea of interest to the students or any interesting event that has occurred: a new class pet, a special activity, a guest speaker that visited the class, a field trip the class went on, a change in the weather (e.g., it rained, snowed, or it was sunny for a change), or something special happened to a child (e.g., they took a trip, have a family visitor, or participated in an after school activity).

This strategy could be modeled on the first day of school, and it could continue to be used throughout the school year daily or several times a day, with other books read aloud during the week or other topics of interest to the students. Mini-lessons can be used to teach writing conventions in the authentic writing context of interactive writing.

Strategy

Read literature that introduces a topic for discussion and interactive writing and do mini-lessons on the conventions of writing as the need for them occurs during interactive writing. For example, for kindergarten, model how to (1) capitalize the first letter or the first word in a sentence and (2) indent the first sentence of a paragraph using the title as the first sentence.
The first day of school is ...
Ask students for ideas to complete the sentence. Remind them of the ideas they shared in response to the reader response questions and prompts. When the class agrees on how to complete the sentence, ask for a volunteer to come to the chart and take the pen to complete the sentence. If a child volunteers and is not yet writing, take dictation for them and write the words as they speak them. If a child is not yet writing but knows the alphabet, spell the words letter-by-letter as they write or write the words in pencil and have the child trace over them with a marking pen. Continue writing the story this way. Ask the students for ideas and for volunteers to take the pen.

Other mini-lessons on the conventions of writing can be modeled during interactive writing as they occur in context.

Older students can practice interactive writing by sharing the pen and collaborating with each other on letters, memos, invitations, or any kind of narrative story, as well as on reports in the content areas.

Grade-level modifications

K-2nd Grade

Read aloud a book about school. Off to Kindergarten by Tony Johnson can be used for a kindergarten class. In this rhyming text, a little boy names all of the things he wants to bring to school on the first day of kindergarten, from a sandbox to a chair for his stuffed bear, until his mother assures him that his teacher will have everything he needs. For first or second grade students, use Hamsters, Shells, and Spelling Bees: School Poems in a collection edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins (2008) in his I Can Read poetry anthology series. Lead a discussion using aesthetic reader response questions and prompts: How do you feel about the first day of school? How do you feel about school? What do you wish will happen in school this year?

Tell students they will all share their ideas about school through interactive writing. Students can sit on the rug and form a semicircle facing an easel with a piece of paper on it. Ask students for title suggestions for the piece of interactive writing (e.g., "Today at School," "School," "The First Day of School," or another title that emerges from the discussion of the book). Discuss the title choice with the students and either write the title at the top of the chart paper or whitcboard or ask for a child to volunteer to take the pen (marking pen) and write the title. Provide scaffolding to support the student writer with spelling, capitalization, punctuation, or other writing conventions.

For days other than the first day of school, here arc some topics and sentence starters:

"Today is Monday" (or any other day of the week)

"Today is President's Day" (or any other holiday)

"It's a Rainy Day" (or any other weather)

"We're Going to the Zoo" (or any other field trip)

Plus Technology

Through the use of a Smart Board, take dictation and project students' interactive writing on a screen. Revisions can be made to the writing as students watch the changes made on the screen, and mini-lessons may be modeled as well. The interactive writing can also be in the form of an e-mail message that can be sent anywhere-to another teacher's classroom, other school personnel (e.g., the principal or the librarian), or to family members with e-mail access.

Recommended children's books

3rd Grade-5th Grade

Students can write interactively in response to a read aloud book such as Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (Blume, 1972). Letters can be written interactively by the whole class to someone who visited the class as a guest speaker, to the author of a book they enjoyed, to another class to join them for an activity, to the principal or other school staff in appreciation for something, to a student who is at home for medical reasons, or to the editor of a newspaper on an issue of concern to students. Students can also form groups and write stories, narratives, or short reports in the content areas interactively.

Students can form more than one group but agree to write on the same topic. For example, in response to a chapter book like Ramona the Pest (Cleary, 1968), more advanced primary students could plan to write their own memoir of school patterned after the book. They could identify a main character together but write separate chapters on different topics such as friends, recess, favorite school subjects, least favorite school subjects, or most embarrassing moments. The groups could meet periodically as a whole and discuss the continuity among the chapters and revise accordingly.

Writing conventions appropriate for Grades 3 through 5, or as needed, can be taught in mini-lessons during interactive writing.

Indenting paragraphs

Punctuation: Hyphens, colons, parentheses, or commas in a series of adjectives

Strong verbs, specific nouns, and colorful adjectives and adverbs

Complete and incomplete sentences

Contractions

Pluralization rules

Plural possessives

Quotation marks and underlining in published titles

Homonyms

Onomatopoeia

Recommended children's books

Differentiated instruction

English language learners

Interactive writing makes the writing process visual to the whole class, and English learners who are not yet writing can contribute by illustrating the interactive writing. Interactive writing is context-embedded instruction that taps the prior knowledge of students. It also involves social interaction and cooperation among students. If an English learner is not yet writing, they could "hold the space" between words as another student or the teacher writes the words.

English learners see writing modeled and can copy sentences into their own writing in journals or stories. Use the interactive writing strategy with small groups of English learners, using primary language support as well.

Needs-based groups can be formed and can write interactively in a variety of ways (e.g., responding to a book read aloud or any previously read text, or writing conventions specifically needed by the group).

Struggling students

Students participate by verbally sharing ideas for interactive writing. Take dictation for students, either by writing their ideas for them or by writing them in pencil first and having the student write over them with a marking pen.

Do interactive writing in a small group of three to five struggling readers and writers while other students write in journals or write stories. The same procedure would be used, but each child would have more opportunity to participate and there would be more time to assess and differentiate instruction for each one.

Assessment

Initialing Interactive Writing: Show each child how to initial their writing on the chart. This provides a record of their progress in writing and a means to identify strengths and needs of each child over time. In small groups or writing conferences, provide mini-lessons for each child's assessed needs.

Interactive Writing Record: Use a loose-leaf notebook to keep a record of each child's writing during interactive writing. Word process and print out a facsimile of the form that follows, 3-hole punch it, and include it in the notebook. Use alphabet tabs for last names, and put each child's record under the letter of their last name. Periodically, go through the interactive writing pieces and note the following for each child on their sheet of paper:

Resources

McCarrier, A., Pinnell, G. S., and Fountas, I. C. (2000). Interactive writing: How language and literacy come together. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann

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The kindergarten teacher begins interactive writing in her class by writing "Today is ..." on a piece of chart paper. She asks for a volunteer to take the pen and write the day, which she has written on a sentence strip and clipped to the top of the chart.

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Students can create their own books and write their own simple stories using this readwritethink software!

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Name Talk: Exploring Letter-Sound Knowledge in the Primary Classroom
Students demonstrate their letter/sound knowledge by working with name cards and sharing observations about their classmates' names, giving teachers an opportunity to assess knowledge in a meaningful context.

Reading Everywhere with Dr. Seuss
Young readers create a classroom book modeled after Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham to celebrate all the places they can read.
Using a Predictable Text to Teach High-Frequency Words
After reading an engaging yet predictable text about a child looking for his cat, students use a similar format and high-frequency words to craft tales about their own lost pets.
Book Buddy Biographies: Intermediate and Primary Students Working Together
Students create a personalized biography for their reading buddy, and each child is the author, illustrator, and editor.
A Getting-Acquainted Activity Using My Teacher's Secret Life
Students build classroom community as they get to know each other and their teacher better by sharing what they like to do outside school.
Spelling Cheerleading: Integrating Movement and Spelling Generalizations
"2-4-6-8, students will be spelling great" in this lesson that teaches the y rule for adding suffixes through cheering the spelling of words aloud, word sorts, and writing stories.
Junie B. Jones Introduces Literacy Mystery Boxes
Like Junie B. Jones, students will be saying "Wait till you hear this" after listening to a Junie B. story and creating mystery boxes to help retell the story.
Exploring Sets through Math-Related Book Pairs
After reading two math-related books, students investigate their home and school environments to find examples of objects that come in sets and then create their own books on sets.
As Slippery as an Eel: An Ocean Unit Exploring Simile and Metaphor
Students play with simile and metaphor as they study the ocean and use figurative language to write a class book about it.
How Does My Garden Grow? Writing in Science Field Journals
Students plant a garden and study its growth using the inquiry process of questioning and exploring. As they research and study, students record their observations in a field journal.
Shhh! Bear's Sleeping: Learning About Nonfiction and Fiction Using Read-Alouds
Students explore the distinction between the fiction story Bear Snores On and the nonfiction book Every Autumn Comes the Bear.
Stop Signs, McDonald's, and Cheerios: Writing With Environmental Print
Students use logos from everyday life to identify individual letters and then create their own captions for the images.
The Wonder of Leo Lionni: Increasing Comprehension with Prediction Statements
This lesson focuses on the strategy of "wonder" statements, asking students to stop, think, and write about what may be happening in the text periodically as they read a story.
Let's Read It Again: Comprehension Strategies for English-Language Learners
Help Spanish-speaking English-language learners unlock the mysteries of their new language by using a bilingual book to recognize unfamiliar words and construct meaning from the text.
Family Ties: Making Connections to Improve Reading Comprehension
Families are all about connections between people. In this lesson, students read three books about different families and make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections to those texts.
Let It Grow: An Inquiry-Based Organic Gardening Research Project
Students learn about organic gardening by developing their own research questions, conducting research, gardening at their school, creating signs about their plants, and presenting their research to the class.

The Flip Book is designed to allow users to type and illustrate tabbed flip books up to ten pages long. Students and teachers can use the flip book for taking notes while reading, making picture books, collecting facts, or creating question and answer booklets.
Printing Press
The interactive Printing Press is designed to assist students in creating newspapers, brochures, and flyers.
Book Cover Creator
The Book Cover Creator is designed to allow users to type and illustrate front book covers, front and back covers, and full dust jackets. Students can use the tool to create new covers for books that they read as well as to create covers for books they write individually or as a class.
RWT Stapleless Book
The Stapleless Book app is designed to allow users to create with ease an eight-page book simply by folding and cutting. Students can choose from several different layouts for the pages of their books.
Gwendolyn Brooks published Bronzeville Boys and Girls in 1956.
After students have read and discussed several poems from Brooks' collection, they create a poetry anthology for their own family, neighborhood, or classroom.
Participate in Poem in Your Pocket Day!
Students select a poem and create a Stapleless Book using the interactive tool.
Implementing the Writing Process
This strategy guide explains the writing process and offers practical methods for applying it in your classroom to help students become proficient writers.

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Name Talk: Exploring Letter-Sound Knowledge in the Primary Classroom Students demonstrate their letter/sound knowledge by working with name cards and sharing observations about their classmates' names, giving teachers an opportunity to assess knowledge in a meaningful context.

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Gets kids moving and creating silly sentences. Reinforces sentence structure.

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*This post contains affiliate links. Read more about this in my full disclosure policy.

Back in June, I posted an activity I did called Roll a Sentence. This idea was an adaption of a lesson taught by Jana of Think Out Loud.

To start the year off with writing, I got a crazy idea and when I told ALuv about it, he begged me to hurry and make it for him. Hehe. It's so fun to "trick" your kids into learning, isn't it?

Now, you can roll a SILLY sentence!

On the download, there are 6 people & animal inserts for WHO. I also made 6 people & animal DID WHAT inserts. These inserts fit into these photo stacking blocks. Believe me when I say we have used our photo stacking blocks over and over for SO many purposes.

You can MIX & MATCH the inserts as you please to make the sentences as silly as you'd like. But be careful! These will cause giggle boxes to get turned over. 🙂

~Becky

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Roll a Silly Sentence (FREE Printable Included!)

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This post contains affiliate links. Read more about this in my full disclosure policy. Back in June, I posted an activity I did called Roll a Sentence. This idea was an adaption of a lesson taught by Jana of Think Out Loud. To start the year off with writing, I got a crazy idea and when ...