Week of October 12

Sight Word: at
Word Study: beginning sounds y,v,z,q

Writer's Workshop

We started writer's workshop this week and everyone loved it! It is so much fun to be an author just like the authors we have read this school year! We will be focusing on writing narratives (things that have happened in our lives ex. going to baseball games, playing outside, going to school). A big focus for our writing will be stretching out words. I really encourage the kids to do their best spelling by recording the sounds they hear in words (not always correct spelling). At this point in the year, there is a wide range of spelling. Some will be recording only beginning sounds, beginning and ending, some middle sounds and dominant sounds of words and sight words. As we learn new sight words each quarter I will expect them to spell those words correctly. We will also focus on mechanics (putting spaces, between words, first letter capital and period at the end!).

Writing is a huge process. Kids have to think about a lot during writing: coming up with an idea,

forming letters, recording sounds, writing words, remembering to put in spaces. It can be frustrating for some kids. Below I posted a few examples of writing and an activity we do to help practice spelling, mechanics, and sentence structure as well as reading! I hope this will be helpful for everyone to get an idea of our writing process!

The pictures above show the process we go through to construct a sentence. First we think of what we want to say, usually one sentence at a time. Next the students say their sentence a few times out loud so that they know which words they want to write. They also count how many words they will write on their page. Sometimes I will highlight a line to represent each words they are going to write. Third they begin to write. I encourage the kids to reread their sentence many times to make sure they aren't forgetting anything. I have them reread their sentence after each word is written and again when they finish the entire sentence.

As a class and in small groups, we practice going through the process above together. First we come up with a sentence (or sometimes I give them a sentence) and we say it out loud together. Then I highlight a line for each word on a sentence strip or piece of paper. We say each word as we point to each line. Next we write it, I have the students take turns writing words or single letters on the strips. We also stretch out all the words to hear the sounds, unless it is one of our 20 sight words, then I encourage correct spelling. Later in the year, students will be expected to be spelling CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant ex. cat, dog, bed, etc.)

Next, I cut up the sentence and mix it up. Then I have the students put it back together and read it back! Sometimes we mix it up a few times!

We use a Popsicle stick to help us remember to put spaces between our words.

This student uses some beginning, middle and ending sounds by recording the dominant sounds heard.

Here is an example of  recording only the beginning sounds.

Here is a link to a video of a student going through the writing process to help you get an idea!