Friday, October 24, 2008

Pumpkin Patch Writing




After our field trip to the pumpkin patch, we did this writing activity to begin getting ready for paragraph writing in First grade. This activity is very "doable" for Kindergarteners and we use it again and again throughout the year. We add more writing as we become more capable.
First, we talk about the field trip. We decide together what word works best in our topic sentence, and we all write it. (I use the overhead projector.)
Then, we discuss what we did after we got to the pumpkin patch. I always have students whisper among themselves before raising hands. This gives more people an idea to share, and people who like to share every idea a chance to talk to someone. I call on a couple of people, and we choose an idea.
In this example, it is "First, we walked through the corn maize." After we draw our pictures, we go back and read what we have so far.
We continued on with the other two boxes using the same routine: whisper, share a few answers, choose an answer, draw it, read what we have so far.
The other boxes were, "Then, we picked a pumpkin." & "Finally, we got back on the bus."
Last, we choose a word for our closing sentence, and reread the entire paragraph.

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