Here are our "ouch stories":
And then we moved to our final draft {we stuck band-aides to the side of our paper for the added drama}:
Click {here} to download this freebie! :)
I've also included upper-grades writing paper
Common Core and You {Narrative Writing....again??}
Yes. Narrative writing....again.....well, personal narratives! :)
We started with this as our pre-write, which I also use as our first draft:
Common Core and You! {Author Response}
Hey everyone! I'm excited to share my first Common Core resource with you {this is Natalie}!
This was inspired by the 5th grade writing sample in Appendix C (pages 29 & 30) which shows an example of an author response essay. After looking at the core, I believe these printables should work well for grades 2-5.
If you like this free download, please take a look at some of the products available for purchase in my TpT store. Click here:
Journaling Tips for Kids! {Makes pretty dang good writers}
1. Write in your journals EVERY DAY!
We start on the very first day of school and we continue every day after. I show them how to write the short date and then I give them a sentence like this:
I like to eat _____________.
They copy the sentence and sound out a word to fit in the sentence. Then, they draw an illustration.2. Show them what you expect:
I enlarge one of their journal pages, write a journal entry, illustrate it and then laminate it. That way, I can use it year after year. I show it to them on the very first day of school. This is what I expect. I expect good handwriting, finger spaces, sounding out words, and an illustration with 6 or 7 {however old they are) colors included. I start to expect more as the year goes on.
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| I'm pretty much the best artist...EVER! |
YES! They can pick to write about whatever they want. It's called choice people and it.works.every.time.
Seriously, after the first 2 weeks of school, they HAVE to think of something they want to write about. I don't give them a prompt or even help them. You don't want them to rely on you every day for an idea.
4. What about if they REALLY can't think of anything?
If I have a student who really can't think of what to write about, I pick from the journal prompt jar. Anyone can use the prompt when I pick it out, but they don't have to. I got the idea to make my journal prompt jar using a Crystal Light container from Kathleen at Growing Kinders. The prompts are taped to a popsicle stick and I've just added all of the prompts and the journal prompt cover, to my Journal through the Year Pack. It looks like this:
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| The prompts are taped to a popsicle stick! I have provided you with over 50 prompts. You can get them {here}! |
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| One end is red One end is green |
I also have a writing prompt picture booklet (I made 3 for my class) and a student can grab a book and find a topic idea. You can decide on what pages you want to put in there so it's not overwhelming. Or, you can cut out the pages and make writing prompt picture cards.
5. Start at the beginning of the day.
Journals are a great "morning work" starter {without all the worksheets and hassle}. My students come in to class, vote for lunch, write their password, and start their journals. It takes about 20-30 minutes each day to do journal. When they are finished, they can do a fast finisher.
6. Conferencing!!!!! {This step is MUCHO important!}
This is where your students will really make you proud. When they are finished with their journal, they will bring it up to me. THEY read their journal to me. I pick ONE thing that I think they should work on {sight words, punctuation, finger spaces, etc.}, circle that one thing, and they go back to their seat to work on it again. When they finish, they show it to me and I put a huge smiley face or sticker on their page! Not all of your students will be in line for conferencing at one time. Some students take the WHOLE 30 minutes to perfect their journal and some are done in 15 minutes. It takes no more than 30 seconds to conference with each student. You can do it.
Here are the expectations I have for my students:
7. Journal Share
Each day I pick 4 students to share their journal with the class. This is where I really motivate them to work hard on their journals. If they do well on whatever I asked them to work on, they have a good chance of getting to stand up in front of the class and share their journal. Because speaking and listening skills are apart of the 1st grade Common Core State Standards, I use a rubric to grade them on their journal share.
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| FYI- I didn't come up with this! My teammates have done this forever! |
You can download the journal shares for free {here}.
8. Use developmentally appropriate journal pages.
I know that I used to use composition notebooks for journals when I was first teaching. My students were really struggling with handwriting and spacing. Since then, I've created a journal writing page that is appropriate for their level. At the beginning of the year, there are only 2 handwriting lines on the page. Now, there are 8 or 9 lines! In kinder, you might just want 1 or 2 lines all year. Whatever is appropriate for your students! You might even want to differentiate between students, too. Maybe John can have a few more lines in his journal because he's always spilling over to the next page. That's ok!!! I've included a large variety of journal writing pages in my packet. Here's an example:
That's all the tips I have for you! I promise your kiddos can do it! Here are some recent examples of awesome journal writing:
Journals Through the Year
Say goodbye to "bell work" and hello to independent writing time!
If you walk into my classroom right when the bell rings, you will see a class full of quiet students writing in their journals. Not once do I have to say "get out your journal" or "please start writing". My students arrive at school, hang up their backpacks and they pull their journals out from their desk. There's not explaining, no questions, and it's eerily quiet. How did I get them to be this wayyyy?
First, you'll want to set up your writing journals. You'll want to pick out a cover to use (I've created 16 different varieties) and you'll want to pick how many lines you want to start out the year. These journals can be changed out each month or however often you want!
Here is the journal cover that I picked for the beginning of the year:
I teach 1st grade so on the first day of school my students walk in and I already have a sentence stem on the board that they will copy down in their journal. Then, there is a blank at the end of the sentence that they have to fill in their own word. After they copy the sentence stem, they sound out their word, draw a picture, color and then bring their journal up to me. I will check it off. Depending on the student, I will circle a mistake or two that I'd like them to fix and bring back to me. I basically have 3 types of writers: Emerging, Developing, and Advancing. I obviously expect more from my advancing writers than I do my emerging. It's up to you what you decide to conference with them about.
When they finish and get their beloved smiley face on their journal, they will do a fast finisher (read a book, puzzle, etc.).
I only tell my students what to write about for the first 9 days of school. After that, they pick their own topic or write about what they did yesterday (that's their go-to if they "can't think of anything")
Day 1: I like to eat_____.
Day 2: My favorite color is _____.
Day 3: My favorite animal is a ____.
Day 4: I like to drink______.
Day 5: I am scared of_______.
Day 6: I am not scared of _____.
Day 7: My favorite movie is ______.
Day 8: At school I like to _____. (a little more open ended)
Day 9: I like to_____ because _________. (we add the word because)
Day 10: WRITE ANYTHING! (Sometimes this comes a few days later. It just depends on the grade you teach and your class.)
At day 10, I teach my students that they can write about whatever they want in their journals and to write about different things each day. I only require 1 sentence at the beginning of the year to get them adjusted. If they "can't think of anything", they write about what they did yesterday (or...If you're desperate, you can see the bottom of this post for some prompt ideas).
1st Grade (can be adapted and differentiated based on each student):
August/September- 1 sentence
October/November- 2 sentences
December/January- 3 sentences
February/March-4 sentences
April/May- 5 sentences
{This journal time is separate from my "writer's workshop" time}
This is what we do every day and it takes 30 minutes:
Starting in January, I give my students a writing checklist. As their writing starts to develop, they tend to make a few more simple mistakes and I want them to check their work before saying it's finished! They are very familiar with each part of the checklist because we've been working on these all year and they've been hung up on the board (and I refer to them frequently)!
After they finish their journal, they read their own journal to themselves and use a dry-erase marker (the checklists are laminated) and they check off to make sure they meet the expectations.
Here are the posters I have hanging so when we switch over to the checklist they know exactly what to look for:
The progress they make is amazing!
From the first week of school:
You can snag everything I talked about in this post in my Journal Through the Year Pack! This pack would also work great with Work on Writing in Daily 5.
For those of you that REALLY want journal prompts (although I do not use them in my classroom), I've included over 150 picture prompts! You can print them and make them into booklets of ideas or you can cut them out and make picture prompt cards. I've also included a black/white version is you're low on the colored ink like I am. #printallthethings
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