Practicing Writing Non-Fiction

We have spent some time learning about space this year.  One of the activities we did was to write about what we've learned.  It was a good way to practice writing non-fiction.  We worked together to write these paragraphs:

Writing Non-Fiction

We're putting our writing skills like finger spaces and sounding out words to good use:  we wrote a non-fiction piece!

After researching both bats and spiders, students could write about what they learned.

I asked for four facts about one topic.  That's four sentences!  We learned that sometimes writers have to take more than one day to write one piece.  I was impressed with how well students could share what they learned!

In the future, we'll have lessons on including a topic sentence and a conclusion.  We're on the right track!

Sharing Our Stories

This morning we learned that writers share their stories.  Writers share their stories to get feedback from readers.  When we worked on sharing our stories, we listened to feedback.

Today's feedback focused on something the reader liked.  Some of the responses I heard were

I like your idea.
I like how you connected me to your story.
I like how you used more than one color in your picture.
I like how you tried to spell your words.
I like how your story seemed real.
I like how the picture looks nice and neat.
I like how you used finger spaces.  I can see your words better.
I like how you drew your picture.  

I was impressed with the feedback given!  We're not finished with sharing and giving feedback. Up next we'll discuss what readers would like to see in a story.

Do You See . . .

Do you see an idea taking shape?

Do you see a story in the picture?

Do you see words that go along with the picture?

Do you see words separated by spaces?

Do you see writers?

How We Got Started with Writing

Previously, the students and I talked about what made writing hard.  These past weeks we focused on two things that good writers do which might make writing easier.

One week we worked on the big idea of writing is just telling with a pencil.  We learned that we can write about something exciting, important, or news-worthy (like when we share our big news in the morning).  We learned that writers write about people and places that are important, likable, and memorable.  We learned that writers write about what he or she knows a lot about. 

The other big idea we learned and practiced all week was that writers tend to follow a process.  The process we followed this week was this: 

Step 1: Think of an idea.  Remember, writing is just telling with a pencil. (The students share their ideas verbally before I release them to write).

Step 2:  Draw a picture of your idea.  Remember to show who is in the story, where the story is taking place, and what is happening in the story.  If a writer is writing about something he or she knows a lot about, the picture needs to show what the writing is going to be about.

Step 3:  Write the words that go along with the picture. As you can imagine, we are going to be spending a lot of time making sure our readers can understand the words we are writing.  We'll continue with step three for a long time.

In upcoming lessons and small group work, we'll be working on writing all of the sounds we hear when we say a word, putting spaces between words, and using punctuation marks to show our readers that we are finished with what we have to say. 

Things have gone so well that I introduced our grading scale for writing.  We discussed that writing is graded from a score of 1 to 5 with 1 being the lowest score and 5 being the highest.  We're striving for fives!  Last week we talked about what a score of one would look like.  If a reader cannot understand a picture (because it is all scribbles with no attention to shapes, details, or colors), and if no story was attempted (either the author couldn't tell what the story was about or no letters were attempted, for example), then the writing would receive a one.  Now that we know what a score of 1 looks like, we don't want to do that as writers, right?  What is the point of writing when a reader cannot understand what is going on?  As we continue along our journey in writing, we'll discuss further what each of the scores look like.
 
Students were eager to write each day.  It's a wonderful way to start off each school day!

Why Writing Is Hard

We've slowly been getting our feet wet with writing since school has started.  One of our recent activities in writing was reading the book Ralph Tells a Story by Abby Hanlon.  Since we're working on retelling a story in a sequence, ask your child to retell you the story at home.

One of the realizations we made was that sometimes writing can be hard.  I polled the students as to why writing can be difficult for Ralph or any writer and here are the responses I received:

Maybe you don't know how to spell.

Maybe you don't know how to read.

Maybe you are not trying hard enough.

Maybe you are not paying attention.

Maybe you haven't been to kindergarten yet (my personal favorite!).

Maybe you don't know how to make the letters.

Maybe you just don't know what to do!

I wanted to get this feedback from the students to see what might be a hold up when we're writing.  I was so impressed with their thinking!  Now I know where to start and how to proceed with breaking down the barriers that may exist in writing.

Where are our group of writers going in kindergarten?  We'll start with learning that we all have stories to tell.  Each morning, students have an opportunity to share with me their "big news." Typically students talk about what happened to them the night before or share with us what is on their minds.  Guess what!  This is the beginning of writing.  Students have something to say!

Our upcoming lessons will focus on telling your stories (big news) with pictures and words next week.  I can't wait to see what each student has to share.  It will be a big year for writing in our classroom.  Don't worry--students will know what to do!

Describing Night Using the Five Senses

During our shared reading time, we read books about night.  Our focus was to pay attention to the way the author described night.  Here are the books we read:

We paid close attention to how the author used sensory details to describe night.  Here is a chart we made:

Then we wrote sentences about night using our five senses:

We made a nighttime picture to go along with it:

What words come to mind when you think of night?

What Does Writing Look Like in Our Classroom?

Take a peek:

Typically during our journal time, writers are working independently on their writing goals.  Students' goals may be to write the whole time, write more than two sentences, or write the sounds they hear in words. Writing in journals is a favorite activity!  Can you tell?

Learning to Read Non-Fiction

Recently we've learned how to find the main idea and supporting details in non-fiction texts. We took a book about penguins to help us with this skill.

We've learned that the title of the book gives us the main idea. Then we looked for things we learned while reading.

Later on, we learned that headings are like titles, and we can learn the main idea from the headings.  We discussed that in the text that follows we will learn details about the main idea.   Look how we've learned the main idea and details:

Then we shared the pen and wrote the main idea and details on our own:

Too bad I didn't capture any of those writers in action!

The great thing is that learning how to find the main idea in a non-fiction text is a life-long skill and we are on our way!

To show what we know, we then wrote informational reports on penguins with a main idea sentence.  More on that to come!

Learning About Topic Sentences

We have learned a lot about information writing in kindergarten.  First, we learned that information writing includes facts.  Our goal is to write three facts about a particular topic.  Next we learned that a topic sentence is necessary for a reader to know what the author is writing about.  

One of the activities we did was to think about something we know a lot about.  Students then partnered up with a buddy who had the same interest.  Then the partners wrote a topic sentence.

Look at our hard work:

Next we'll add three sentences with facts about our topic to our topic sentences.  

Reading Sneezy the Snowman

During a read aloud time , we read the book Sneezy the Snowman by Maureen Wright.  

We used the book to talk about whether the book was fiction or non-fiction and what evidence we could use to support our decision.  We talked a little about how Maureen Wright, as the author, got to decide who the characters would be and what would happen to them.  But we really discussed retelling the book.  When retelling, we talked about the characters, where they were, and who had a problem.  When we discovered the problem, we discussed what the characters did to solve the problem.  Ask your child what Sneezy's problem was and how he tried to solve it.  (Hint:  Sneezy made three poor choices, but his friends helped him make better choices--what were they?)

We were able to retell part of the story by writing about what mistakes Sneezy made:

"Sneezy the Snowman melted when [he] stood by the fire."

"Sneezy the Snowman melted when he stood by the fire and drank hot chocolate."

"Sneezy the Snowman melted when he go in the hot tub."

Based on what we learned from the book, we extended our understanding of the book by talking and writing about what a snowman should not do.  

Here are some of the results:

 "A snowman should not drink hot chocolate because it melts."

"A snowman should not go to Hawaii because there is volcanoes."

"A snowman should not stand close to the fire because he will melt."

What other books can you retell?