Teaching our friends through WRITING!

Kinders love to talk.  They love, love, love to tell you all about every tiny detail in their exciting lives.  

Don't believe me?  

Sit down with a 6 year old and ask them one question.  ONE.  They will talk for hours. 

This lovely trait results in a very loud classroom, almost all of the time.  I think that's why our "Kinder Wing" is in a totally different building than the rest of the school!  I have learned to turn this into an advantage when it comes to writing time.  Writer's Workshop is our favorite part of the day because we turn our talking into writing!

We've been writing "How To" books lately.  This is a great time to turn into little teachers and teach a friend how to do something fun!  Here is an example of our work: 

 Here is a quick run down of how I introduce How To books.  

Day One: This big kick off!  

Hook them by telling them they are going to be teachers.  Make a list of things we can teach our friends. 

Quick Sketch!  We sketch out the steps (and I focus on using the words First, Next, Then, and Last).

Day Two: Write It!  

We write one sentence to go with each step.  Again using those words first, next, then, and last. 

 Here is an example of what we have after the first couple of mini-lessons: 

 

 Day Three:  Check it!  

We have fun checking our writing by seeing if it makes sense.  Teaching a friend how to do a cartwheel?  Can you do it if you follow the steps?  We also go back and check for capitals, periods, and words that we can spell using the word wall.

 

Publish it!  

We do our best writing to publish in a book.  The very last step in publishing is to finish with a great cover page, title, and don't forget to put the authors name!  They loved sharing their books with the class!

All of the writing pages are part of my weekly centers packet "This is the Way We Go to School".  This was the final week in a six week unit and How To writing was part of my summative assessment.  Click HERE or on the pic to see it in my store.   Having the books all prepped and ready made it really easy to publish books.  Now we have "How To" books available in our toolbox of skills and can do them whenever we want! 

Ok, next step?  Teaching our friends about really COOL stuff we read about!  Otherwise known as informational writing but that sounds so boring.  Here is our first try today: 

Can you tell this little guy thinks poisonous snakes are cool?  His neighbor was writing about poisonous dart frogs.  I think I've already got them hooked, how can you be bored with poisonous snakes and frogs? 

No prompting needed, everyone was adding labels to their pictures today because it's just that cool.  I can't wait for writing tomorrow! 

So that is how we teach our friends through writing.  The possibilities are endless and this is "just Kindergarten".  :)  

Have a great week friends.