Happy Friday, division 2 families! Today students really put their heads down to practice some important paragraph writing skills. The big question of our writing prompt today was…
If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?
We began by considering the virtues of five sample paragraphs about what it would like to be a seagull, an eagle, a bear, a dog and an orca. Each paragraph had a hook, a topic sentence, at least three big ideas, transition words and a conclusion. We drew attention to some issues we keep returning to including the importance of capitalizing the first words of sentences, varying our sentences structure, swapping out overused words for fresh ones, and writing in complete sentences. We also discussed how to use the (optional) structured paragraph templates I provided—as well as the importance of applying creativity to ensure a writing piece is authentic.
Then students used the Chromebooks to research animals, make notes using a graphic organizer for making paragraphs. Then they created paragraph drafts, self and peer edited them, and finally conferences with me for some last minute teacher advice before writing their good copies.
Every single student showed exciting growth in their writing skills today! Seeing this growth is pure joy for a teacher! Here are a few of the wonderful pieces written today that I had a chance to photograph before they went home to be shared with families.
Inquiry Ninja 