Writing in the primary grades can be a bit scary at times! Many of my first grade students are just learning to read and simultaneously I would like them to write a 3 page personal narrative with an opening, three details and a catchy closing. It isn’t always easy, but writer’s workshop is one of my favorite things to teach in first grade because the difference made in a year is remarkable.

After teaching writing to my first graders for 5 years, I have a sad secret to share with you: I totally underestimated my young students.     Bleck. That pains me to say, but it is true. My first year in a classroom I thought writer’s workshop was going to be an absolute trainwreck in […]

Do you teach realistic fiction writing in first grade? Confession: Writing realistic fiction is a genre I hadn’t taught before two years ago. However, once we hit the ground running with it, I knew it was going to stay for the long run.   My first graders LOVE coming up with their own character and […]

This past week we launched our writer’s workshop lessons!   I use my writer’s workshop units throughout the year, but before we dive into small moments we talk about what Writer’s Workshop looks like in our first grade classroom.   This poster is hanging in our classroom and we go through each of these bullet points throughout […]

If you have been following my blog for awhile, you may know that teaching writing is my FAVORITE subject to teach in 1st grade. I have a feeling I would love it in kinder or 2nd grade as well. My students’ writing gets longer, more detailed, more persuasive, more informative, more interesting to the reader. […]

New school, new environment, new kids! With these new kids, comes new challenges and I have to figure out how to make it all work!   One of the challenges this year is writing. I genuinely love to teach writing (as you may know) but many of my kids struggle to put their thoughts on […]

We are full into the swing of things here in Mrs. Jones’ Class! Yesterday during writing we talked about the rules and expectations of writing and we practiced some sustained writing time in our journals. Today, I wanted to kick things off with a fun lesson!   I saw the book, Rocket Writes a Story, […]