Friday was a wonderful day to celebrate our learning in first grade! In writer's workshop, we recently completed our first unit of writing. Over the past two months, we have been busy learning and writing about small moment stories. In celebration of all we have learned, we spent this past week writing, editing, and publishing one of our favorite small moment stories. On Friday we had a publishing party, complete with an afternoon of wearing our socks in class, reading our stories with a special microphone, listening to each others' stories, and enjoying a yummy cookie at the end. Please take a moment to see what your child has been busy doing in first grade.
At the very beginning of our Small Moment Story unit, we talked about small moment ideas. The first step in the writing process is to think of an idea. We wanted to think of something that had already happened to us and really zoom-in on that story. We might talk about the first time we jump roped and share details about that moment. The second step in the writing process is to plan on our idea. We use our fingers to plan across our hands. The third step is to quickly sketch our drawings to hold our thoughts across the pages. Then we begin to write our story!
Every day we get to write in a small writing booklet! Our booklets contain three pages. The first page explains our setting, the second page explains three events of that story, and the third page wraps up our story with a strong ending. Every day we also have a mini-lesson before writing our stories. The charts above are two examples of mini-lessons we have had. One day we talked about the importance of setting words and describing where and when our story took place. Another day we talked about readable and unreadable writing, and the importance of having readable writing so that other people can enjoy our wonderful writing.
Towards the end of our small moments writing unit, we began learning ways to edit our writing! Below is a list of skills your child has learned in order to edit their writing:
*I can use a line of learning to cross off and fix misspelled words
*I can use a caret to add words to my writing
*I can use a checklist to edit my writing (check for uppercase I, uppercase at the beginning, lowercase in the middle, punctuation at the end, finger spaces, word wall words spelled correctly, words slowly stretched out)
Wow! Writing takes a lot of work, doesn't it? The first graders surprised be with all they can do though! This week we wrote a small moment story, spent a day editing our writing, re-wrote our writing neatly the next day, created an All About The Author and Title page, and shared our final product on Friday. The kids were SO excited to share all they have been learning!
To begin our Publishing Party, we all took our shoes off to get cozy for our reading and listening time. We sat in a circle and took turns reading our stories. Some children chose to hold the microphone, have their neighbor hold the microphone, or not use the microphone at all. Each kiddo had the chance to share and we all thanked them and cheered "Brrrrr-iliant!" to let them know how wonderful their writing was!
Below you will find a handful of proud publishers:
Towards the end of our small moments writing unit, we began learning ways to edit our writing! Below is a list of skills your child has learned in order to edit their writing:
*I can use a line of learning to cross off and fix misspelled words
*I can use a caret to add words to my writing
*I can use a checklist to edit my writing (check for uppercase I, uppercase at the beginning, lowercase in the middle, punctuation at the end, finger spaces, word wall words spelled correctly, words slowly stretched out)
Wow! Writing takes a lot of work, doesn't it? The first graders surprised be with all they can do though! This week we wrote a small moment story, spent a day editing our writing, re-wrote our writing neatly the next day, created an All About The Author and Title page, and shared our final product on Friday. The kids were SO excited to share all they have been learning!
To begin our Publishing Party, we all took our shoes off to get cozy for our reading and listening time. We sat in a circle and took turns reading our stories. Some children chose to hold the microphone, have their neighbor hold the microphone, or not use the microphone at all. Each kiddo had the chance to share and we all thanked them and cheered "Brrrrr-iliant!" to let them know how wonderful their writing was!
Below you will find a handful of proud publishers:
I loved listening to your stories, friends! Thank you for sharing with us. I can't wait for our next Publishing Party!
Parents- This story will stay at school until the end of the year. However, you will get a chance to see this story at parent teacher conferences (November 11-12). :) Also, in May we will be holding an event known as "Write On" where you will be able to join us after school and view all of our published stories from the school year. Information will come in the spring!
Parents- This story will stay at school until the end of the year. However, you will get a chance to see this story at parent teacher conferences (November 11-12). :) Also, in May we will be holding an event known as "Write On" where you will be able to join us after school and view all of our published stories from the school year. Information will come in the spring!