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Workshop Wednesday – Favorite Writing Mini-Lessons!

Now….. It’s that time again!

Today, we are sharing our favorite mini-lessons from Writer’s Workshop!

I’m pulling one out from the beginning of the year because, honestly, I’m already thinking about it. We have 26 school days left… and they are filled with testing, field day, awards day, End of the Year F&P Benchmarks… so there won’t be any stellar writing lessons happening anytime soon, let’s just be honest.

I always start the year with how to write narratives- mainly taking small moments and stretching them out. I’m sure you know the stories that prompt these kinds of lessons…

One time, I went to the beach. It was a long trip there. Finally we got there. I was so excited! I ran to the ocean as soon as I could. I played in the waves. I made a sand castle. I caught a crab. Then we went out to eat for dinner. Then we went to sleep at our hotel. The END

Sigh.

I call that a watermelon story. It’s got WAAAAY too many seeds. The seeds are the details that I want to hear more about, and what I want them to use to make an entire story!! I share a couple “bad” stories like that one (that I just make up on the spot usually) and we talk about what “seed” we could use from the “watermelon” to make a better story. Then we do an activity on the SmartBoard where the kiddos explain why and then move events either to the watermelon area or the seed area:

Finally, it’s time for them to think of ideas! I give them this page to glue in their writing notebooks:

They have to think of two big “watermelon” events from their life and then narrow down to the details, or the “seeds.” This gives them six seeds to write with later! 🙂 And hey! Pssst! Click here or the picture above and download the seed idea organizer for free! 😉 

Now it’s your turn! Make sure to grab this button and link back to my blog! Be sure to be supportive of our fellow bloggy friends and comment on at least two other link-ups! 🙂

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