The Many Adventures of Winter {Differentiated Writing}

I've been putting off writing this blog post because I wanted my first graders to finish this writing project but, well, I feel like we are never going back to school. It's looking like a six day weekend for me! Today marks snow day number 6 and tomorrow will be number 7. I am all for snow days but my first graders still need to learn! We need to be back in school! I think this is my first time in 25 years (that's how old I am, not how many years I've been teaching) that I've ever complained about snow days! Haha

Anyways, before our extended weekend I have had my first graders working on writing about their favorite winter activities. Below I am going to do a recap of what we have accomplished so far. I would say they will need another day or two to finish up their published pieces to share during shared writing.

Day 1:
To begin, I read the book the Snowy Day. I'm sure everyone has heard about this book. It is definitely a favorite. After reading the Snowy Day, our class brainstormed a list of some of our favorite winter activities. I wanted my students to really get excited about this writing assignment so I "played" up how much fun winter is. Actually, I really do enjoy winter. Did you know I snowboard? Well, I haven't in two years, but I do plan on it next winter. Last winter I was pregnant and this winter has just been WAY TO COLD! Ok back to school stuff...

Here is the list of winter activities my class came up with.

 

After we made a group list I had my little friends go back to their seats to write their own list. I told them they were more than welcome to use ideas from our class list, but I encouraged them to challenge themselves to come up with some of their own favorite activities.

Here are some of the lists that my first graders came up with.

 

 

Day 2:
I began our second day by reading another winter themed book that had a little girl and her dog walking around outside doing some of their favorite activities.

***We do formula writing at our school as of right now. I try and mix it with some the writing workshop framework. I just have my students pre-pre-write their original ideas onto the formula wheel before going at their pre-writing.***

I modeled to my students how I would choose what activities I would write about. On the large class list I circled the number of my three favorite activities. Then on the formula wheel I told my class that the topic of our piece was about winter. So in the circle I wrote winter. Then on the three spokes I wrote each of my three favorite winter activities. After that quick mini lesson on how to choose your ideas from a list, I had my little friends go back to their seats to circle their favorite activities and then begin to fill out their formula wheel.

Day 3:
Next came a very explicit lesson on how to write a topic sentence. (Many of our lessons are embedded in first grade, but I felt this skill needed to be taught explicitly.) My students are now required to write a topic sentence completely on their own. Well, I couldn't just throw them into it so I did a mini lesson on what a topic sentence is.

Here is the anchor chart I made to introduce a topic sentence.

 

 

I began by following the mini lesson from my Many Adventures of Winter pack. As the lesson progressed, I modeled the first sentence for my class, then they came up with the last two sentences. I was really impressed with what they came up with because usually they give good examples of summary sentences instead. It is really hard for them to differentiate between the two in the beginning.

Here are the topic sentences we all came up with.

 

 

I then proceed to do the mini lesson on summary sentences. My plan was to wait but they really seemed into it and they still had some stamina so we went at it.

Here are the summary sentences they came up with. Again, I modeled the first one and they came up with the last two.


Day 4:
Day four was the day they actually began the writing process. We have been using my writing process clip chart to monitor where each student is in the writing process. They have adjusted to it pretty well and are moving their clips completely on their own now.

Our writing process clip chart (on the right). This is the only picture I could find. There are no clips because this picture of from the summer when I was setting up my room.

 

You can get my writing process chart here.

I grouped all of my students into differentiated writing groups before day four. That way when it was time for writing I knew exactly which paper to give to what student.

I forgot to take pictures of their work. I was busy meeting with my friends for a writing conference.

AND, that's all I have. We haven't been back to school since Wednesday and it is now Monday, and we won't be back tomorrow either.

If you are interested in trying out this differentiated writing activity you can grab it here or click the picture below. The mini lessons, the winter activities list, and the formula wheel are all included in the pack. Also included (but not pictured) are the actual differentiated writing papers. You can click on the preview to see the differentiated writing papers for all the steps of the writing process.



Happy Teaching,

Oops...2 months in rewind

Ooops...I am a horrible blogger. Is it too early to make my New Years Resolution?!?!

 

 

My first goal this year was to work on managing motherhood, being a wife, and a teacher. Well, I think I have a routine figured out that is working great....so far. My new goal is to add blogging back into the mix. Here is my first attempt in two months.

 

 

I feel like so much has been happening in my classroom, but I've been horrible at documenting it. Here is a little bit of what I have from the last two months. Now, it's not much and it isn't really anything exciting.

 

One of the mini lessons that I did with my little ones awhile back was on asking sentences. They were having a very difficult time identifying whether a sentence needed a period or a question mark at the end. This was a  spure of the moment mini lesson and anchor chart.

 

I added the heading: Words that Show Someone is Asking a Question before the mini lesson. Then I directed my students to list some words that would show that someone is asking a question.

This is the beginning of the list. This mini lesson actually took two days to complete. Each time a student added a word to the list, we also wrote an example sentence using that same word.

 

Afterwards, I hung this chart in the classroom and I feel that it has "clicked" for many of my students. We just need to work on applying it to our writing!

 

 

 

 

Back at the end of October, my first grade team invited a "bat man" to come visit our first graders. Mr. Bat Man brings in some skeletons of bats and some REAL bats for the firsties to see. I remember last year I was extremely nervous, but this has actually been one of my favorite moments in first grade.

 

Mr. Bat Man brings in a large net and 3 or 4 bats to fly around. Well, the first time we had him scheduled to come for a visit he FORGOT! Our firsties were so disappointed. While they were disappointed I was in a panic. I had nothing planned for the next hour!

 

So, I did an impromptu lesson on main characters. I quickly created the anchor chart below and pulled out Purplicious to read. This impromptu lesson on main characters actually ended up being a great lesson and it transformed my entire day. My firsities were really into learning about main characters. This group of kiddos is really creative. 

After reading the text and doing some "turn and talking" about the main character, I had my little ones only draw to describe Pinkalicious. I was really impressed with their creativity. This group of kids loves to draw and WRITE! I am loving this group this year. (Math on the other hand is not so great, but that is a story for another time...)

 



We also wrote a great writing piece using key details to describe the main character that also was an opinion piece as to why they would recommend the book Purplicious to a friend or family member. But...I forgot to take a picture of the whole display. I told you I have been slacking at documenting what has been happening. Ooops.

 

So, that is all I have. Be on the look out this weekend for my Black Friday Sale and the TpT Cyber Monday and Tuesday Sale! Plus...I am working on a really cute Elf writing activity that you don't want to miss out on. I hope to have it done by Monday!

 

The Early Bird Sale...

 

 

The Big TpT Sale...

 

 

 



Anchor Charts for Monday Made It

Hooray! Finally my first Monday Made It of the summer is completed. I have been working very hard while my little man takes his 4 hour nap each day. He is definitely a sleeper and I'm loving every minute of it.

 

So while the little man was sleeping one afternoon I knocked out these fabulous anchor charts. When I go back in August to set up my room I plan on laminating and hanging all my anchor charts in my cabinet. I want to laminate them so that they can be reused throughout the year and in the future.

 

I have also thought that some of the charts that can be filled in might be good to hang in the writing center so my littles can work together to fill them out on their own time. Has anyone else tried this before?

 

The opinion writing chart will go get with the formula writing format that my school already uses.

 

The same thing goes for the informative anchor chart. I also can't wait to use this with one of my recent purchases on Tpt. :)

 



 

I'm not to sure if I really like this one or will even use it. The topic of the how-to goes in the black dotted box. Then you add your sequencing words to the other colored boxes. For example, green might say first, red says then, blue says next, and orange says last or finally.

 

I don't know how many bubble maps I have made in the past but this one will definitely get used. This will be great for writing workshop and guided reading groups.

 

Last year my littles had horrible pictures. They never took there time, never added details, and used very little color. It's mostly my fault because I didn't enforce or really monitor their drawings. However, next year I am going to be a stickler about this. I plan on actually taking some time to teach my littles how to draw appropriate pictures.

 

This one I plan on using to introduce my narrative writing unit. But I really haven't put much thought into that yet.

 

Let me know what you think of my reusable anchor charts. Definitely leave me a comment if you have created some fabulous ones. I have a weak spot for anchor charts and I get excited like a kid in a candy store when I see some great ones that I could make. :)

 

Yours in Teaching,