How-To Books

For the last month, the children have been busy learning a new genre of writing: How-to, or procedural writing.  How-to writing is a type of writing that describes how to do something in steps.

The children have looked at examples of how-to texts from famous authors and have compared this type of writing to narrative texts.  We have been studying mentor texts, particularly My First Soccer Game and trying out techniques the author uses in our own writing.  We have created an anchor chart to help us with this type of writing as well.

Our lessons have focused on the following:

• Writers Become Readers, Asking, "Can I follow this?", "Does this make sense?"
• Writers Label their Diagrams to Teach Even More Information
• Using the Word You
• Writers Guide Readers with Warnings, Suggestions, and Tips
• Making the important words bold 

An Example of a How-to Writing Piece    

How to Wash A Dog

Get the dog in the bath. 

Get the soap on the dog.  Don't get the soap in the his eyes.

Scrub the dog with your hands.

Put the water on the dog using a cup.

Then dry Chewy (the dog) with a towel.

Let my (the) dog run around the house.