Teachable Thursdays

I think today was one of my favorite days of this school year.  I know I've said this a ton of times, but I LOVE teaching writing.  We have had several really fun writing lessons the last couple of days.  This week we've been reading about frogs.  Since we've been reading about frogs, I've been using this as an opportunity to teach my students how to write informational stories.  

Yesterday, I used this amazing graphic organizer.  I drew it out on the board for my kids and we discussed what types of things we were going to write in each bubble.  We talked about what non-fiction meant and that when we are writing informational texts, you have to use facts, not opinions.  Then, I sent my middle and high students to their desks for them to fill out their graphic organizers on their own.  I told them they could use their books, but outside of that, I wanted them to come up with their own facts.  My lower students stayed on my carpet and we did the graphic organizers together.  They came up with the facts, but I wrote them.

Today is where it all came together.  I had my students take their graphic organizers and use them to write their informational texts.  Here's a picture of how they turned out.  To make it a little more fun, I found this cute little frog for my kids to color and I ran the graphic organizer on colored paper.  

The graphic organizers were created by A Year of Many Firsts.  Click here to get the item.

This is another worksheet that was part of the same packet.  You can't tell, but it was ran off on green paper, too.  We did it together and it went great!  Next week we are reading about fish and I can't wait for my next three or four writing activities.  I'm going to do my best to post some non-writing activities next week :)  

 Last thing - here's the scarecrow I promised to draw for you.  I hope you like it and that it's useful to you.  Click here to see how I used the scarecrow.  Hope you enjoy!

Scarecrow - Part I

Scarecrow - Part II