Writing has always been one of my favorite subjects to teach. I always struggled to find writing lessons for 1st grade with a good scope and sequence, a curriculum I loved, and time to do it all. I wanted a curriculum that integrated children’s literature, gave step-by-step strategies, offered lots of modeling and practice, wasn’t rushed, and offered extensions into my literacy center. Since I couldn’t find what I wanted, and what my students needed, I decided to create my very own writing lessons for 1st grade.
Lessons
The first 8 weeks of my writing curriculum focus on building the foundation of writing by writing words, sentences, and then paragraphs. I know how busy teachers are and how many subjects we teach. I wanted my lessons to be clear, precise, and easy to follow. So, each lesson has a digital component you can project on a projectable board to guide the lesson. In my room, we always meet up front by our SMART board to begin. You simply make your way through the interactive daily slides.
The lessons for the week are based on a topic and are bulleted for you as an easy reference.
I have also included posters you can print and display as they are introduced. You will just need to print the weekly activities for your students, open the PowerPoint or Google Slide and go.
Mentor Text
Each week students are exposed to a mentor text or two that models a writing strategy or inspires a topic for writing. The story guides our instruction for the week and is a great starting point. I have included a list of all the stories, but I have also included links to the story read on YouTube in the projectable lesson to save teachers money.
Lesson Set-Up
I spend about 20 minutes a day on the writing block. Each lesson has an “I Do”, “We Do”, and “You Do” section. Modeling is truly key to their success and working together for the “We Do” just reinforces the modeling you did in the ”I Do” section. When you get to the “You Do” section, don’t be afraid to pull a small group of students who still need more support and complete it together. I did that daily last year and it really paid off.
Writing Center
As each new piece of writing is introduced, I add it to my writing center. I have literacy centers in my room so I can work with a small group of children on reading. It is important to me that my children have already had exposure to what I put in the writing center. I want them to be familiar with it and be able to complete it independently.
Organization
I like to keep all my materials in a binder for each 8-week section of learning. I put the lesson plans in a clear sleeve and the printables and posters in a pocket folder behind the weekly sleeves. In the very back, I keep all the center activities.
Last year my students LOVED writing. I loved how it was already planned and easy to implement. It wasn’t rushed and all my students felt successful. You can get started with weeks 1-8 of these Writing Lessons for 1st grade or purchase writing lessons for the entire year with my First Grade Writing Curriculum Bundle.
Here are what some teachers had to say about Writing Weeks 1-8 Getting Started:
“Absolutely love this product! It is some well thought out and planned. It has made my writing block extremely easy and has helped my students grow their writing skills!”
“This is my favorite purchase on TPT and I have spend hundreds! Excellent resource! Engaging and easy to use. I love this so much!!!!”
“I have taught First Grade for 15 years. This is by far the BEST introduction to writing I have ever used! It’s so easy to follow, so well laid out and INCLUDES everything you could ever need! This is the most beneficial purchase I have made from TPT… probably ever! PLEASE create more like this! It’s amazing! Thank you!”
And if you’re looking for some other great literacy resources be sure to read my blog post all about my Grammar Lessons for First Grade.
