steppin' up to first grade: All About Language Arts!

Well, we've got 18 school days left before our year is officially over! I can't believe how quickly the year has flown by and how much my students have accomplished. As I wrap things up and reflect on some amazing highlights from the year I am truly thankful for all the growth I've seen in my students. I want to share some of the successful language arts lessons I've taught this year that I believe have given my students a great foundation as writers.
Weekend Writing

This little activity has become a regular part of our Monday morning routine. I can't claim credit for this awesome writing activity and to be completely honest I'm not really sure where it came from, but it has been one of my favorites over the years!

I think I may have seen it when I was student teaching (over 7 years ago!), but I'm not completely sure.

The beauty of this activity is its simplicity and repetition.

At the beginning of the school year, I reviewed with my students what a complete sentence looked like and from there, we began building paragraphs.

I gotta tell ya, the first time you introduce this activity- it may be a struggle for your students to squeeze out 5 sentences (depending on what grade you are teaching). I know for many of mine, they had a hard time organizing their thoughts and including supporting details, but as we worked through this activity each week, their stamina increased, and I've now got a classroom full of students who can write 2-3 pages!!

Here is an example of the first weekend writing sample we did (starting the second week of school).

Here is a sample from the middle of they year:

I split their writing into two portfolios- Part 1 contains all their writing from September-January. Part 2 contains writing from February through May. I love the idea of organizing all written work from beginning of the year to end of year, so the students and their parents can see just how much they have accomplished.
I can proudly report that my 1st-3rd graders are now experts at capitalization, punctuation, indenting and adding interesting details to their written work. I feel like my work here is finished ;)
Persuasive Writing- O.R.E.O. Essays

Another writing theme we covered this year was persuasive writing. This was a really fun one!

I was inspired yet again from the amazing world of Pinterest. I saw an example of this persuasive writing anchor chart and knew I wanted to implement it in my classroom.

The best part of this lesson was the treat my students got at the end of it (they got to eat oreos after they finished writing). I did this to ensure they would get excited about writing- and it totally worked!

After I introduced the concept of how to write a persuasive essay, I modeled it by writing an example essay with the whole class.

I chose to write about my opinion of a play we had just seen on a field trip. Then, I had my students write their own opinions and I encouraged them to express themselves with supporting details.

When they had completed their "rough drafts" using a graphic organizer, I had them rewrite their essays on binder paper. This gave them the opportunity to practice indenting as well as capitalizing all the words in the title of their essays.

Download a copy of the graphic organizer HERE

After the first time they completed this activity independently, I then allowed them to work with partners to brainstorm more ideas.

This eventually became a fast finisher activity.

I also used THESE writing prompts to help guide my students in picking a topic to write about.

Chunk Spelling A teacher friend of mine turned me onto the most amazing concept! Thanks to the amazing Heidi and Emily at Second Story Window, I was able to implement a spelling program that met all three grade levels. It has been so much fun and I absolutely love how my kiddos have been able to become so independent since they are extremely comfortable with the structure of this activity. It also allows each student to choose words that are at their level to create a customized spelling list each week, which gives them a sense ownership.

So here's how it all works:

My students get out their spelling notebooks and prepare them by drawing columns. Then, they use the sound boards and the colored word family card to "check" words and see if they can be written down.

The chart you see below (the finished product) has the heading and then the columns with the word family written in. I wait to write the complete words until my students have spent some time coming up with words in their spelling notebooks.

I use this as my reference when the students join me on the carpet and share the words they came up with. After they share all of their words, I usually give them hints to help them come up with the other words on the chart.

At the end of our lesson, I ask the students to choose ten words in their journal, then I dismiss them to get their "little spelling notebooks" and write their 10 spelling words down.

Before they are allowed to write their words down on their spelling homework sheet, I check to make sure what they wrote is spelled correctly. Then they get to fill out this homework template. *Another amazing feature about this spelling program is that the spelling homework template changes weekly. There are 5 templates which I've rotated through weekly which gives the students plenty of choices and they don't get bored.

Students choose three activities to complete which require a parent signature.

On Fridays, students use their little spelling notebook to give each other spelling tests.

I partner them up, and have each partner take turns giving the spelling test to their classmate, then they switch.

The overall success rate of this program has been phenomenal. At this point in the year, all of my students are getting 100% weekly and the best part is that they are now asking if they can add extra words to their lists. I'm one happy teacher!