I love writing. I think it has such reciprocal properties. Kids learn to spell, handwrite and understand what they are reading through the synthesis of writing and responding to literature and non fiction books. I already posted August to December last week, so here is my writing topics linked to my core for January through June.
Happy New Year Goal Writing for kids….
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We do a journal on Friday, and a Weekend News every Monday. So these writing topics take place Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The project starts on a Tuesday, and goes through the entire writing process by Thursday at lunchtime. Fast finishers can go to learning centers.
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| New Years Goal Writing…. |
So if you are just starting out with a writing program, here is the way I like to do my yearly PROCESS WRITING (going through all the stages, prewrite, sloppy copy, edit, final copy, illustration, publish). I have topics I do each month. It is not a complete list. But it is the bones of my yearly writing plan.
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| Hilarious penguin stories like “Katy the Rock Star Penguin” |
Check out these January Penguin Stories HERE. They really turned out funny. And the tear art project was cool and easy to do!
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| Graphic Organizer of penguin facts….just for fun….notice the quotation marks? That was my mini lesson. |
In January we do New Year’s Goals writing, Snowmen Stories, Winter Acrostic Poetry, Penguin stories with a character, setting, problem and solution, Weather Facts Reports on Clouds and Tornadoes, and Martin Luther King biographies. We also do a Chinese New Year Parade and write about it for Social Studies. (and make the cool dragons of course!) We write what we’d do with $100 for hundred’s Day.
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| We read about arctic mammals as part of our animals unit, on the snowy fox and the polar bear, and we did a pretty watercolor and wrote Winter poems |
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| Arctic Animals watercoloring….to go with Winter Acrostic Poetry…. |
We start by doing a literature book, a weekly reader, and maybe even a Basal story in text sets. Then we do a mini lesson using the 6 traits of writing, then kids go start their sloppy copies.
The next day they get a teacher edit and begin their art project. The last day the rewrite the edited copy and finish the art. We share that day and Friday, and anybody not done finishes while the rest are sharing in the author’s chair.
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| Winter Acrostic Poetry…. |
I probably have 5 kids share their stuff each week. I keep track with a little magnetic “face” on the board of all who have shared that month to see who is left to share. Some won’t ever volunteer. This is my way to be sure all have an opportunity to share orally.
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| We start by doing a class brainstorm.with a list of words for each letter of WINTER……..Then the kids pick their own word and write it on sloppy copy paper. I go around and edit, and they write their final copies on the cute stationary! |
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| Check out the arctic animal watercolors and winter acrostic poems Right HERE. |
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| 100s Day Writing….What would YOU do with a hundred bucks? Kids think they can plan a trip to Disneyworld. Don’t burst their bubble yet! |
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| Why we love ourselves too on Valentines Day!!! |
In February we make Valentine Cards and write letters for parents, We write about Why we Love Ourselves on keyboards typing, we Write letters to the Tooth Fairy for dental health, and write mammal reports for animal study. In social studies we write short biographies about the Presidents Washington and Lincoln as part of President’s Day.
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| January Snowman Stories and Snowflake Snowmen art…. |
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| Snowman Stories….Probably my favorite writing and art activity of the season! |
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| Here’s the dimensions if you want to make a cute snowman too! |
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| We used snowflake stamps with paint and glitter for the snowflakes…. |
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| February Letters to the tooth fairy….she answers them the next Monday with tiny little letters in envelopes with a tiny tooth stamped on the back. |
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| Watercolor Tooth Fairies with glitter….gotta love some glitter! |
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| Presidents Day biography writing in February |
Check it out HERE if you’d like to know how we did our President’s Day reports and also 2 more art projects that are really cool for Washington and Lincoln.
Our President’s Day Activities were a lot of fun and the kids learn all about National Monuments like the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial too!
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| George Washington and Abraham Lincoln writing in Social Studies |
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| Cute Georgie art project uses doilies for the ruffled shirt! Super cute cotton ball hair too! |
In March we study Reptiles and do a reptile report, We also write about A Person I Treasure, and we create leprechaun metaphor poems, We start an individual book in social studies on the 7 continents and we are world traveler “Tour Guides” across the 4 oceans and 7 continents. It is called Student Treasures, a white bound book.
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| We studied reptiles all month and made snakes, turtles and alligators….. |
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| We make stuffed turtles with dot painters and long paper snakes with colored masking tape and dot stickers and read poems we stick on the backs. |
Link to the report writing to see how we did it…….HERE.
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| A funny innovation poem on Alligator Pie |
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| The kids love the stationary I give them and coloring covers, because when they are done writing and get teacher editing, they can color before they do their rewrites of their sloppy copies. |
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| We study all kinds of reptiles throughout the month and then the kids choose one to write a report on from a library book and other books from my classroom, and also internet sources. We also do a family tree writing a page for each parent and grandma and grandpa as well as our siblings. It is a fun “bare book”, one of those white bound books. |
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| St. Patrick’s Day handprint cards for mom and dad…. |
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| St. Patrick’s Day Cards… |
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| Friendly letter writing to mom and dad…. |
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| Leprechaun art and Poetry…. |
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| I usually have 3 choices of stationary for them to choose from…..VERY MOTIVATING!
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In April we write about Spring, we do Diamonte Kite poetry, retell of Peter Rabbit in pop up books, We write Easter Cards for parents/grandparents and do Earth Day reports for Social Studies. In Science we write stories about plants (Jack and the Beanstalk retell, Little Red Hen retell/innovation) using reader’s theaters as a springboard. We also do Butterfly larva in science so we do a rewrite of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
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| Earth Day art and writing…. |
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| Earth Day projects….We read lots of books and weekly readers to teach about how we must take care of our earth, use ecology and recycle and to promote keeping lakes and parks clean of litter. |
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| Earth Day art and writing… |
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| Spring Diamonte Poetry on Kites…..we do spelling chains with our spelling words in rainbow colors for the tail. |
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Our animal reports Table of Contents….
All month I keep their 4 reports; mammal, reptile, bird, ocean animal . Then we staple them into a book and add the table of contents. They really know how to write a report when we are done!! Check them out HERE. |
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| Mammal reports… |
In May we study Cinco de Mayo and write about it. We also do Mother’s Day Cards and Insect Reports in Science. We study fossils and rocks and write a dinosaur story. We do a summer fun writing too.
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| Dinosaur fossils made from plaster of paris….Then we wrote about our dinos! |
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| Mariachi guitars art for Cinco de Mayo Day…… |
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| Cinco de Mayo marraccas out of tin cans and popcorn….. |
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| Kids’ Cinco de Mayo writing and activities were lots of fun…. |
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| Cinco de Mayo writing project and art… |
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The kids loved dancing the Mexican Hat Dance….
In JUNE we do Father’s Day cards, and Dinosaur Stories as we study rocks and fossils. |
In social Studies in May and June we make a Me on the Map project and write about all the continents in the world. We also write about Why our Summer will be so Fun! Check it out HERE.
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Fun Summer Scene art….check out my blogpost on how to find these cute sticker scenes and
how we did them. |
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| Summer fun writing project…..It is fun to read all the vacation plans each student has!! gives me lots of ideas…..Snap! |
Doing weekly writing prompts and going through the whole writing process EACH AND EVERY WEEK, makes my kids go up much more than a grade level in writing by year’s end. Also I get so many chances to individually edit for each child, that I can help them more often, 1 on 1 to improve, whatever their problems in writing are. They become better spellers, handwriters and learners through the writing program I plan for the year.
Leave me a question if you’d like, and I’ll try to answer them!
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Tammy
1…2…3…Teach With Me