WEEKEND NEWS….. MONDAY’S WRITING TIME

I like to WRITE EVERY DAY.  I’ll do a blog post of each of my days of the week and how I incorporate writing into our daily themes.  The first day is MONDAY. We do Weekend News on Monday. I use dotted lined 2nd grade paper and I have a bigger rectangle for an illustration. I also have lines all down the backside for my really good writers.

Writing about our Weekend News in 2nd Grad

We call it Weekend News  because we write about what our family did on the weekend; whether it was a birthday party, a soccer game, shopping at Walmart or a trip to the movies, we write all about it. I always start with a REAL MINI lesson on one of the 6 traits of good writing. I ALWAYS start with  IDEAS, then move to CONVENTIONS. I probably work on these 2 for at least 2 months. 

I’ve always used the 6 Traits Writing Model. Our district is moving to the 4 Blocks method which is easier to teach, but it doesn’t have enough breadth for gifted kids, so I’ll be using both.  It is an unedited weekly writing project, but I help with spelling harder words as I peruse the room. 

 I do a brainstorm on my white board of activities the kids dictate to me. The other thing I have always done is write out a sentence frame;

      On Friday I played….         On Saturday I went……..   On Sunday my family and I……

A white board  brainstorming we did on Earth Day on the 3 Rs….

That way the kids get some sight words memorized and have a way to cut up the weekend into 3 simple paragraphs. Each week I write a new brainstorm.  A great website for graphic organizers to write  on just about any topic can be found  HERE at vrml k12. They have lots of powerpoints on lots of subjects good for kids brainstorming in 1st and 2nd grades. I teach ORGANIZATION mid year. 

Did YOUR family go out to eat like we did? Did you go to Jimmy Johns too?  It’s super  yum!

An easy way to design the paper you want your students to use is to go on this website and peruse her various grades and styles of writing paper.  Check out Donna Young.org. It is all free and I loved the different sizes of dotted, lined paper you could print out for a booklet of “Weekend News” or for a Journal. You could just add a small rectangle for an illustration and the words WEEKEND NEWS across the top.

Or maybe you had a birthday party like we did! My granddaughter turned 2 on Saturday!

A good CHECKLIST for students to use when they are done with their Weekend News can be found HERE at Read Write Think. This is a silent, at your desk, unedited writing activity. Kids can use their personal journals or the word wall to help with sight words. Otherwise they are sounding out words they write.

This was an idea for “WORD CHOICE”  from Cheryl Sigmon’s website on 4 Blocks Method for writing…. link is HERE. I teach  Word Choice the 3rd month of school. It reduces how many “good” and “nice” words you get in student writing…..and you get spectacular “$100 words” as we call them!!

My rules are to write the DATE on each Weekend News because I save them in a writing portfolio.  I add a weekly writing and art to the portfolio. (By years end it is about an inch and a half thick).They also have to write 4 sentences to start the year. Some struggle to get 4 and that is ok too as long as they try. 

Weekend News is a very valuable and simple way to start your week writing on Monday.  Check out what I do on Fridays HERE. Check back to see what I do the rest of the week!!