Writing in First Grade
In first grade we believe that choice is very important in supporting our writer's confidence, interest and motivation. By allowing choice in topic we can still guide our first grader writer's to improve in their use of conventions, word choice and sentence structure. We have learned the importance of using describing words in our writing as well as using a detailed picture to help tell the story.
At this point in the school year our first graders should be independently writing 4-6 sentences using spaces, punctuation and correctly using a starting capital and lowercase letters. After students complete their writing they could go back and reread their writing to check for any mistakes and edit their work.
Types of writing
All About Writing- This is a non-fiction writing where first graders can tell all about something they are an expert in. For example, they could write about an animal or a topic they have a lot of schema about (monkey, football, chess etc. ) Students could also research a topic they are interested in using non-fiction books or the website Kiddle and record what they learned.Personal Narrative- We became experts at personal narrative writing at the beginning of the school year by telling stories from our lives. When writing a personal narrative first graders are thinking of stories that have already happened and are true. Students could write about a trip they went on, play dates, a memory from school etc.
Opinion- Students can share their opinion on a topic and provide multiple reasons to persuade someone. Your child could write about their favorite toy and why it's the best or what game the family should play that day and provide reasons why.
Poetry- Our students learned about poetry this year and how the format looks different and the importance of word choice to help our readers mental image. We learned that poems can be about any topic and do not always rhyme. Poets use spacing, repeating words or lines, strong word choice and rhythm.
How to- Students could create a how to book to teach others. For example they could write a book about how to grow a plant, how to cook or how to play soccer.
Letter- Each week at school we would write a friendly letter to the crew member of the week telling them heartprints, or things we liked about them. Your child could write letters to members of your family, stay in touch with friends or even write a letter and mail it to a family member or their grandfriend.
Spelling
To encourage of first graders to try new words and to build their confidence we allow "first grade" spelling. This means that we want to encourage our writer's to use strategies like eye spelling (looking around to see the word), heart spelling (words we know by heart) and ear spelling (sounding out the sounds we hear).
