Teaching With Terhune: Sentence Writing

Saturday, February 17, 2018

Sentence Writing

Teaching my first graders how to write a complete sentence is something I spend a lot of time on during the beginning of the school year. Once I feel like my students have writing one sentence down, we move on to writing two sentences over a topic, then three, and so on. I like to make sentence writing a slow and steady progression.

I created lined writing paper to help my students as we transition from writing one sentence at the beginning of the school year to writing multiple sentences over a topic throughout the year. I have found these writing papers are perfect for the students to use during writer’s workshop, at a writing center, for morning work, etc!

Here is a look at some of the writing papers I have my students use:

As you can see from the examples the writing papers I have my students use have either handwriting lines or solid lines, are vertical or horizontal, have a different amount of lines, and have a different size illustration box. I change the writing paper I have my students use throughout the year as they progress with their writing.

Each writing paper also has a writer’s checklist on it. This allows my students to double check their writing to make sure it has all the correct parts. As they edit their own writing, they color in a star for each part that is complete. If they forgot to do something, the checklist reminds them and allows them to fix their mistakes.

Here is a close up of what the writer's checklist looks like:

I love placing these writing papers at my writing center! I pair the writing papers with a monthly writing prompt calendar. The students pick a topic from the writing prompt calendar and then write about it! It makes for a great writing practice center that is low maintenance!

Here is a look at the different writing prompt calendars I place at my writing center throughout the year. The prompts on the calendars help my students practice a wide variety of writing genres like opinion, narrative, fictional narrative, persuasive, informational, descriptive, and more!