Back to School Writing Prompts

Back to school is upon us! Are you pacing yourself to prepare all the things? Remember, deep breaths. I am here to help with tips for back to school writing prompts. They're easy, high interest and easy to prep. 

Most second grade writing begins with a focus on narratives. Narrative writing lends itself to lots of writing about summer vacation, personal experiences, and fun days with a relaxed schedule. These are great for writing! 

Extend these writing opportunities with monthly events or holidays you can use for your narrative writing lessons. Days like Friendship Day, Ice Cream Sandwich Day, Book Lover's Day, or Dogust Day - a day in August when shelter dogs are celebrated -- are highly engaging to second graders and easily adapted for narrative writing. I have assembled a collection of these events for August and September. It is linked below.

How I Organize Everything

I begin by making every student a writing folder for the month. It consists of a title page, about the author page, writing survey, and the graphic organizers for the prompts I plan to use that month. 

I include a copy of the student rubric, a writer's checklist and all the graphic organizers for the month. We store these folders in a basket in our classroom.

How I Rotate Groups

During my writing lesson, I teach a mini-lesson that's usually no longer than 6-8 minutes and then students rotate through groups -- Meet with the Teacher, Work Independently, Work with a Partner. These rotations last about 12 minutes. During this writing block, each student is working on the same piece of writing; each rotation has a different purpose. 

Opportunity to Assess

Meet with the Teacher is a time for me to identify any hurdles a student may be having and record that on the anecdotal record form. Working independently is a time to building writing stamina and focus. Working with a partner is a time to give feedback and help a friend edit and revise. 

Example of Writing Checklist -- an excellent way to monitor student progress

All these tools and forms are available in the Back to School Narrative Writing for August and September found in my TpT shop. 

Happy and Healthy Teaching!

Susan

Five for Friday

Vacation Do-Over

Now that I've been back from Mexico for a week, I feel like I need a do-over! In reflecting on the experience, I feel like Cuz and I were always on the go, but not in a good way. Hiking to breakfast, hiking to the beach, and searching for that perfect sun lounger that wasn't three inches away from someone else. Cuz really wanted to say in an all-inclusive, and it made sense to know that food and beverages were covered, but the price we paid in dealing with so-so food, finding our way around the vast resort, and the extra calories consumed because we felt like we had paid for it, so we had better get our money's worth, made it less than ideal. I learned a valuable lesson. Bigger isn't always better when it comes to hotels. 

The view from our room was pretty, even on the first rainy day.

Look at that! Built without the use of wheels or pack animals!

Such intricate Maya carvings at Chichen Itza

Girl's Night Out

One of my two cats got to spend the night out, last night. It's my fault. I didn't check to see if she was inside before I came in from the patio. She seems to have forgiven me, and there was shelter, water and a litter box out there. Of course, when I offered her a treat, a spoonful of canned cat food, she walked away. Cats!

Major Cuteness

Only 79 days until one of my neices and I celebrate her 18th birthday with this guy! I think I am more excited than she is! How adorable is he?

Adjustments

Preparing for the upcoming school year has been on my mind. There are several things I'd like to do differently. They aren't big things, but I think these adjustments will make things run more smoothly in my classroom.

First, I want to commit to sending home "signed papers" on Tuesdays. I've done this in previous years, but didn't do it last year. I always end up feeling frustrated if I do send Tuesday papers or guilty if I don't! So, I think it's better to do it, so that parents are informed. 

At parent info night, I always tell parents that they won't see many worksheets coming home from me. I explain that I don't believe children learn best from sitting and doing sheet after sheet. Second graders need to be up, talking and moving, touching and exploring, and interacting! I describe what the children do instead of "worksheeps" as one darling child called them many years ago in Memphis. One of the down sides of not doing many worksheets is that the pages that we do complete need to receive feedback and must go home for parents' review. 

Secondly, even while our director of schools is telling us that it is important to 'hit the ground running' with content-based lessons, and that we'll need to be fully operational (my words, not his) by the second week of school, I know in my heart that my second graders will need more time to internalize our classroom routines. My plan is to mesh, mesh, mesh! 

I have two responsibilities. First, to follow the directives from my district. (I'd like to keep my job!) Second, my responsibility is to my students. This is really first in my heart, so I'll integrate routines into content-based lessons. This isn't new to me, but I plan to be even more deliberate in planning and implementation, so that every minute of instructional time is used for content, with a side of routines. So, while we're reviewing sentence writing or math facts, I'll build in a couple of minutes to make an anchor chart of how we do those things. When we're getting ready for recess, I'll make a list of safe activities with a focus on capitalization and punctuation. 

Whew! I'm exhausted just thinking about those two things. Do you have plans to adjust your lessons or routines? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Mysterious Me

I made it! I've thought of enough things to share in my second Linky Party! To celebrate, I am giving away a copy of my latest, revamped product on TPT. So, head on over to my Facebook Page to share it to win! 

I use Mysterious Me as a getting-to-know-you activitiy the first few days of school. I love it. Kids love it. Parents love it.

It's a great way to see the skill level of sentence writing and handwriting. It also gives me an idea of who is shy and who is bold, when it comes time to share. I display their items on a bulletin board along with their clue sentences. It  makes a beautiful display for open house! Be sure to look at the preview to see images of the Yoo Hoo! Guess Who! game that is perfect for getting-to-know-you time!

Have a great weekend!

Animal Research and Writing Organizers

Hello--

Did you know that the birds start singing between 4 and 4:30 AM? How do I know this, you might ask? From experience! 

I have turned my days into nights. Being single and carefree, I can do that. My cats don't mind, although, I think they've been a little confused as to why the 'thing with thumbs' is up at all hours. I love working when it's quiet and calm. I am definitely a night person.

I have updated and renamed my animal graphic organizers. I included three writing organizers that I developed with some struggling writers last year. Typically, my second graders come to me with a great writing foundation. However, there are usually a few who missed some skills, weren't ready for skills, or really didn't enjoy writing. These writing organizers grew from this need to shore up those students' writing skills.

I am working on several other things in an attempt to be ready for school. I have about five weeks of freedom left. I'm eager to share more vacation pictures, but I am saving them for my second ever Five for Friday Linky Party post! Since I know you're curious to see them, also, I'll post this one. It's from Valladolid, Mexico. We stopped there on the Chichen Itza ruins tour. This town square was tranquil and perfect for peoplewatching. Those rounded, white chairs (on the right) are sweetheart chairs. I loved sitting in them.