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I like the little video, I just don't like that it has British English spellings in the pop ups. Just not helpful if a student picks up spelling colorful as colourful.

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Lots of good ideas in this blog. I really like the idea of telling a story using fingers.

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An activity to give students an idea to start writing the story of their choice while providing the key elements of a story for them.

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These are all great to make to help students while working in the classroom to quickly look at. Like even just the spaghetti and meatball chart.

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My first few years of teaching I was "given" writing for my team planning assignment. After digging my heels in with writing for a few years and in different grade levels, it ignited a love for teaching writing. I wanted to share with you some of my favorite writing anchor charts that will be WONDERFUL for your students to refer to throughout their time as the blossom into little authors.

This anchor chart by Kinder Kraziness would be just perfect for my first graders to refer to at the beginning of the year. We spent a lot of time reviewing what got a capital letter and what didn't.

This anchor chart by The First Grade Parade is another one that is great for the beginning of the year as you explain to them what writers write. Just look at all of these things that are written!

In kindergarten, we always started the year with labeling our pictures. It was amazing to see how quickly they picked up on this! This anchor chart by My Crazy Life in Kinder is a beautiful example of labeling.

This is a new approach by Kindergarten Lifestyle to leaving spaces in our writing and I just LOVE the creativity! I always taught spaces with "spacemen", but spaghetti is a common visual that almost every student can relate to!

Sometimes you just need a good review of what good writing entails. This writing anchor chart is simple, yet lists is all! The author is unknown.

My bulletin board below has three anchor charts on it. On the left is a printable version of Cara's anchor chart above. In the middle is an absolute favorite writing anchor chart that I would create every year as I taught Kindergarten. It was so good for them to see the stages of writing and know that we, as a classroom, would be celebrating ALL writing! On the right is an anchor chart that we created early on in writer's workshop. I would add pictures of students doing those things in action. They always enjoyed seeing themselves in action, too!

This anchor chart by Karen Jones is lovely because it lays things out, step by step, when it comes to the writing process for our little kindergarten babies. The illustrations she provides as examples are prefect, too!

This anchor chart by Rachel's Reflections is a great description of what a personal narrative, or small moment, will look like for our little writers. I love the illustrations on the left there that help them remember what to include!

Finally, this anchor chart by The Brown Bag Teacher is fabulous! She models for her students the progression of writing and her expectations! The students are able to look at their writing and compare it to the chart she has provided. This is almost like a first grade version of the writing anchor chart I created above to know that we are all writers!

I hope you are leaving inspired to create more writing anchor charts during your writing lessons for and with your students! If you are looking for anchor charts for math, reading, science, or social studies be sure to check out my posts about those!

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9 Must Make Anchor Charts for Writing - Mrs. Richardson's Class

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My first few years of teaching I was "given" writing for my team planning assignment. After digging my heels in with writing for a few years and in different grade levels, it ignited a love for teaching writing.

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Breaks down elements of a story. Better for more advanced writers.

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Activity to help students learn to create sentences. This activity could help students who only write short sentences, learn to expand.

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This post originally appeared on the blog Teresa Kwant: Teresa Kwant: Inspiring Ideas for Elementary Educators.

Hi, my name is Teresa Kwant, and I have partnered with my friend Alisa at First Grade Fun Times. We have a sentence activity we guarantee your students will LOVE, and will be begging you to do each day. Understanding how a sentence is structured is crucial to student writing. When students understand the mechanics of sentences and how to read them, writing them won't be as challenging. We call this activity Silly Rainbow Sentences, and you can grab the freebie here.

When making a silly sentence, students follow the rainbow poster provided and choose colored cards in the order outlined: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Each color represents a part of the sentence. Red is an article or pronoun, orange is an adjective, yellow is a noun, green is a verb, blue is a place or thing noun, and purple is the end punctuation.

Once students create a sentence, they then read it out loud. There are pictures provided on the cards to not only help with comprehension, but to help those struggling readers, read the sentences as well. Last, students will write their sentence. However, if you want students to focus on reading only, there are rainbow instruction posters that prompt students to only build and read sentences. Then, once they are comfortable reading sentences, they can begin writing them.

If thinking about printing this in colored ink is currently making your heart skip a beat, don't despair! We have black and white options included too. You can print the cards on colored cardstock, or white cardstock and color the edges. For lasting use, we recommend laminating the cards.

These Silly Rainbow Sentences are such a fun, easy, and educational activity! They can be used in literacy centers, as a self start, as partner work (students build and read sentences to each other), for free time, with parent volunteers, as writing prompts, or any other way you can imagine.

This activity is perfect for students just beginning to read and write. While it is ideal for kindergarten, first grade, and second grade, students who are struggling readers in older grades will find this activity helpful too. I remember one year teaching sixth grade when a student from another country came to our school, and into our grade. He had never spoken English in his life. Imagine entering another country without any practice or experience with the language! That can be both scary and daunting. These sentence cards would have been perfect for him. The rainbow outline poster that guides students to order the sentences correctly, can help ESL students with sentence structure. The pictures provided make word recognition easier as well.

Wondering how to organize your Rainbow Silly Sentences? Check out what Lindsey Paulson did. She bought a bead organizer, and the compartments were customizable. This way, she was able to make the compartments the perfect size for the cards.

Teachers have been RAVING about this product. Check out what some have said:

"This is not only a time saving purchase, but it is amazing in all ways! It is thoughtful and the thematic ease of it is great. My students at all grades love it! I use it with my older students who are struggling readers because they saw it and wanted to do it. It's actually level appropriate for them, so I am excited they like it. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"So great! My kiddos had a great time making silly sentences. Such great practice for writing, parts of speech, adding details, sentence fluency, and many other things! Though I teach 1st, I could see higher level teachers using it as writing prompts! Thank you!

"LOVE this resource for building fluency in beginning readers!"

"This is a fabulous tool for writing stations. My kids love some of the silly sentences they can create. I really love how every word has a great picture to match it. My kids hardly ever have to ask me what a word is, and if they do, it's a great chance to build their vocabulary!"

Convinced you need Silly Rainbow Sentences? Remember, you can check out the freebie here or you can see the bundle here. You can also click on the covers below.

Guess what? These Rainbow Silly Sentences are also included in our monthly Grab and Go Language Arts Centers for First Grade! You can check out a freebie here and here. You can also click on the covers below.

Here is a link to the bundle (we also sell each month individually).

***

Teresa Kwant dreamed of becoming a teacher her entire life. In 2009, she graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in elementary education. She then began teaching 6th grade in an elementary school. Teresa believes each student has something special to bring to this world. As teachers, we can help students cultivate those talents. Some of Teresa's hobbies includes, reading, eating ice cream, enjoying the beautiful mountains in her home state of Utah, and spending time with her family. Follow her on TpT, Facebook, her blog, and Instagram.

Related

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How to Use Silly Rainbow Sentences in Your Classroom | The TpT Blog

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This post originally appeared on the blog Teresa Kwant: Teresa Kwant: Inspiring Ideas for Elementary Educators. Hi, my name is Teresa Kwant, and I have partnered with my friend Alisa at First Grade Fun Times. We have a sentence activity we guarantee your students will LOVE, and will be begging you to do each day.

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Good basics for creating writing groups.

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Writer's Workshop in My Classroom - Susan Jones

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I may have mentioned this before... but I l-o-v-e teaching writing to first graders. Although it can be painstaking at times, the progress made by the end of the year is truly remarkable. I was asked by a follower last week how I ran writer's workshop in my classroom so I thought I would share [...]

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Tips for me to do as a teacher to help students writing. This is a good one for all levels of writing skills. They are basic things I can do everyday without thinking about it or students realize that I am some how teaching them to write better.

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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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Really cute song, not sure I like the video itself. But good for teaching students parts of a story

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Parts of a Story Song - Little Songs For Language Arts

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Good for learning the need for a capital letter and simple punctuation at the end of the sentence.

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The Sentence Song | English Songs | Scratch Garden