Writing Outlines

When I first looked at the Common Core standards years ago I freaked out when I saw some of the writing standards for first graders!  I couldn’t believe they were expecting me to teach opinion, informative, and narrative writing to first graders!!  AND they wanted first graders to use topic and concluding sentences in their writing!  I thought there was NO WAY first graders could do that….UNTIL I created my writing outlines.  These outlines have been a life safer!  They are the easiest way for me to teach the different types of writing.  They are also so easy for the students to fill in.  It makes writing for my first graders so easy!

I created an outline for Opinion Writing, Informative Writing, Step Writing, Personal Narrative Writing, and Fictional Narrative Writing. 

I also made large anchor chart versions of my outlines.  During my writing lessons, we fill in the outlines together as a class.  Doing this 'whole-group writing' really helps my students when it comes time for them to fill in their outline by themselves.

After I have my students complete an outline, I grade/revise/edit their writing.  Then, I have my students create a final draft of their writing.  They transfer what's on their writing outline to lined paper and add a picture!

I found that these outlines really helped my students organize their writing, so I also created a letter writing template.

The letter writing template has the lines for the different parts of a letter.

We discuss the different parts of a letter and write some examples together as a class.  Then, when my students are ready to start writing letters on their own each student gets their own pen pal.  They write letters back and forth to each other.  The students love writing to their pen pal!

Click HERE to download my Writing Outlines from my TpT Store!