Celebrating Our Writing

Last week, we had an author's celebration as a way to celebrate the children's writing and their hard work.  The children have learned so much in 6 weeks including what to do when they get to a hard part, draw pictures and write words when telling a story, and even to revise a piece of writing.   I'm so proud of what they have accomplished and they truly see themselves as writers!

For this celebration, the children picked a piece of finished writing and shared their favorite page from their piece of writing with the class.  Here are two video clips showing two children sharing their favorite pages.

This week we began our new unit Looking Closely: Observing, Labeling, and Listing Like Scientists.  In this unit, the children are continuing to develop the foundational skills needed for writing as they begin to transfer and apply their knowledge of letters and sounds to labeling items and listing observations.  This is also a great unit to teach children that writing is not only a tool for storytelling; it is also a tool for learning about science.

To begin this unit, the children and I collected different nature items (leaves, cattails, apples, sticks, pine needles, etc.)  The next day, the children practiced looking closely at these nature items, just like scientists.  Then, they drew their observations and labeled their drawings.  On Thursday, the children learned that scientists use the statements I wonder, I notice, and I think when making observations about items.  The children were encouraged to use these statements in their own writing.

I'm going to say it again, but I am extremely proud of the hard work the children have put into their writing.  All the children are taking risks and writing every day even when it seems hard!