One-Sentence Journals

One idea to help your child practice writing skills over the summer or any time is to have them start a one-sentence journal. It is a trend that is popular for adults right now. The idea is that one-sentence journals are a great way to keep track of happy memories or to remind yourself of those things you are grateful for but in a short and sweet way. You are more likely to write if you only feel like you need to write one sentence. (Google "one-sentence journals" for more about this idea for adults.) This idea would also work very well for kids. Have them pick out a notebook and writing utensil that they really like and ask them to write just one sentence a day. The sentences can be similar to these:

Today I found a blue feather.
I helped my mom bake cookies.
My dad read a chapter of Clementine to me tonight.
I fell off my bike and scraped my knee.
I saw a ladybug in the backyard today.
I learned that hummingbirds can fly forwards, backwards, sideways and upside down today.

The sentences can be on any topic. Doing just one sentence a day can help a child practice handwriting, spelling, spatial layout on a page or line, using punctuation and capital letters correctly and much more. Some children might want to draw a picture or tape an item into the journal as an illustration. Some children might want to write more than one sentence. Anything goes as long as the child enjoys it and writes (at least) one sentence a day.

This could also be a great family idea. You could have a family journal and take turns writing sentences in it. Then you would have a great family memory book. The sooner you start, the more memories your child will collect and the more their writing will improve.

Ms. Meghan Teaches Writing

Last Friday, Ms. Meghan began teaching writing to the crew. She had them brainstorming ideas and writing a progressive story. She is a natural teacher and really inspires the crew to be writers. This gives me the chance to work with small groups or individuals on their specific writing needs. We are so lucky to be able to do this sharing of the teaching duties. It helps us meet more of the needs that are in the classroom. Thanks, Ms. Meghan!

Important Dates
5/3 Student-Led Showcase of Learning Conferences for First Grade
5/10 Third Grade Showcase of Learning Presentations
5/24 Sixth Grade Showcase of Learning Presentation
6/1 Last Day of School - All School Drum Circle at 9 am 

Writer's Workshop

Now that we have some basic writing skills, we are trying something new in writing. For this unit, I am letting the crew choose what genre they would like to write. Their choices are personal narrative, nonfiction books on animals or other topics, how-to books, or poetry. I will be providing mini-lessons for the students who choose to write a how-to book or poetry since we haven't studied those genres yet this year. Once we all have several new pieces of writing we will begin a new study on revising our writing. Students will revise any or all of their pieces to make them better.

Library day is tomorrow!

Short video of our classroom during writing
 

Research

We have been very busy researching the animals that we each chose. We are using books, magazines, ipads and computers to gather facts and information about our animals. We are taking notes on a chart that will help us write the book about our animal later. We are learning many fascinating facts.

Library - Our mid-week library visit is tomorrow.

Important Dates
2/23 Winter Voyage for 1st grade - one day only, not an overnight trip, no day of rest needed
3/20 - 4/3 Spring Break

Nonfiction books

We have been reading lots of nonfiction books and learning about all of their various features like headings, captions, bold print, fact boxes, glossaries, indexes and more. We will soon begin to write our own nonfiction books. We are in the research phase right now. Below are a few of the books I brought in from the public library for us to use as one source. We will also be using some online sources and apps to gather more facts about our animals. Do you know what animal your child is researching?

Check out the series below. They are perfect for first graders - accessible text, beautiful photographs and fascinating facts. Check some out on your next trip to the public library - there are many, many more. When is doubt look for author Kate Riggs - she has many nonfiction books on many topics including things other than animals. Below each series is a photo of the text inside each type of book so you can get an idea of what they look like.

Amazing Animals series by Kate Riggs

Bullfrog Books series

Big Beasts series by Stephanie Turnbull

Seedlings series by Kate Riggs

National Geographic Kids series

The Writing Process

Ms. Jenni

Today, Ms. Jenni, our speech therapist, came in to do a lesson about sounds that letters make and the correct way to make them. This lesson ties together our reading, writing, listening and speaking skills and it was a lot of fun, too. Thanks, Ms. Jenni!

One-Sentence Journals

One idea to help your child practice writing skills over the summer or any time is to have them start a one-sentence journal. It is a trend that is popular for adults right now. The idea is that one-sentence journals are a great way to keep track of happy memories or to remind yourself of those things you are grateful for but in a short and sweet way. You are more likely to write if you only feel like you need to write one sentence. (Google "one-sentence journals" for more about this idea for adults.) This idea would also work very well for kids. Have them pick out a notebook and writing utensil that they really like and ask them to write just one sentence a day. The sentences can be similar to these:

Today I found a blue feather.
I helped my mom bake cookies.
My dad read a chapter of Clementine to me tonight.
I fell off my bike and scraped my knee.
I saw a ladybug in the backyard today.
I learned that hummingbirds can fly forwards, backwards, sideways and upside down today.

The sentences can be on any topic. Doing just one sentence a day can help a child practice handwriting, spelling, spatial layout on a page or line, using punctuation and capital letters correctly and much more. Some children might want to draw a picture or tape an item into the journal as an illustration. Some children might want to write more than one sentence. Anything goes as long as the child enjoys it and writes one sentence a day.

This could also be a great family idea. You could have a family journal and take turns writing sentences in it. Then you would have a great family memory book. The sooner you start, the more memories your child will collect and the more their writing will improve.

The Three Little Pigs

We are currently reading many different versions of the story of The Three Little Pigs. Once we have read several versions, we will try to write a version of our own. This is always a fun writing project!

Nonfiction Books

We have finished our All About books. They were a huge project for us that began with research and ended with putting that research together in a nonfiction book. Be sure to watch our Kidblog page as we will be adding ShowMes about our books there soon for you to see and share with family members. (Click on the pictures to see a larger version.)

If you take a look at our books, you will see:

Eye-Catching Covers

All About hummingbirds

All About Deer

All About Lemurs

Helpful features like a Table of Contents

Detailed Illustrations

Illustrations with Captions and Word in Bold Print

Maps

Fun Facts

Glossaries

About the Author pages

Important Dates
4/21 Crew Performance of "The Empty Pot" at 3:30 pm
4/22 No School ~ Comp Day for Teachers
5/11 Student-Led Conference for First Grade
5/30 No School ~ Memorial Day
6/1 Last Day of School ~ Nooooo!

Research

We are using many different sources to research the animal we chose to write about in our next book. We use ipads, Netbooks, Chromebooks, magazines and books. We are becoming better at finding the information we need each day. Soon we will be able to gather all of this information into a nonfiction book about our chosen animal.

MinM ~ Minds in Motion
Our MinM class next week is Music.

Homework
No homework for the weekend. Enjoy some great books with your child.