Current Focus
September/October 2018
Our goals for the last unit of opinion writing were:
- Students will independently plan and write a paragraph to share and explain their opinion about a topic.
- Include an introduction to grab the readers' attention.
- Include two or more reasons using transition words to introduce the reasons that support the opinion.
- Include a conclusion that wraps up and restates the opinion.
- Correctly use spelling, punctuation, spaces, and capitalization with given support.
These pieces will be coming home in the next few weeks.
We will take the next couple of weeks to work on OG sounds, syllabication, and spelling.
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August/September
Our goals for the first few weeks of writing are as follows:
- Students will enjoy sharing their stories with words and pictures.
- Students will enjoy expressing themselves orally and in writing.
- Students will explore topics of interest.
- Students will practice phonetic spelling,
- Students will practice handwriting and using appropriate spacing.
Practice Ideas
Talk!! Talk!! Talk!! Engage in discussions about special and exciting moments that have happened in your child's lives and encourage them to remember those situations to write about in school.
Keep a journal!! Some students might be interested in keeping a journal at home. This is wonderful way to explore and practice writing. I highly recommend using a primary-lined composition book with a space for a picture at the top.
Write letters, notes, lists, etc.!! Have your child engage in a variety of everyday writing activities. Make writing fun with a variety of writing utensils and papers!
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Keep a journal!! Some students might be interested in keeping a journal at home. This is wonderful way to explore and practice writing. I highly recommend using a primary-lined composition book with a space for a picture at the top.
Write letters, notes, lists, etc.!! Have your child engage in a variety of everyday writing activities. Make writing fun with a variety of writing utensils and papers!
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January 2018
We will begin a new unit in Writing on Monday called How-to. Students will write texts where they will teach the reader how to do or make something step by step and include materials and illustrations. Talk with your child about things they know how to do--make their bed, brush their teeth, make a PBJ sandwich, etc.
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11/17
Last week we began a new unit in Writers Workshop--personal narratives.
This means students will:
- write stories from their lives.
- include a beginning, middle, and end.
- provide details to make their story interesting to the reader and convey the message of their narrative.
- use writing conventions--spelling, grammar, and punctation.
Below are the standards that tie in with personal narratives.
Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure.
Print all upper- and lowercase letters.
Capitalize dates and names of people.
Use end punctuation for sentences.
Use conventional spelling for words with common spelling patterns and for frequently occurring irregular words.
Spell untaught words phonetically, drawing on phonemic awareness and spelling conventions.
As you can see, there are many things students need to think about and put into practice all at once.
One way to have your kiddo get better at these skills are to have them write stories at home. Things happen to them all the time and a great way to share their stories is through writing.
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Kids are still working on opinion writing. Here they are learning how to create compound sentences to make their writing more interesting to the reader.
10/17
Current Focus
September/October 2017
Opinion Writing Unit
Students will:
- independently plan and write a simple paragraph to share and explain an opinion.
- include an introduction to introduce their opinion.
- include a conclusion to restate and wrap up their opinion.
- write two or more reasons to support their opinion.
- use transition words to to introduce their reasons.
- use a rubric to revise and edit their opinion piece independently and with a partner.
- use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation with support.
Practice Ideas
Give your opinion on your favorite thing (food, sport, movie, book, etc.) and give at least two reasons why it is your favorite. Use sentence starters such as
I think, ______ is my favorite...
The best_____ is...
and give reasons
I think ______ is the best because...
Another reason why I like______ is...
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Writing Update:
Since the year is quickly winding down, we are working on some paragraph writing to check for understanding of writing a developed topic sentence, supporting details sentences, and a strong conclusion sentence. We are also checking for understanding and application of writing conventions. This is where the kids use COPS to check their writing. Understand that this piece of writing is practice for them and a check for understanding for me to see what they know, what they are capable of doing, and what they need to work on.
We will be working on animal reports as one last piece of writing. This will require some work and research at home in order to get it completed for our student-led conferences at the end of May. More information will be updated next week.
Ms. Hernandez
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Unit 5: Writing Fairy Tales & Realistic FictionBy the end of this unit, students should be able to...
Writers Workshop Update November 9, 2016
We continue to work on personal narratives and, as of late, your child has learned that a personal narrative is a small moment--a seed story and not a watermelon story.
We will be wrapping up personal narratives at the end of next week before going on Thanksgiving Break.
Writers Workshop Update October 3, 2016
Today we began a new unit in Writers Workshop--Personal Narrative. The first grade Common Core State Standard expectation is that a student can write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure(CCSS W.1.3), as well as demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing(CCSS L.1.2).
One way to get your kids to write about things that have happened to them--personal narratives, is to keep a journal. Keeping a journal is a great tool for kids to write about all the happy, scary, sad, exciting, amazing things that happen to them each and every day! It's also a great resource for them to turn to when they need to write a personal narrative and need help jogging their memory.
Keep an eye out for some of your kids' writing that will be coming home in their Thursday folders this week. My suggestion for you is to keep it until the end of the school year so you can see the progress they will make this year. You will be amazed at the growth in many areas from handwriting to spelling to complexity of their writing skills!
Last week they shared their stories in a small group and gave each other feedback with glows and grows.
Writers Workshop--The past four weeks have been full of learning about where writers get their ideas, planning a story, using environmental print, word wall words, and OG skills to spell words, and understanding that writing is a continuous process.
Encourage your child to write as much as possible at home.
If you notice your child starts writing letters from the bottom going up, it's ok to remind them that letters start from the top.
Correct Pencil Grip
Correct Letter Formation
Writers Workshop
We will get our Writer's Workshop up and running in the first couple weeks of school.
Our 1st grade authors will draw and write to share stories from their lives (personal narratives).
The students will have lots of opportunities to orally share their stories before putting them down on paper.
Students will be encouraged to use environmental print, word walls, spelling strategies, and approximate spelling to help them get their thoughts and ideas on paper.
Over the course of the year your kids will be learning how to write personal narratives, opinion pieces, and expository/informational pieces.
How can you encourage your child to write?
Talk!! Talk!! Talk!! Engage in discussions about special and exciting moments that have happened in your child's lives and encourage them to remember those situations to write about in school.
Keep a journal--Some students might be interested in keeping a journal at home. This is wonderful way to explore and practice writing. I highly recommend using a primary-lined composition book with a space for a picture at the top.
Write letters, notes, lists, etc.--Have your child engage in a variety of everyday writing activities. Make writing fun with a variety of writing utensils and papers.
Keep a journal--Some students might be interested in keeping a journal at home. This is wonderful way to explore and practice writing. I highly recommend using a primary-lined composition book with a space for a picture at the top.
Write letters, notes, lists, etc.--Have your child engage in a variety of everyday writing activities. Make writing fun with a variety of writing utensils and papers.
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