teaching writing grade 2

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Second Grade Writing Curriculum

Are you wondering how to teach second grade writing? Or perhaps you’ve found yourself googling ‘how do you teach a 2nd grader to write?’ Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered with this 2nd grade writing curriculum!

This curriculum includes Unit 1 ‘Personal Narratives’, Unit 2 ’Opinion Writing’, Unit 3 ‘Informational Writing’, and Unit 4 ‘Fictional Narratives’ where your students will learn how to write engaging narratives, opinion writing pieces, and informative texts. This curriculum is standards based (to the common core) and genre based.

Let’s look at this  second grade writing curriculum!

ARE YOU STRUGGLING TO TEACH WRITING? DO YOUR STUDENTS HATE WRITING LESSONS?

Teaching writing can be so tricky, I get it!

In this curriculum, your students will develop a love of writing. For example, the graphic organizers, interactive notebooks, and final crafts will engage students much more than a blank piece of paper. The final writing pieces are fun, interactive and engaging!

Writing doesn’t have to be dull and students definitely shouldn’t hate writing.

Maybe you’re not provided with any writing curriculum by your school, or if you are, it’s awfully dull. If that’s the case, Terrific Writing is for you!

You might be a new teacher, new to 2nd grade, or perhaps you’ve always just struggled with teaching writing. So, you find yourself googling, ‘how to teach writing skills?’ or ‘how to teach 2nd graders to write a story?’

Well no more googling is required if you grab this curriculum!

UNIT DOCUMENTS

Everything you need is included in this grade 2 writing curriculum. Each unit has –

• List of common core standards that align with the unit
• Suggestions for differentiation
• Suggested lesson times (no matter how long your writing block is)
• Unit scope and at-a-glance calendar
• Lesson materials list (so you know exactly what is needed for each lesson at a glance)
• Video overview to help organize and implement the unit
• Hyperlinked table of contents (so you can jump straight to the pages you need)!

This allows you to feel confident in the implementation of these units!

LESSON PLANS

This is  NOT  one of those big box curriculums where you have to sift through 10 pages of background teacher information for each lesson or read from the most BORING script. I hear so many teachers say that those curriculums are  “Not teacher friendly, wordy and annoying to follow. SO many pages to read for just one lesson! “

There are 25 lesson plans in each of the writing units. The step-by-step one page lesson plans are scripted with a lesson focus, mini lesson, think and share component, and independent writing time. These 2nd grade writing mini lessons will help your students be confident writers!

That’s right, you can get your evenings and weekends back, my friend! You don’t need to write any more lesson plans!

What is the writing structure for a second grader? How do you teach writing in Grade 2? These units will break it down for you!

POSTERS /Anchor charts

Each writing unit comes with posters to help you teach the concepts. They are great for giving definitions, ideas, and showing examples for each lesson’s topic. They will really help if you’re wondering how to improve 2nd grade writing skills for your students.

For example, there’s posters for teaching things like paragraphs, linking words, as well as concepts like ‘show, don’t tell’ or stretching sentences. Then, there are genre specific topics too. Students learn about the strucure of a narrative, what an opinion and reason is, and what informational writing is.

MENTOR TEXTS

How do you help a struggling writer in second grade? You need to show them examples of the writing genres! You need to set 2nd grade writing expectations and 2nd grade writing samples are the way to do this.

This 2nd grade writing curriculum comes with original mentor texts! Yep, that’s right. You don’t need to hit up Amazon or your library and spend hours sourcing books. Need an example of a personal narrative or an opinion writing sample? You’ve got it!

With these mentor texts, you can show your students examples of the writing genres. But best of all, the mentor texts feature ALL of the lesson topics! Teaching about problems and solutions? The original mentor text will have those things! The mentor texts each feature all of the things that students are taught. This way, students are exposed to concepts before they even learn them AND see them again after as revision!

Above all, they’ve been written in a similar way to how your students might write AND they compliment the writing prompt/topic of the lesson. Students need to write about the rainforest? There’s an informational mentor text about rainforests! Students need to write a personal narrative about a bad day? There’s a personal narrative mentor text about a skateboard accident!

2nd grade writing WORKBOOK / binder COVERS

Need a way to organize your students’ worksheets and writing pieces? You can print binder covers! Each unit’s workbook cover offers a word choice between folder, journal, or notebook.

Ready to grab this curriculum? Save 10% by using the website you’re on right now. Click here. Use the code TERRIFIC10 at checkout.

Or purchase from TPT here.

GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS, WRITING PROMPTS, AND WRITING WORKSHEETS

How do you engage students in a writing lesson? These writing units are jam-packed full of ENGAGING activities! If you’re looking for fun writing activities for 2nd grade, look no further!

Most of the activities are graphic organizers. This means that your students can fit their handwriting in and write as little or as much as they are capable of (or even just draw if they are struggling writers).

Cute clip art is featured on these 2nd grade writing worksheets, which is so much more fun than a lined piece of paper!

I hear many teachers complain that the curriculum they’re given is “too open ended and vague” and “too difficult for the kids”

Or worse, that  “it never covered the basics, not enough solid instruction. It expects students to just sit and write for long stretches”

In this unit, students are  NOT  told to just ‘go off and write’ as if that will magically make them good writers! In this unit, each concept is explicitly taught and students learn all about the structure and features of the genre. They use the printables to work on what they have learned.

HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES

Worksheets and writing prompts are great, but what’s really engaging about this second grade writing curriculum is that hands-on activities are always included!

Each writing unit has a few interactive notebooks. Some units even have cut and paste sorting activities. This helps your students share their learning in a FUN way!

EDITING CHECKLISTS

It’s so important for students to edit and revise their work. In each unit, there are two editing checklists provided. Students proof their work and the checklists help them to look for spelling errors and ensure their writing has components of the genre, like a problem and solution!

WRITING CRAFTS

I think that writing crafts are awesome! They make a writing piece so much more enjoyable for students to work on. A craft gives them something to be creative on and proudly display or take home to show others.

Each writing unit features a writing craft as the final writing piece. All of them are flipbook/booklet style, so that students can write as much as they like.

Publishing party

Each unit ends with a publishing party where students can receive a certificate and show off their craft. There are even some compliment notes so that students can praise each other’s work.

Publishing parties are a great opportunity for students to share their hard work!

There’s nothing worse than students wailing ‘I’m done, now what?’

It’s totally normal to have high flyers and fast finishers but it’s important to keep them engaged.

In this curriculum, each writing unit features a set of early finisher task cards. Students can respond to the writing prompt with a quick writing piece each lesson or they can work on a large writing piece over many lessons.

ASSESSMENT RUBRIC

Assessment is important when teaching writing and so a rubric is included for each unit. But rubrics can be confusing, right?! Therefore, I knew that these units also needed –

• Teacher directions, examples, and elaborations for the rubrics
• Videos with tips for using the rubrics

So, you’ll feel confident when it comes to grading the pre and post-assessment pieces.

All the options!

This curriculum will make your life easier. The units are designed to suit your needs, whether you’re time poor, have limited printing, or just looking for options.

• Everything that comes in color (such as posters, task cards, certificates, and mentor texts), also comes in black and white.
• The workbook covers and certificates come in boy  and  girl versions.
• There are a variety of options. For example, the mentor texts come in PDF and PowerPoint versions. The lined worksheets come in dotted and plain line versions.
• You can save on printing and go digital. The PDFs can be shown on a smart board, so you don’t have to print things if you don’t want to. You can just  show  the posters, task cards, and mentor texts etc.
• The lengthier PDFs all have tables of contents that have hyperlinks so that you can jump straight to the pages you need.
• There’s simplicity AND extra detail. You can keep things simple by just printing a one page lesson plan or the rubric and just teach! OR you can watch videos and read detailed instructions and examples to learn how to use the unit components. The choice is yours.

ARE YOU SHORT ON TIME?

These  5 week  units have EVERYTHING you need, because let’s be honest, teachers are time poor.

Let’s get your evenings and weekends back, my friend! Take a break from lesson planning and searching for engaging materials. It’s all right here.

Check out this curriculum on TPT  here!

If you’d like to grab it from this website you’re on, you can use the coupon code TERRIFIC10 at checkout to save 10%! Click  here.

P.S. – Interested in free crafts and worksheets? Access my free resource library  here!

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Trauma-informed practices in schools, teacher well-being, cultivating diversity, equity, & inclusion, integrating technology in the classroom, social-emotional development, covid-19 resources, invest in resilience: summer toolkit, civics & resilience, all toolkits, degree programs, trauma-informed professional development, teacher licensure & certification, how to become - career information, classroom management, instructional design, lifestyle & self-care, online higher ed teaching, current events, 5 innovative ways to teach second grade writing.

From storytelling and absorbing new vocabulary words to practicing proper grammar and learning the rules of punctuation, writing can be an absolute joy for second grade students. They’re energetic and imaginative, and writing allows them to express themselves and venture into new worlds.

That said, it’s important to keep the instruction of writing fresh and engaging, so that your second graders respond well and learn what they need to learn. So what are some innovative ways to help them learn (and fall in love with) the craft of writing?

Check out some of our favorite ideas.

1. The “Picture This” game

To play this game, start by scanning or photocopying images of famous works of art. You can also collect photographs of different houses or clip pictures from magazines. Next, ask each student to choose a picture they feel drawn to and write a story about it. If the picture has people in it and you know who they are, explain their relationships to the student. If they choose a house photo, have the students create a descriptive story about where it is and what sort of people might live there. For a more neutral photo, you could ask the student to create a story that is funny, scary, or hard to believe— perhaps something that’s already happened or is about to happen in this specific place.

2. Writing letters

Learning how to write letters early in life teaches second graders about writing in a fun and purposeful way, but also how to stay in touch with others. Writing a letter will allow your second graders to practice their penmanship, learn how to format a letter, and how to describe what’s going on in their lives. The letters can take the form of a general keeping-in-touch letter, a thank you note (if they recently received a present from a relative), a letter about a recent family vacation, or a gratitude note to a parent.

3. The surprise-me game

For this game, divide a stack of index cards into thirds. Hand out the first batch of cards to your students and ask them to write down the name of a place of their choice. It can be a geographical location anywhere in the world, or a local physical setting— literally anywhere the child chooses.

Next, collect the location cards, then hand out the second stack of cards and have the students write down an occupation. For the remaining third stack of cards, ask them to choose and write down an object—any object at all. Once all the cards have been collected, have students select a card from each of the three stacks, and then write short stories using elements from all three cards they choose.

4. The story of me

An autobiography allows students to write a first-person story about themselves, their family, pets, friends, house, favorite toys, or anything else they wish to share. Encourage your students to be as descriptive as possible. Once they are finished, collect the stories, hand them out randomly, and have each student read the story they are given out loud. Then have rest of the class try and guess who each story author is. This can be a fun assignment during the first month of school to help students get to know each other!

5. Future reviewers

Have your students write a review of the latest movie, TV show, or cartoon they have seen, or the latest book they have read. Reviews should discuss plot, characters, how the story turned out, and how many “stars” they give it on a scale of 1 to 5. (This is another great way to get conversations going that can form friendships over shared interests!)

As you well know, teaching second-grade writing doesn’t need to be intimidating or boring. Try out one of these techniques, or create one of your own. Anything goes! Your students will appreciate it, and they’ll love writing in no time.

You may also like to read

• 4 Tips for Teaching 2nd Grade Writing
• 5 Ways to Exercise Essay Writing for Elementary Students
• 5 Fun Ways to Teach Grammar
• 6 Fun Ways to Teach Vocabulary Words in Your Classroom
• How Teachers Can Increase the Impact of Essay Writing for Students
• Five Stages of Second Language Acquisition

Categorized as: Tips for Teachers and Classroom Resources

Tagged as: Early Childhood and Elementary (Grades: PreK-5) ,  Engaging Activities

• Trauma-Informed Practices in School: Teaching...
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• Master's in Reading and Literacy Education

Stories by Storie

Everyone has a story to tell. What is yours?

How-To Writing for 2nd Graders

April 29, 2015

If your second grade students are working on how-to writing or procedural writing, you may be looking for a few tools to get started. Here are some resources to help.

It’s Wednesday, so I’m back with another writing post. Today’s focus is on How-To Writing (some of you might call it Procedural Writing). Because each class of students is different, the length of time I spend on this writing unit varies greatly from year to year. About two years ago, I was able to spend 8 weeks on this unit.  Last year, we only spent 3 weeks on it.

How-To Writing Mentor Texts

For this unit, I start by reading aloud books that model different characteristics of how-to writing.  I do not read every single book below, but these are all great choices:

• How To Feed Your Parents
• How to Read to a Grandma and Grandpa
• How I Trained My Dog in 10 Days
• If Your Monster Won’t Go to Bed
• How to Code a Sandcastle
• How to Catch a Monster
• Everyone Can Learn to Ride a Bicycle
• How to Read a Story
• How to Draw 101 Animals
• Caring for Your Lion
• How to Build a Fizzy Rocket
• How to Apologize

Click on the picture below to find even more how-to or procedural writing books on Amazon .

we are a participant in the amazon services llc associates program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to amazon.com and affiliated sites.

If you don’t have any money left in your teaching budget, look into what is already included in your curriculum. Our school is fortunate to have a Reading A-Z subscription and there are several choices at different levels. Our curriculum also has a few choices that aren’t my favorites, but they will do in a pinch (or to leave for a guest teacher).  In either case, the following titles are leveled texts available to me which makes them ideal for small groups:

Getting Started with How-To Writing

As I’m reading, I start pointing out and introducing the different text featuresI want my students to use in their own writing. We begin to create an anchor chart as a class. This turns into a writing checklist of things I want my students to include in their writing. Here’s one that we developed two years ago (that I have since cleaned up just for you). My students put these in their writing folders:

Now that we have all of the pieces, we’re ready to jump in and begin writing. When we started it was winter, so I picked a high interest topic for modeling purposes (How to Build a Snowman). There are so many options for prewrites.  For this prompt I created a bubble map for the materials we would need. Then I made a 4-box plan with the most basic transition words. I drew pictures and added key words and details to write about later.

We always use a bubble map for the materials or ingredients we need.  Then when it’s time to do a prewrite, they often choose one of the following to draw and write out the steps:

One of my favorite resources for How-To is made by the talented Tangled Up in Teaching .  It is filled with graphic organizers, writing papers, and THE BEST craftivities.  Obviously we don’t use every single one.  In fact, we only use a few and only at the beginning when we are doing shared how-to writing.  However, it remains one of my favorite TpT purchases of all time!

Seriously, you cannot even begin to imagine how excited students get when they have a fun project at the end.  Here are two of the craftivities we have used in the past:

Since I do a lot of modeling during writing instruction, students can easily fall into patterns and more formulaic writing.  I use writing minilessons along the way to help them improve their word choice. Two places to do this are with transitions and action words. These become anchor charts on the walls and then I make printable resources for their writing folders. This is what we came up with last year:

In order to increase their independence, we brainstorm a list of topics that my students are “experts” in. I use the term “experts” very loosely! After all, these kiddos are second graders, but the word “expert” empowers them! Here is a list of topics my class came up with a few years ago (typed up just for you):

I hope you were able to gather some new ideas to jump into how-to writing. Are you ready for some freebies?

I hope this has given you a new idea or two for how-to writing! You might also enjoy:

• Opinion Writing
• Friendly Letter Writing
• Daily 5 Writing
• Picture Books about Writing
• Ways to Increase Writing Engagement

Happy Teaching!

Related posts:

April 30, 2015 at 8:29 am

Great list of topics…find myself getting in a rut and choosing the same ones all the time. Thanks for sharing!

January 5, 2023 at 10:26 am

I cannot get this to print says google error

January 5, 2023 at 2:53 pm

Hi Angela, I just double checked the file and did not have any trouble printing. Are you trying to print from your internet browser? If so, you can either try a different browser or download the resource to your computer and open the file from your downloads folder. I hope this helps! Storie

August 22, 2023 at 6:33 pm

This is an awesome resource for teachers teaching lower grades for the first time! This saved me a ton of time which I would have to spend sitting and typing out/ making anchor charts. I cannot thank you enough for this resource! Thanks!

August 23, 2023 at 3:01 pm

Hi Chandra, I’m so glad you found these resources to be helpful. Enjoy! Storie

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How to Teach Narrative Writing in 2nd Grade with Spectacular Results

Teaching narrative writing can be SO fun! But reading student’s personal narratives can get dry after a while. You can only read about so many trips to the pool or vacations where students detail getting to the airport, then their writing ends once they finally arrive in Disney World. Get your students engaged while teaching narrative writing by doing fun, imaginative and personal narratives this year!

Important Concepts:

Students need to recount either one event in detail or a series of events when writing a narrative. One misconception is that the narrative has to have happened to them. It is OKAY to have your students write an imaginative narrative.

Typically, I start by having students write personal narratives, as it is easy for them to recount something that has happened to them. Then, once we have done a few personal narratives, we move to more exciting imaginative topics.

By second grade, students should be able to write a topic sentence, 3-4 event sentences WITH details, and a closing sentence. This means student writing should be anywhere from 5-10 sentences at least. However, many students are ready to write in paragraphs by second grade and should be encouraged to do so by adding more detail sentences to each event.

Challenges:

Students might struggle understanding the difference between an event and a detail. Talk to students about how an event is SOMETHING that happened, and details are the supporting ideas that help tell that story. Details can add dialogue, words from 5 senses, or more explicitly explain certain subjects from their writing.

The Writing Process:

I cannot stress enough the importance of taking your students through the writing process every single week, for every single genre. This involves brainstorming/planning, drafting, revising, editing, publishing, grading and sharing.

Hook/Brainstorm:

Getting students EXCITED can be half the battle during writing. I love to tie all of my writing projects to engaging read alouds and fun topics. You can find my favorite narrative writing companions here.

It is equally important to MODEL each step of the writing process for students. After reading aloud our companion text, I typically will read aloud my model. I also will then model my own plan so students can see what I am looking for when it is their turn to write.

Then, it is time for students to make a plan. Be sure not to skip this phase, it is NOT writing a full draft, but rather jotting down their ideas they are going to write about. They can use bullet points or pictures to gather their ideas, but this should NOT be done in full sentences and should not take longer than 5-10 minutes.

I like to give students two full days to draft for narrative writing. Each week, we focus on a different important skill that needs to be taught during narrative writing. Some skills we focus on are:

• Transition Words • Topic Sentences • Closing Sentences • Adding Details such as adjectives, prepositions, similes, metaphors, etc. • Adding Dialogue • Writing with a problem and a solution

Typically, students write their topic sentence, and first two events and details one day. Then, I have them write their second two events and details, along with the closing on the second day. We focus on the skill of the week, while also reinforcing the other skills that were previously taught.

Revising/Editing:

I spend a lot of time at the beginning of the year setting up a peer editing time that is productive for students. We spend an entire day revising and editing, and I also roam the room and select certain students each week to conference with during this time.

Depending on the length of your writing block, you can either meet with all of your students or rotate through small groups of them each week.

Publish, Grade, Share:

I always have students publish a piece of writing every single week. We add it to our writing portfolios that we take home at the end of the year. When students finish publishing, I have them grade themselves on the rubric. Self-assessment is such a powerful tool for students.

After they self grade, we find time to share each week. This can be partner sharing, author’s chair, sharing with buddies, recording themselves reading or more.

What is your favorite tip for teaching narrative writing? Drop it in the comments below!

Emily - The Mountain Teacher

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65+ Ideas, Tricks, and Tips for Teaching 2nd Grade

Second grade is first in our hearts.

Second graders are enthusiastic, curious little balls of energy. They have mastered the basics, and their quest for more knowledge is infectious. Whether you are new to teaching second grade or have been in the classroom for years, it is important to have the resources you need to stay organized, while enhancing the learning environment for your active little learners. We have collected the best tips for teaching second grade from real teachers via our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE Facebook group and beyond to help you make this school year the best one yet!

Getting Your Classroom Ready

1. create an inviting classroom.

Need ideas to take your classroom to the next level? We’ve gathered real-life second grade classrooms for you to browse!

2. Gather all the supplies

Not sure what supplies you need for your second grade classroom? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with this list of essential second grade classroom supplies .

3. Pick an inspiring theme for your classroom

Image source: Schoolgirl Style

Classroom themes our second grade teachers love include: butterflies, black paper with polka dots, chevron, sock monkeys, owls, orange and teal, minions, and superheroes.

4. Find teacher deals on the cheap

Stores with serious discounts on classroom items recommended by our Facebook followers include Target, dollar stores, Mardel, Walmart, local teacher supply stores, Staples, Michaels, Jo-Ann, Oriental Trading, Amazon, NAEIR.org, NationalSchoolProducts.com, and TeachersPayTeachers.com.

Here are some other tips from second grade teachers on finding deals:

• “Office Depot will match prices plus give an additional discount.” —Kitty R.
• “Don’t be afraid of seeking donations. I once got a case of copy paper donated by a grocery store.” —Carmen B.
• “Yard sales are a great place for prize-box toys and for games for your rainy day closet.” —Sandie N.

Plus, be sure to check out our BIG List of Dollar Store Hacks for Teachers .

5. Try different classroom layouts

Long gone are the days of straight rows of desks lining the classroom. Throw out your seating chart and try one of these ideas instead .

6. Put together an irresistible classroom reading nook

Your second graders are well on their way to becoming readers, so make this time extra special for them by setting up one of these awesome reading nooks .

7. Fill your classroom library with these classic second grade books

Teaching second grade involves a lot of reading! Here are 60 of our favorite books.

8. Get a jump start on lessons

Teacher planning and prep time are precious! It makes life a lot easier when you can purchase existing lessons, bundles, books, and pages. And why not support other teachers while you do it! Check out our favorite Teacher Pay Teachers sellers for teaching second grade.

9. Set up and share an Amazon Classroom Wish List

Teachers spend an insane amount of money out of pocket each year buying classroom supplies. Spend less of your own money to enhance your classroom and curriculum with the Amazon Classroom Wish List feature . This is an amazing and easy way for parents and other members of the community to help you out. Other websites offering wish lists and registries include Target , Oriental Trading , and GiftYou .

10. Stock up on educational toys and games

Second graders absolutely love hands-on activities, especially when they can do them with their classmates. There are plenty of ways to incorporate educational toys into the curriculum to liven things up, while still sticking to those standards. These games are perfect for centers, indoor recess, and free-time choice activities.

The First Days of School

11. revisit the first days of school: how to be an effective teacher.

I always refer back to some pages and checklists in Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong’s indispensable book The First Days of School: How To Be an Effective Teacher at the beginning of each school year. There is a reason it is still a bestseller and is in its fifth edition. You probably still have a copy from your teacher training courses.  But if not, grab the latest edition on Amazon . The ideas, tricks, and tips are perfect for teaching second grade, and all grades in general.

12. Introduce yourself creatively

Make day one memorable by introducing yourself in a creative way, such as sending postcards over the summer. Here are 36 creative ideas .

13. Get to know each other with icebreakers

Get the kids mixing and moving as they get to know one another. Here are lots of great icebreaker ideas , including a link to fun Would You Rather …? scenarios.

Create a Classroom Community

14. draft a class constitution.

Image source: Kreative in Life

After learning about the Constitution, students can apply their knowledge by creating their own class constitution called “We the Kids”!

15. Establish a culture of kindness

Print these free downloadable posters to remind your students that kindness matters most of all.

16. Build your students’ social-emotional skills

Teaching second grade means building SEL skills. Use these read-alouds to talk about everything from kindness to courage to trying your best.

17. Use transition times for mental health check-ins

Incorporate quick mental and emotional health check-ins with students as a regular part of your classroom routine. Use transition time wisely with these short, mindful activities .

18. What does a “model citizen” look like?

Image source: K–2 Is Splendid

After discussing what makes a good citizen, construct a “model citizen” on poster paper for your classroom. Students can write their ideas about the great qualities a model citizen should have and stick them on the poster to complete the picture.

19. Incorporate Kagan strategies for community building

Kagan is a scientific research-based program focused on student engagement. Kagan strategies help educators build a caring and kind environment to help all types of learners thrive.

20. Encourage good behavior—without giving out treats

Set your expectations very clearly from the start. Start off by reading about classroom management , dive into our second grade classroom management tips , and then check out these fun ideas for keeping your students on track without breaking the bank.

Ideas for Language Arts

21. incorporate daily writing prompts.

We’ve gathered 25 writing prompts that you can download and use to have your second graders practice their writing skills.

22. Use anchor charts to teach reading comprehension

Check out 49 of our favorites  for teaching second grade here.

23.  Use digital research tools to write reports

Research skills are super important, but they can be quite a challenge to teach to second graders. PebbleGo is a research tool specifically designed for K-3 students, and it covers topics in science, social studies, and more. Check out how I made these animal reports happen using age-appropriate research tools with my students.

24. Then show off that research using digital workspaces

Go a step further from written reports by using digital workspaces in your classroom. PebbleGo Create is a kid-friendly program that kids love. If you don’t have a subscription, any digital slide-presentation program will do just fine. See how I used PebbleGo Create with my second graders to make visual interpretations of our animal reports.

25. Incorporate fun reading comprehension activities

Second graders are some of the most enthusiastic readers out there. They are transitioning from the basics into readers looking for meaning. As they build upon their comprehension skills, they are beginning to make connections to themselves and the world at large. These 26 second grade reading comprehension activities will help your students dig deeper into texts on their own as well as with their peers.

26. Introduce chapter books to your students

Help your second graders transition from picture books and easy readers to chapter books. Start by reading aloud a chapter book from a popular series like The Magic Tree House . Your more advanced readers will be able to read these on their own at the beginning of the year, while some will transition midyear. Once second graders gain the confidence to move to the other side, there is no turning back!

27. Get those graphic novels out

Like it or not, graphic novels are here to stay. So get onboard if you haven’t already! Second graders of all reading levels absolutely love them. Lower-level readers gain confidence since they are a step up from picture books, while higher-level readers enjoy having pictures to go along with “bigger kid” books. If you already are stocked up on the popular Dog Man series, here are 16 similar graphic novel series ideas for your stash.

28. Fire up your little storytellers’ imaginations

Image source: Education.com Strips

Create a story jar and let second graders’ imaginations roam.

29. Introduce your second graders to small-moment narratives

Image source: Buggy for Second Grade

Break down the process with this handy anchor chart and then watch them go to town writing.

30. Teach annotation with “thinkmarks”

Image source: Monica Jasso/Pinterest

Encourage students to actively engage as readers by printing or having students create “thinkmarks” they can use to annotate text as they read.

31. Make alphabet picture books

Different editions could include parts of speech, antonyms, synonyms, and homophones, etc.  Create a class library of these! It’s a great way to showcase student learning.

32. Have fun with literacy centers

We love this big list of ideas for grades K-2.

33. Make phonics fun

Phonics is the foundation for reading success. Breaking words into their constituent sounds helps kids understand and build their literacy skills, bit by bit. Check out these 26 phonics activities for teaching second grade.

Ideas for Math

34. teach time creatively.

Image source: Elementary Nest

Students can draw different times on a dry-erase clock—just a Hula-Hoop taped on your whiteboard. Or try one of these other 23 methods for teaching how to tell time .

35. Solve a word problem of the day

Opening your daily math lesson with a math word problem of the day is an excellent way to set the stage for learning. Word problems are difficult for young learners to grasp, even when the mathematical operation portion of the problem is basic. Incorporate these second grade math word problems one day at a time at the start of your math block to build confidence, critical-thinking skills, and a learning community.

36. Build a number of the day

Image source: Turnstall’s Teaching Tidbits

Students can build the number of the day by selecting the correct numerals, words, and units.

37. Play math games

Here’s a big list of math games that are just right for second grade.

38. Watch math videos

Making math more engaging for kids can be difficult. But teaching math will be anything but boring when you introduce students to some of our favorite subtraction and addition videos on YouTube .

39. Teach shapes

Learning shapes is one of the earliest concepts we teach kids. Shapes ready them for geometry in the years ahead, but it’s also an important skill for learning how to write and draw. Get started with these shape activities .

40. Read books about math

Young mathematicians can have a hard time understanding abstract math concepts. Enhancing your lessons with books about math will help your students make connections while having fun in the process. Motivate your students while introducing new concepts, reinforcing ideas, and talking about all things math!

41. Let your students lead

Second grade teacher Stacey S. shares, “I give my kiddos about 10 minutes to complete morning math problems. Then I choose a student to come up to ‘teach’ the first problem by sharing strategies and solutions. That student asks if everyone agrees or disagrees and chooses another student for the next problem, if everyone agrees. If there is disagreement with his answer, they discuss alternatives. The students are in charge for the first 30–45 minutes of the day! My favorite time of the day!”

42. Write in math journals every day

Image source: Smiling & Shining in Second Grade

With math journals, students learn to solve mathematical problems using pictures and words. Check out free entry examples on the blog, which focuses on teaching second grade.

43. Use hands-on activities and manipulatives

Help students learn those tricky math concepts by incorporating hands-on activities and manipulatives whenever possible. Start by trying these ideas for teaching graphing , place value , and solving word problems . There are plenty of other great ideas for teaching second grade on our website, including fun holiday-themed activities!

Ideas for Science

44. get hands-on with science.

Science is the perfect subject for kids to get down and dirty. Try these 50 second grade science projects for inspiration.

45. Try daily STEM challenges

These STEM challenges are designed with your second graders in mind. Try one each day or each week to get them thinking outside the box.

46. Teach the plant life cycle

Plant life cycle is always a fun science unit. You get to talk about growing, planting, and nature. Plus, students love digging in and getting their hands dirty when they plant a seed themselves. Try these plant life cycle activities .

47. Teach states of matter with this simple demonstration

Image source: Education.com

Conduct this hands-on experiment to help students recognize and understand the different states of matter.

48. Conduct gummy bear experiments

In the category of snackable tips for teaching second grade … watch what happens when you soak gummy bears in liquid over a period of days. Find the full experiment—complete with freebie handout—on The Second Grade Shuffle blog .

49. Take a virtual field trip

Advances in technology have paved the way for virtual field trips, which have proven themselves to be a game-changer. They are a great way to expose students to faraway places and even places in their own backyard. Check out this list of 40 amazing virtual field trips to get started. No permission slips needed!

Ideas for Social Studies

50. teach an early lesson on economics.

Second grade teacher Jacqueline Q. recommends, ”Set up a classroom economy! I give my students plastic ‘banks’ from the dollar store. They earn money for specific things throughout the day: one penny for copying down homework, 10 cents here and there. Just keep it consistent and don’t overuse it. Otherwise, they’ll be ungrateful for those random dimes and want quarters instead. On Fridays, they get to go shopping!”

“ My Classroom Economy is a great resource for help getting started,” adds Renee J.

51. Introduce your second graders to American symbols

This awesome mini-book  is FREE!

52. Learn about heroes

Read biographies about famous people in history. Match books to holidays or other commemorations, like Presidents’ Day or Black History Month.

53. Celebrate holidays and other special days

Second graders love any reason to celebrate. Who doesn’t? This calendar of holidays and special days will give you a variety of monthly celebrations. You will also find links to activities, lesson plans, resources, books, and more for each event listed. You can even download this year’s updated calendar to keep on hand.

Ideas for Classroom Organization

54. buy a new teacher planner.

We rounded up the planners teachers recommend most to one another on the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE Facebook Group . Take a look and find your own new favorite!

55. Rock that new teacher planner

Read these tips  for keeping your day, week, and year beautifully organized.

56. Manage work submissions with clothespins

Image source: 2nd Grade Stuff

Having students clip their papers will help quickly distinguish who handed in homework and who hasn’t.

57. Use an uncommon organizing method for the Common Core

Create separately labeled folders for each standard, then file activities that align with each standard in the appropriate folders. Genius!

Image source: Teaching in Oz

58. Avoid nameless homework

Image source: Spectacular 2nd Grade

When students highlight their names before handing in work, you’ll never receive a name-free paper again!

59. Make informal assessments easy with these exit slips

Image source: First Grade Nest

Create a “Show What You Know” board. Use speech-bubble-shaped whiteboards for kids to write their lesson takeaways on, or have them write on sticky notes and stick them on their designated bubbles. As a follow-up class activity, students can look at everything their classmates learned!

60. Use a teacher cart

This handy teacher cart has so many uses . From the start, it gives you extra storage space. Use it to organize classroom supplies, centers, or just about anything you can think of. It even has wheels, so you can keep it in place to help organize your classroom, bring materials with you around the room, or take it on the go if you travel around campus. A win-win for everyone!

Ideas for Classroom Management

61. have a procedure for everything.

“It’s really important, in second grade, that you have procedures for everything! My first year, I had procedures for the big things but not the smaller things, and that was a mistake. Tattling and drama were big in my class. Not starting off with a policy and procedure for addressing it took from instructional time initially.” —Donella H.

62. Post your students’ morning routine

Having a routine posted that is illustrated and easy to see will help your second graders remember how to start each day independently.

63. Set up cues to keep class noise down to a low roar

Image source: First Grade & Flip Flops

Use a chart like this to help students understand when to use different voice levels. Use cues like “spy talk” to signal when voices are getting too loud. Make a class goal of going from a five to a three. For more great ideas, see 24 Attention-Getters for the Classroom .

64. Get the wiggles out

Even grown-ups can’t sit still and listen all day! Get your kids up and moving with awesome second grade brain breaks .

65. Use music in your classroom

There are many creative ways to use music when teaching second grade. Music is a great way to mark transitions, teach multiplication facts, or set the tone for quiet reading time. Check out these kid-friendly Pandora stations. There are also plenty of instrumental channels and kid-friendly channels on SiriusXM radio, along with similar streamable playlists on services like Apple Music and Spotify . The Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star series has a number of great lullaby versions of some of the greatest rock bands on the planet, providing perfect background music during independent work. Have some fun and play some of your favorite artists too!

Other Ideas

66. build positive relationships with parents.

Here are 10 tips for making working with parents the easiest part of your job.

67. Have students write this fun Who Am I? paragraph for Back-to-School Night

Image source: Smiling in Second Grade

Students can describe and draw themselves. Then parents can guess which child is theirs during Back-to-School Night festivities. Lifting the drawing will reveal a picture of the student holding their name.

What are your top tips for teaching second grade? Come share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group  on Facebook. WeAreTeachers HELPLINE is a place for teachers to ask and respond to questions on classroom challenges, collaboration, and advice.

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Second Grade Classroom Management Ideas That Are Absolutely Genius

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8 Smart Strategies for Teaching Writing

Inside: Teaching writing DOESN’T have to be complicated! With these simple strategies, you can improve students’ writing without having to work so hard.

I turned around to an outstretched notebook in a kid’s hands.

“I don’t know what to do next,” said the student.

I leaned closer to decipher the 2nd-grade handwriting. Then with my most positive I’ll-guide-you-on-the-right-path tone, I gave the student an idea to run with.

I straightened up, ready to move about the class, peering over shoulders, offering feedback as needed.

My bubble was abruptly burst.

Standing behind me was a whole line of kids that didn’t know what to do next!

Have you been there, too? What you need are writing strategies for students that break down a complicated process into pieces they can tackle. 

What follows are some of the best methods for teaching writing that I discovered over the years:

Teaching Writing Strategies for Students

Use Mentor Texts

If you wanted to learn how to decorate your mantle, you might look for great examples on Pinterest and then try to make yours look like that.

Similarly, kids can look at the work of published authors to see how a pro writes.

Mentor texts are published pieces that serve as a good example of the type of writing you’re helping your students to produce.

If you’re teaching how-to writing, find books about making crafts, cooking, or other DIY topics.  If you’re teaching report writing, look at nonfiction books.

• Read these books (or parts of them) to your students.
• Talk as a class about the special features you notice.
• Make a list of these features (how-to books have numbered steps, pictures to match, sequence, etc.)

Demonstrate

Cooking shows are popular because it’s easy to watch how a good cook puts together a recipe and then do the same yourself. Writing demonstrations are similar.

One method for teaching writing is writing demonstrations. Students watch as a proficient writer writes, and thinks aloud, similar to an audience watching a chef on a cooking show.

Write in front of your students and think aloud as you’re doing it.  Thinking aloud is a research-based teaching strategy .  You are the proficient writer in the room and you want your students to begin modeling their thinking processes after yours.

Some writing skills you might demonstrate are:

• brainstorming topics to write about
• creating a plan for writing
• orally rehearsing sentences and then writing them down
• stretching out sounds in words for spelling
• rereading and editing writing
• looking for places to add more interesting vocabulary
• making a final copy that incorporates editing and revisions

Use Sentence Starters

Staring at a blank page can be so intimidating!

Help kids get started with a list of possible sentence starters. Here’s an example list of sentence starters that work well for opinion writing .

Join my weekly newsletter and as a bonus, you’ll get the sentence starter page pictured above. Just click here to download and subscribe .

Color Coding

One method for teaching writing is using color coding between the plan and the draft.

(you can find the pictured graphic organizer HERE )

Use color-coding to make writing organization obvious and to connect a student’s plan to their draft.

• Assign a different color to each element of a piece.
• Mark whatever planning graphic organizer you’re using with these colors.
• During drafting, underline the sentences for each section with the appropriate color.

This technique helps students make sure nothing is left out and that everything is in the right order

Integrate Vocabulary

One of the things we know about teaching vocabulary is that it’s not enough to talk about a word once.  It needs to be seen, heard, and used several times before it is mastered.

Writing is the perfect place to incorporate some vocabulary instruction.

Choose two or three words that might be useful to students for the topic they are writing about.  Teach these words, give example sentences, and share sentences where students were able to work them in.

You can either teach the words before students write their rough draft or teach them before students revise.  You may want students to keep a record of these words in a notebook.

Use a Rubric

There’s no point in making kids guess what they’re aiming for with their writing.

Research shows that when students have criteria against which to judge their writing, they begin to internalize that criteria and use it when they write new pieces.

Try teaching critique lessons where you share a few short pieces of writing with different strengths and weaknesses and evaluate them with students using a rubric.

Talk about what made a piece successful and what could be better about it.  Invite students to use the successful techniques in their own writing.  Click on the picture to get a free copy of a personal narrative rubric that I like to use.

Peer Conferencing

Many students find working with a partner to be very motivating.

It’s important to carefully structure peer writing conferencing because it can get out of hand easily.

Set a specific goal such as helping each other check for capital letters at the beginning of every sentence, rereading to make sure each sentence makes sense, or looking for words that could be traded out for something more interesting.

Another way to structure peer conferencing is to use the “Love and a Wish” system.  Students read each other’s writing.  Then they share one thing they loved about it and one thing they wished.  For example, maybe they loved how their partner described the taste of their birthday cake and they wished there was more about the games that were played at the party.

Create an Incentive

Taking a piece of writing from the planning process all the way to a final draft is a lot of work.  Find a way to celebrate that work to keep students motivated.

A chance to share their work is motivating to students. You can build in sharing while you’re roving the classroom.  At the mid-point or the end of the lesson, have a few students share how they revised a sentence to add an interesting word or the great hook that they chose.

You can give students time to share their work with a neighbor.  This way everyone gets to share in a short amount of time.

Allow students to share writing in those 5-minute blocks of time you find every now and then when you finished something else early.

A favorite writing incentive in my classroom was the “publishing party.”  After a 5 week writing unit, each student chose their best piece and we all sat in a circle and listened to each other’s work.

At the end, we toasted to our hard work with a small cup of apple juice.  Parents would share with me that this simple celebration really motivated their child to work hard in writing so they would have something great to read to the class.

If you’re looking for resources to help you teach writing, check out the classroom-tested products HERE :

Follow my literacy board on Pinterest for more ideas!  

Author:  Hannah Braun

Hannah Braun is a former teacher with 8 years of experience in the classroom and a master's degree in early childhood education. She designs engaging, organized classroom resources for 1st-3rd grade teachers.

Just found your site and teacherspayteachers products. Love it all! Laughed out loud at your posters and comments on students. Thought I was the only one who noticed (was confused/irritated/baffled) at some of the things students think up to do with school equipment and behaviors. Nice to know we can laugh about it all! Thank you.

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The Brown Bag Teacher

Teach the Children. Love the Children. Change the World.

April 17, 2016

Paragraph Writing in 1st and 2nd Grade

Just a few months ago we welcomed our first-grade friends and they were able to write a few words and if we were lucky, a complete sentence. How can we help these students in paragraph writing? Since August we have worked oh-so-hard to develop interesting stories , taught our friends with how-to writing , and written letters to our favorite authors .

Then comes the Spring and it’s time to embark on paragraph writing. One of the three main writing strands for 1st grade, our six-year old friends are expected to be able to introduce a topic, give and explain a detail, and then, wrap-up their thinking. In summary, 1st graders should be able to independently write a cohesive paragraph by the end of the year. So, the question is – how do we get our friends there?

Exposing Students to High Quality Paragraphs

Writing inform/explain pieces in writing couples well with our nonfiction text unit in reading. I love pairing these two units because of the nonfiction skills of reading – text features, identifying main ideas, finding details that an author uses to support a point, etc. Allowing students the opportunity to see these skills in action in ‘real’ and authentic writing (ALL YEAR LONG) before it’s ever formally introduced in writing, gives the skills a foundation and a reason.

Immersing Ourselves in Paragraphs

As we begin paragraph writing, we begin reading lots, and lots, and lots of paragraphs. Friends, I mean DOZENS! Instead of a trade-book read aloud during snack, we read about how animals survive in the desert from Read Works, we read about the Bengal tigers from Reading A-Z, and we begin reading many, many titles from National Geographic Kids. As we read, we are talking about what the author wanted us to learn, as well as, ALL about (the main idea) and evidence/examples the author used to ‘prove’ his main idea.

Identifying the Parts of a Paragraph

Structuring our Writing

These gestures are perfect for giving students a tangible way to remember the parts of the paragraph, as well as, offer a cue when I am working with students or students are working with each other.

As a school, we also assign a color to each part of the paragraph (read more about color-coding our writing here ). The Main Idea and Wrap-Up Sentences are BOTH red since the concluding sentence relates DIRECTLY back to the main idea and restates it in a different way. Our supporting detail is blue and our example/explanation is green. As we are reading our high-quality paragraphs from ReadWorks, Reading A-Z, National Geographic we always highlight and underline the parts together. This practice generates THE best conversations – How do you know this is an example? Does this detail fit in the paragraph…how do you know? If you were the author what other example would you include? Is it okay for a paragraph to have two examples or details? Why don’t all paragraphs have the same structure?

These really important questions help build some reasoning and flexibility into our writing. Although we know the basic paragraph outline, real authors change and adapt this format to meet their writing needs.

Making Paragraph Writing Hands-On

At this point, we’ll turn paragraph writing hands-on with our paragraph puzzles . Working in teams, students organize 5 strips of paper into a paragraph that makes sense. Every single time, we can nail the title but after that it gets tricky. Learning the nuances between a main idea and a wrap-up sentence takes time. Learning how an example supports a detail (and is not actually the supporting detail) – oh my! Students rotated to all the paragraphs within the hour. The first few were pretty rough. Then, around paragraph 3 everything seems to click as groups are rocking their paragraph organization and have the best conversations with each other about the paragraphs. This year it took us over an hour (some of the time spent in reading and some of the time spent in writing) to finish 6 puzzles , but that was time well invested.

Shared Paragraph Writing

Once we know the parts of the paragraph, can identify paragraph structure in ‘real writing’, and have had experience organizing paragraphs, it’s time to write paragraphs together. This shared writing time is perfect for pulling out our favorite cooperative learning strategies and brainstorming together. Initially, I will provide a main idea and we’ll add the other parts of the paragraph.

Scaffolding Students

Within our shared paragraph writing time, I also introduce our paragraph writing organizers . We have two main organizers (a 1.4 paragraph and a 2.6 paragraph which includes two details each with an example). I do physically show students how to use the organizer to ensure all their ‘parts’ are there and then, transfer the writing to an actual paragraph. Although this transfer from organizer to paragraph seems simple and intuitive, it does take explicit modeling – indenting the main idea, placing the sentences right after one another without skipping lines, etc. Throughout the year, students have these organizers available to them in our Work on Writing tray, so I want them to know how to independently scaffold and produce their writing.

Some of our paragraphs we write on the whiteboard, some on the SMART Board, some on graphic organizers, some on blank writing paper. I do intentionally switch-up the location so students aren’t dependent on one writing material and they know that writing can have MANY different forms. Even with different forms, I am really intentional about color-coding as we write. It’s an easy way to embed structure without having to explicitly talk about it. Plus, it quickly becomes a guessing game of “I know what we are going to color/write next!” and it is easy to self-assess our work.

Launching Independent Paragraph Writing

At this point, students are ready to start independently writing paragraphs in Work on Writing . While we will still practice specific skills and hone our craft during Writer’s Workshop , we are 8 ish days in and ready for a new Daily 5 choice – eek! To ensure that students are successful, we keep the same paragraph organizers in our writing tray – both the 1.4 and the 1.6 organizer reduced to 85% so they fit in our composition notebook. This ensures students can take the just-right organizer for their needs and can glue it into their writing journals so it does not get lost.

While students do have free-choice of their topic during Work on Writing and many choose to write about their reading or what we’re learning in science, some still need prompt support. I have several 1st-grade friendly prompts printed on a binder ring hanging from our writing area. This makes for easy access and students get practice turning a statement or question into a main idea.

Adding-in Research

Before we launch research, we have to know how to gather and organize the information we are learning. Check out this blog post about how we do that!

Building on our penguin and polar bear research unit, this year our 1st grade team also introduced QR Code research/paragraph writing as a choice. Working with a partner, friends grab a QR Code ring and find a picture/question they are interested in learning about. The QR code takes students to a SafeShare video link where they learn LOTS about the topic in 3-5 minutes. Then working together students create and write individual paragraphs using an organizer and then, write their formal paragraphs color-coding their paragraphs. This is a LONG, challenging process It can take up to 3 choices, ~60 minutes) but so worth it. The sense of accomplishment when friends want to share their independent work in between choices is AMAZING.

Student Paragraph Samples

We love writing paragraphs. We feel like ‘real’ writers and we feel oh-so-big. I mean BIG kids write paragraphs and now, we are writing them!!! It’s an exciting transition in 1st grade. At this point (3-4 weeks into paragraph writing, this is what our independent, work-on-writing paragraphs look like.

Well friends, this is paragraph writing in 1st grade; it’s such an exciting and motivating time. PLUS, the change in a matter of a few weeks is intense. You can snag the resources shared in this blog post here . In the meantime, I’d love to hear about your go-to resources and ideas for paragraph writing!

• Opinion Writing ( blog post ,  resources ,  mentor texts ,  bundle )
• Narrative Writing ( blog post ,  resources ,  mentor texts ,  bundle )
• Inform/Explain Writing ( blog post ,  resources ,  bundle )
• How-To Writing ( blog post ,  resources ,  bundle )

Related Posts

Reader Interactions

April 17, 2016 at 4:02 am

I love seeing how you introduce paragraph writing in first grade! And I love having students color-code their writing!!! It really helps them see all the different parts of their paragraphs!!

April 17, 2016 at 3:42 pm

Amazing!! Your first graders write better paragraphs than my 3rd graders!! Will you teach my class?? HA HA!! I love getting insight into your teaching. Your writing lessons are awesome! Thank you for sharing. Loved your video, too!

April 18, 2016 at 12:45 am

Hahaha – thanks so much, Jamie! After teaching 5th grade writing for a year, I realized that writing had to be a HUGE part of my 1st grade classroom. It's quickly become one of my favorite subjects to teach. 🙂

April 24, 2016 at 2:11 pm

This is an excellent post. I am off to purchase this resource and I'm looking forward to using this with my first graders. Teaching writing is a weakness for me, I think because I lack the confidence in teaching it but you have offered a very clear and concise guideline that will help me feel more confident and in turn, help me to teach my little ones. Thanks so much!

May 3, 2016 at 8:34 pm

Thanks for sharing! This is a great resource! Did your school district receive any specific training or adopt a particular writing program? I'm asking because I'm curious about where the kinesthetic movements and color-coding ideas came from.

June 24, 2016 at 1:17 pm

Hi Tiffany! We don't use a particular writing program. Our schools uses the same paragraph structure (1.4, 2.6, 3.8) and our first grade team uses a lot of Whole Brain Teaching. The two kind of molded into this goodness! 🙂

June 5, 2016 at 8:50 pm

What a great post!! I read your post about using highlighters as well. Do you still color code using highlighters? How do you decide if you will use highlighters or colored pencils?

June 24, 2016 at 1:16 pm

Hi Sandra! We do both and I really don't care. My students love using highlighters so many times they'll do that. Some also use crayons. I try not to dictate things that don't really matter – ha!

June 28, 2016 at 4:08 am

Hi Catherine, Love your post and video regarding paragraph writing. I too use gestures while teaching. Can you please give me more information about TPR. Is there a TPR book you can recommend?

Thanks. Karen

July 23, 2019 at 2:59 am

Thanks Catherine, it was a marvellous post of para writing! Though I teach middle school, I do take some smaller grades. The gestures and colour-coding are great ways to instill the fundamentals of para writing in younger children. Thanks once again.

February 28, 2021 at 6:14 pm

Hello! Thank you so much for the ideas and the video! I teach small groups of kids online and I think your ideas would translate well to online lessons. 🙂 Also, as I’ve been searching for 1st grade paragraph ideas, I recognized some of your photos on another website. Maybe you are aware of it already or gave permission, but I wanted to let you know. It was on this WordPress site. (The blog post was not written clearly and seemed a little strange, so I was wary of clicking on any of the links within the post)

https://child.hardysusan.com/1st-grade-paragraph-writing-worksheets

October 16, 2022 at 9:38 pm

Well this is amazing work! Some of my 7th graders don’t even produce this when asked for a paragraph 🙂

January 19, 2023 at 12:14 am

Thank you for the video and the visual and kinesthetic actions for teaching! This will help me with English learners! This will work for all students!

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Thanks for sharing such a valuable post. Please keep us updated for future posts.

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The Write Stuff Teaching

Helping Teachers Inspire Learners

Writer’s Workshop in 2nd & 3rd Grade

Writer’s Workshop is a fantastic structure that you can put in place in your 2nd or 3rd-grade classroom to help you teach writing and to help students learn how to write. While it’s important that your students be taught explicit writing skills in order to move them forward in their writing development, It is equally important to create an environment to help them LOVE writing! Using a step-by-step writing unit will help your students scaffold learning to become confident writers.

Warming Up to Writing

Starting a writer’s workshop without front-loading a bit of curiosity-provoking and wonder may interest many of your students, however, it may not grab them all. We have all seen the students that we might refer to as “reluctant writers”. Those students can be tough to read. Why don’t they like writing? Another common sight is the students that plow through their writing and are either very proud of their work or ask you “Is this good enough?” (My most dreaded question.) Sometimes the kids that are proud of their work just need a little support with revision or editing, other times, there is so much writing but not a lot of thought was put into the process.

2nd and 3rd-grade writers need a strong introduction to writing before they can dive deep into the lessons, therefore, the first step in setting up your writer’s workshop lessons should be to find out who your writers are and what they like or don’t like about writing. I created an entire writing unit curriculum that begins right there. (If you would like to go straight to the resource, click here. )

Skill-based and Joyful

This writing unit curriculum aims to hook your writers from day one. It is aligned to CCSS and the Write Traits. You will find that it aligns with many state and province curricula as well due to the wide range of concepts and skills covered.

In order to help you determine your students’ thoughts and mindset around writing, you can begin with a survey on writing that is included in Unit 1 Beginning a Writing Program unit. This survey and an accompanying writing sample that is included in the set will help you to determine your class of writers and their needs.

Using these mentor texts and the lessons for each book will help your students learn that writing is personal and that everyone can write! Sometimes, writing is all about drawing and sharing the story behind the pictures.

Setting Up Writer’s Workshop

• Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk
• Ralph Tells a Story by Abby Hanlon
• The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli
• Chester’s Masterpiece by Melanie Watts

It’s really not as difficult to set up a writer’s workshop as you may think.

I have created a FREE Launching Writer’s Workshop resource to help you do just that! There are teacher notes on the process and a PowerPoint for you to use to introduce Writer’s Workshop to your class and also includes some blackline masters for student use.

Once it is set up and the framework is understood, teaching the lessons that are already written in a step-by-step format in the Writers Workshop Year Long Curriculum is a breeze. Just bring your enthusiasm!

Sentence Writing

Your second and third graders will learn what a sentence is and how to write a great sentence with the Unit 2 Sentence Building unit. Keep in mind that all units can be used as stand-alone units. If you have already taught sentence writing, you can move on to the next unit in the series. You can also use a unit to enhance what you are already doing or to give your students a boost. If you use the whole set, one unit after the other, the learning is scaffolded in a very organized fashion.

Write Trait focus: IDEAS

For unit 1, you will use the following mentor texts:

•   Rocket Writes a Story  by Tad Hills
• Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street  by Roni Schotter
• Punctuation Takes a Vacation  by Robin Pulver
• Little Red Writing  by Joan Holub

What Teachers are Saying

The following is just a sample of the feedback that this unit and the other units have received.

This resource promised to engage reluctant writers and it did just that. Also, I LOVE the mentor texts! This bundle is like taking a master class in teaching writing!

This is a really comprehensive product! I love how you added mentor texts, which will help my students make strong connections. Thank you!

My students are loving this unit. I bought this on Sunday and started to teach with it Monday. It is all ready to go. I even found the books at my local library as e-books and am projecting them on the Smartboard for all to see. Great resource!

This was such a great resource! The lessons are engaging and follow a really clear path to a finished product. I love these writing units- they’re age-appropriate and are written in a way where skills are broken down so that kids aren’t overwhelmed. Thank you!!

It’s important to teach your students both fiction and non-fiction writing throughout the year and not as a separate full unit. I used to start with story writing at the beginning of the year thinking it was easier. It was easier for some kids but to others, it wasn’t. Then I decided to switch it up and teach non-fiction first so that I could focus on having students make more real connections to their own lives and also give them a choice about what they wanted to write about. Students varied in who found which kind of writing was “easier” or more pleasant to write. The real “AH-HA” was when I intertwined the writing and taught fiction and non-fiction together, off and on, throughout the whole year. I was able to interest and engage the whole class in one way or another!

Organizing Writing

Whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction, students need to understand how to organize their writing so that it makes sense to the reader. The Unit 3 Research unit helps you to teach for the organization. Students will be writing small research reports and also some fiction.

The unit starts with looking at what organization is in the real world: ie. a clean kitchen, or a clean room with real photos, and then connects this to the organization in writing. (We always want real-world connections, don’t we?)

Write Trait focus: Organization

Skill Focus: Elements of Good Writing: Beginning, middle end, Introduction, Body, Conclusion

The mentor texts used in this used are:

•   Roberto the Insect Architect  by Nina Laden
•   Cats vs Dogs  by Elizabeth Carney (National Geographic)
•   Dog vs Cat  by Chris Gall
•   Stellaluna  by Janell Cannon

Students will have fun comparing cats and dogs and looking at fiction and non-fiction on the very same topics. As with many of my other teaching resources, there is always an element of social and emotional learning (SEL), and the reason I choose certain books. Stellaluna and Roberto the Insect Architect were chosen for those reasons.

The Unit 4 topic for writing is narratives. Students will look at memoirs and stories based on personal experiences like Chris Hatfield’s The Darkest Dark and develop their own understanding of writing narratives.

• The following mentor texts are used throughout the unit:
• Memoirs of a Hamster  by Devin Scillion
•   Our Tree Named Steve  by Alan Zweibel
• A Bear in War  by Stephanie Innes
• The Darkest Dark  by Chris Hadfield

Write Trait focus: Sentence Fluency

These are perfect books to not only help students understand narratives but also to showcase the power of writing a variety of different kinds of sentences. Sometimes short sentences are impactful. Other times, longer sentences are necessary.

The Unit 5 unit is all about procedural writing. Students will learn to write “how-to” pieces. While this seems like an easy thing to do, it really needs to be modeled and broken down into steps. The lessons in this unit show you how to do this quite easily.

Skill Focus: paragraph writing

You will be using the following mentor texts:

• The Plot Chickens  by Mary Jane and Herm Auch
• Meanwhile  by Jules Feiffer
• Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude  by Devin Scillion
• The Christmas Wish  by Lori Evert

These books go deeper into different writing styles and strategies as well as choosing different words for effect. Students are taken step by step into a simple paragraph writing lesson. Second grade can be young for paragraph writing but in my experience, many are beginning to learn this as they get more and more experience with daily writing through the use of this curriculum. By 3rd grade, students are feeling much more comfortable with learning to develop a paragraph. Part of the reason why is due to the incremental focus on skills from the beginning of the year onwards.

Author Studies

Any good writing program must include the use of quality children’s literature (mentor texts). This is how children learn about what it is about writing or a book or text that they find interesting. There are many different kinds of texts that students should be reading and writing but for this unit, let us just look at the power of Author Studies . That is the topic of the unit 6 set of this writing unit.

You might be wondering why I haven’t mentioned grammar skills or conventions. These are very important aspects of learning to write, however, it is much more effective to include these things as part of your teaching rather than as isolated lessons. Jeff Anderson (the original mentor sentences author) has stated that teaching students grammar starts with these mentor texts. Let’s have students look at the positive aspects of writing and then emulate them in their own writing.

• 50 Below Zero  by Robert Munsch
•   Scaredy Squirrel  by Melanie Watt
•   Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse  by Kevin Henkes
• Mr. Putter & Tabby Write the Book  by Cynthia Rylant

This is where author studies come in. This unit focuses on 4 authors and looks at their biography and their books. Students get to learn about who the authors are and what stands out in their writing. Students can identify what trait they think each author is strong in.

Write Trait focus: Word Choice (Students are also introduced to “voice” in writing and what it is.)

Narrative Writing: The Writing Process

Unit 7 is all about the writing process! Students will be putting everything they know about story elements, word choice, and writing sentences and paragraphs to practice. Students will learn to write great hooks, rich middles, and powerful endings. They will put it all together and then take a look at their writing with a revising eye.

It is my belief that students need not all be in the same place of the writing cycle at the same time. Some students may still be writing while others are editing with a peer. The whole point is that it is a process and the focus is on that: process . Throughout most of the year, the final product is not the destination.

You will need:

• I n My Heart  by Jo Witek
• The Story of Diva and Flea  by Mo Willems
• Mad Scientist Academy: The Weather Disaster  by Matthew McElligott
• The Lion Inside  by Rachel McBright

You will love these books! The Story of Diva and Flea is priceless. It is a short novel perfect for 2nd and 3rd graders.

Write trait focus: Voice (Students will use what they learned to add voice to their work. If you don’t have the previous unit, this one will fill in the gaps by using voice.)

Opinion Writing

In Unit 8 , (or any other time you need this), students will learn about opinion writing. It will be important to practice voice as that is what comes out when you are sharing your opinion. Students can learn that voice in opinion writing doesn’t mean raising their voice (!) but that how they choose words and expressions to write influences the reader or listener more than a raise in actual voice.

• Hey Little Ant  by Phillip Hoose
• The Perfect Pet  by Margie Pilantini
• The Night Gardener  by the Fan Brothers
• Henry & Leo  by Pamela Zagarenski

Write Trait focus: conventions, editing and revising

Students will engage with the books (that also have an SEL theme) and practice different opinion writing tasks. Students will give their opinion on the Perfect Pet and then conduct surveys throughout the class.

These writers’ workshop units are active. Students are encouraged to talk, move around and engage with the teacher and others in order to learn and grow their ideas and their own writing skills. Books are purposely chosen based on the time of year and/or the link to the focus skills.

While this poetry unit is part of Unit 9 of the writer’s workshop due to Poetry Month, it is my firm belief that poetry should happen all year long. Not only is poetry a powerful tool in learning to read, but kids also LOVE IT!

I am also a big believer in learning about and protecting the environment all year. April just also happens to be the month we find Earth Day . In order to be able to have a rich learning experience, I often integrate subjects. This month, students will be learning about poetry writing and the overriding theme of the unit is the environment. How great that students can be putting their heart, soul, and passion into writing and learning poetry through the thoughtful lens of protecting the Earth. Talk about working smarter, not harder and having a big impact!

You will need access to these fantastic books:

• The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle  by Alison Inches
• Our Big Home  by Linda Glaser
• Human Footprint  by Helen Kirk (National Geographic)
• Compost Stew  by Mary McKenna Siddals

Skill focus: oral language

Your students will enjoy learning all about different kinds of poetry. They will also follow the journey of the plastic bottle as it gets recycled. A human footprint is an important concept in the environment and students will learn what it is and write about their own footprint as it relates to the environment. As students learn about composting through the poetic verse of Mary McKenna Siddals, they will also write Haiku poems about worms!

Publishing and Presentation In Writer’s Workshop

Probably one of the most underrated aspects of learning to write is the celebrated world of presentation and publishing. You might not realize that you need this unit but wow what an impact this has on my little writers!

Whether you have used any other units in this Writing Unit set or not, you can use this unit to amplify your little writers’ voices.

We learn to write so we can communicate, express ourselves, and create. Therefore, this unit will explore all of these aspects as a way to celebrate writing. Students will learn all about different kinds of communication. They will use a maker space to create and generate writing ideas and they will write and present their final product.

Pre and post-assessments done by the student, their peers, and the teacher are included.

All Students Can Learn to Write

No matter what the challenges are, all students can learn to write. Remember, “writing” does not always involve a pencil. Adaptations can be made for students that experience the physical difficulty of writing or those that struggle with coming up with ideas or any other challenge. With the right mindset, everyone can be successful. I’ve written about this before here. If you have any questions or comments, please ask them in the comments section or feel free to email me at [email protected]

You can find the Year-long Writer’s Workshop and Writing Curriculum by clicking here.

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Shared Teaching

Systematic Teaching for First and Second Grade

Writer’s Workshop: A Day in Second Grade

May 11, 2022 | Leave a Comment

Knowing how to juggle all the components and fit it in writer’s workshop can be difficult. Hopefully this post will show you exactly what a second grade day in writer’s workshop might look like. 

My current classroom has about 9 students with significant behaviors in addition to another 9 students with IEPs. A large percentage of my class is one or two grade levels behind in their literacy with only 6 students at or above grade level. To say this school year is a struggle is an understatement but I have seen improvement from the beginning of the year.

I love to teach writing using a modified version of writer’s workshop. I feel it helps me to keep all students on the same page (no status of the class check ins for me) and is easier to manage with such a variety of students at different levels. You can read more about the breakdown of what is writer’s workshop with this post: What is Writer’s Workshop?

Writer’s Workshop: Mini Lesson (I Do, We Do)

Writer’s workshop in my second grade class begins with a mini lesson. Emphasis here on the word mini. Depending on the focus for the day’s lesson a mini lesson lasts from 5-15 minutes. I try very hard to keep my lessons short and concise to save more time for students to independently write.

If you are familiar with Lucy Calkins , I run my mini lessons in a similar manner. My mini lessons are usually chosen ahead of time when I map out my units. If I see students struggling after a particular lesson I will address this in my conferences unless it is happening with the majority of the class.

On days when my writer’s workshop mini lesson is running long, I am sharing a mentor text and the class is having a discussion about a particular writing technique. Shorter days my mini lesson might cover the proper way to use quotation marks. The first example can take a long time depending on the length of the text I am reading. The second example might only be a few minutes to show some examples before we practice whole class.

My lessons typically follow the I do, we do, you do format of teaching. The I do part of the lesson usually introduces or reviews vocabulary. During we do students are often helping me with ideas, beginning to create a plan, or doing a quick activity on their whiteboards such as finding vivid verbs.

Writer’s Workshop: Independent Writing (You Do)

The second component of writer’s workshop is where most of your time should ideally go. This is where your students are simply writing. My mini lesson concludes with a student task so student’s are very clear what to be doing next. 

Typically the whole class is working on the same task. 

I’m not a fan of having the whole class on different parts of the writing process. It works well for some teachers but it doesn’t work for me. This isn’t to say that we aren’t using the writing process - we are but we go through it methodically together. I find with second graders that this works best for my teaching style.

Some days independent writing might be creating a circle map plan or other type of brainstorming. Other days students are writing stories or taking notes for their research papers. Independent writing time in writer’s workshop can vary based on what style of writing we are doing.

Writing Conferences During Writer’s Workshop

To be honest I am not always getting to writing conferences. Especially if it is a day where I have a longer mini lesson. When I do have writing conferences, I try to meet with students as a small group like I do with reading groups.

My groups are determined when the class sets writing goals . We review our writing goals throughout the school year. Read more about how I set individual goals here.

Groups of no more than 5 students on the same goal will meet with me at once. Typically we will review their goal and then I’ll ask if anyone wants to share where they think they’ve met that goal. We look at each other’s writing and I’ll use a whiteboard or notebook paper to model further if needed. Just like my mini lessons, the writing conference is focused on looking at one item in a student’s writing.

Writer’s Workshop: Share Time

While I firmly believe students get the most value from seeing each other’s writing, I know it is not realistic to always have students sharing their work. By setting a timer to preserve the last 5 minutes of writer’s workshop, this is a component that will happen each day.

If you only have 5 minutes for share time then the best way to maximize your time is to have sharing partners. I talked about this more in my blog post Helping Struggling Writers By Differentiating . Many teachers like to use an author’s chair to celebrate writer’s sharing their work. I used to do this as well until my writing block got shorter and shorter each year. If you can fit it in, I say go for it!

Which part of writer’s workshop feels most doable to you?

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Susan Jones Teaching

Teaching Resources

How to Teach Persuasive Writing in K-2

Susan Jones January 10, 2021 2 Comments

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If you are wondering how to teach persuasive writing in kindergarten, first grade, or second grade, then this blog post is for you! I have three easy tips I am going to share with you that will help you and your students.

Before I dive in, I want to clarify two little things. First, when I teach students how to write persuasive pieces, I have already taught them how to write an opinion and provide some reasons. I like to teach students what an opinion is, how to share it, and provide reasons for it using a unit like this one: opinion writing unit , before asking them to persuade someone! Second, when teaching persuasive writing to my youngest students, I like to do this through letters. I find that when we can identify a real audience and write them a letter, students can think of better ways to persuade them. Okay, let’s dive into the three tips.

If you want to watch/listen to this content, feel free to press play on my YouTube video below where I share all the same information! While you are there, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel to see all my teaching videos:

To read the three tips, just keep scrolling!

Tip 1: Use Mentor Texts

These books are specifically for persuasive writing and one of my absolute favorites is Can I Be Your Dog? by Troy Cummings. In this book, a little dog named Arfy writes letters to different people to try and get them to adopt him. I particularly like this book because based on his audience, he uses different reasons to persuade. This is something we talk about in one of the later tips as well!

Another text I love to use to showcase persuasive letters is I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff. This is a popular one! In this book, a little boy named Alex writes letters to his mom trying to persuade her to let him have a pet iguana. The entire book is written back and forth with letters between Alex and his mother and each letter provides reasons why he should or shouldn’t be allowed to own a pet iguana. This one is also fun because in the end, (spoiler alert) Alex ends up getting the iguana he wanted! This shows students the power of persuasion and lets the dream of something they really want and come up with ways to get it.

The last mentor text I want to share is a different one. This is one I use at the end of our unit. It is called, Olivia’s Birds: Saving the Gulf and it is written by an 11-year old girl named Oliva Bouler. When I teach persuasive writing in a K-2 classroom, our letters tend to be pretty self-serving. This isn’t a bad thing at all! In fact, that’s why writing the letters can be so much fun – to try and get what we want. This text, however, lets students see how powerful our words can be and how we can try to persuade people to make the world a better place.

In  Olivia’s Birds , the author shares all sorts of interesting facts about different birds with her illustrations and how some human acts are destroying the birds’ habitats. In the end, she writes a persuasive letter to the Audubon Society and ends up single-handedly raising over $150,000 to help her cause! I love this book because it is inspiring and gets students thinking of ways they can change the world with their voices!

Please note: all books shown above are Amazon affiliate links

After we read Olivia’s Birds, we can use her ideas as an extension to write our own class book. Here are some of the ideas we use to brainstorm our own class persuasive letter:

Tip 2: Have your students Identify Persuasion in a Mentor Text

When using mentor texts, not only do I like to have students see persuasive writing in action, but I like to have them identify the persuasion in the texts. We do this using a think-aloud sheet like shown below.

As we read one of the mentor texts, we identify what the character wants, who the audience is, and then some of the reasons the character uses to persuade their audience. When doing this, I model this think-aloud with the class first and I use some student input as we gather reasons to persuade. I like having students walk through this process before we actually write our letters because it gets them used to brainstorming what they want, their audience, and some reasons to persuade. I also like this sheet because we can use it over and over again with different mentor texts!

You can grab this think-aloud sheet FREE here >> Persuasive Writing Activity and try it out in your own classroom!

Tip 3: Connect Reasons to their Audience

Unlike when we write opinions and share our reasons for them, persuasive writing has us making our reasons more personal. If we are trying to persuade someone, we need to think more in-depth about our audience! When doing this, I love to use a think-aloud and the mentor text, Can I Be Your Dog? which was shown above. Using a chart like shown below, we think about the different reasons Arfy uses to persuade his different audiences.

As we re-read the mentor text, we talk about how Arfy uses different reasons to persuade the people in the yellow house than the reasons he uses to persuade the fire station. This gets students not just thinking about what THEY want, but also how THEIR AUDIENCE could be persuaded!

I re-emphasize this as I model planning out my own persuasive letter to my principal! I like to use a fun example. I explain that when I speak to my son, I might use “baby voice” but I wouldn’t use that same baby voice with my boss! We need to speak differently and think of reasons that connect with each of our own audiences in order to effectively persuade them.

Those are the 3 tips I have to help you teach your students write persuasive letters! If you have other mentor texts or ideas that you love using with your kindergarten, first grade, or second-grade students, please drop them in the comments!

If you want to see more videos with ideas for teaching writing in a K-2 classroom, just click my writing workshop playlist below:

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July 18, 2021 at 2:54 pm

Very useful lessons of writing Thank you

October 1, 2021 at 9:06 pm

I just finished watching your first writing video and found it very educational. I have recently started to homeschool my fourth-grade son. I am noticing he finds it very difficult to think of information to write when he is writing from a prompt or a book. I am thinking about starting at a lower level of writing perhaps maybe first grade or kindergarten in order to build his writing confidence. I am open to any suggestions, please.

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Welcome to Susan Jones Teaching. When it comes to the primary grades, learning *All Things* in the K-2 world has been my passion for many years! I just finished my M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction and love sharing all the latest and greatest strategies I learn with you through this blog and my YouTube channel! I hope you'll enjoy learning along with me :)

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The Measured Mom

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PS PK K 1 2 3 36 Comments

Simple writing lessons for the primary grades

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I’m so excited to launch something that’s been in the works for several months!  Each Wednesday, you can look forward to a simple writing lesson for primary grades — it’s a collaboration between This Reading Mama and The Measured Mom.

Simple writing lessons.

What comes to mind when you hear those words?  Maybe it’s a collection of writing prompts that students respond to in their daily journals.  Perhaps you’re thinking of a series of worksheets to help children practice capitalization, parts of speech, and proper spelling. Or maybe you’re hoping for a curriculum which simplifies your teaching by listing every lesson from September to May.

The fact is that teaching writing is not as simple as prompts, drills, or a prescribed curriculum.

  What are simple writing lessons?

1. Simple writing lessons differ from traditional writing instruction.

In our writing series you won’t find a series of daily prompts. You will find lessons which show students how to find and choose their own topics.

You probably won’t find children completing a piece of writing in a single sitting.  You will find students taking some of their writing all the way through the writing process over days or even weeks.

You won’t find children limited to writing only the words they can spell.  You will  find students spelling any of the words in their vocabulary — according to their own developmental level.

You won’t find a series of lessons mapped out before the year begins.  You will learn to choose what to teach based on your students’ current needs.

2. Simple writing lessons are taught as students follow the writing process.

If you’re focused on the process, then you’re interested in the journey.  The destination is important, but you’re most interested in what it takes to get there.

Quality writing instruction takes students through the writing process – over days or even weeks.

Pre-writing: Writers decide on a topic and brainstorm ideas.

Drafting: Writers write sentences and paragraphs, reread what they’ve written, and get suggestions from others.

Revising: Writers rearrange words or sentences, add or delete, replace words, and make sure their writing is fluent.

Editing: Writers correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Publishing/Sharing: Writers create a final copy of their work and share it.

  3. Simple writing lessons include a mini-lesson in which teachers clearly model a skill or strategy.

Mini-lessons are just that: mini.  They can be as short as 2 minutes and might take as long as 15.   Teachers model the lesson with their own writing.

Hundreds of possibilities exist for mini-lessons!  Here are just a few:

• Choosing a topic
• How to stretch a word and write the sounds you hear
• Using quotation marks correctly
• Reread your writing to check for fluency
• What to do when you’re “stuck”
• How to follow an editor’s checklist

4. Simple writing lessons leave the bulk of time for students to write independently.

We didn’t teach our toddlers to talk by drilling them on blends and word endings.  We talked  with them in real and meaningful ways.

We don’t need to drill our children on the skills of good writing.  Instead, we give them opportunities to write in real and purposeful ways – and we support and teach them as they grow.

Primary students should be given at least 20-30 minutes to write independently – ideally on a daily basis.

5. We choose simple writing lessons based on observations of our student writers.

A teacher’s manual might tell me that the next writing lesson is about how to insert information by using a caret.  But my first grader takes 20 minutes to write a single sentence and is clearly not ready for this advanced revising skill.

Or maybe the prescribed lesson is for putting periods at the end of sentences. My first grader has been doing that correctly for a year.  Clearly she needs to learn something else.

Choosing what to teach based on our students’ needs isn’t easy.  But the more you do it, the more proficient you’ll become.  And The Measured Mom and This Reading Mama are here to help!

6. Simple Writing Lessons for Primary Grades:

Our lessons are designed for students in grades 1 and 2.  But you might find that your kindergartner or third grader will also benefit.

• Pre-writing: Make an expert list
• Pre-writing: Use a graphic organizer
• Drafting: Choose a tiny topic
• Drafting: Make it interesting for the reader
• Drafting: Ask questions
• Drafting: Use invented spelling
• Revising: Put boring words in jail
• Revising: Re-read your writing
• Editing: Use a spelling dictionary for kids
• Editing: Use a checklist
• Publishing: Make a book
• Publishing: Share Your Writing

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Reader Interactions

36 comments.

Ana Aciar Ochoa

May 28, 2020 at 9:37 am

What a great idea! Thank you!!! <3

Martha Waltz

May 28, 2022 at 1:23 pm

Where can I find your Simple Writing lessons to download?

Laura Cherney

June 2, 2022 at 9:05 am

Hi Martha! You can find Anna’s blog series on Simple Writing Lessons beginning here: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/simple-writing-lessons-for-primary-grades-series/ If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us at [email protected] Thank you!

September 9, 2015 at 12:53 pm

Hi! Thanks for sharing. These are great!! This helped me search for free printable worksheets that will be helpful for my classroom. I actually found a lot of free worksheets at EduCents.com. There’s a good compare and contrast freebie right now that my kids loved! They love Venn Diagrams, and so do I 🙂 🙂 I’m excited to try your boring words activity next.

Thanks again!

Ms. Bee from California!

Anna Geiger

October 4, 2015 at 3:19 pm

You’re very welcome – thanks so much for reading!

March 1, 2015 at 12:19 pm

please let me know some ideas of how to carry a mini-lesson for cohesive writing. It is for 3rd graders

March 1, 2015 at 12:49 pm

Can you give me some more detailsl about what you’re looking for, Athy?

sims 4 trailer

July 16, 2014 at 8:12 am

Hello, its pleasant post about media print, we all understand media is a enormous source of information.

Donna Valentine-Mutimbanyoka

June 23, 2014 at 2:59 am

Loving all YOU ARE SHARING., ITS GREAT HELP.I am qualified early childhood teacher in Botswana, and am planning to open my own preschool soon. God bless you

May 8, 2014 at 12:35 am

Thank you so much for replying to my post-now I can’t find it! So, I am replying to this one! I was also thinking of doing this writing at the kitchen table to “remove” it from the rest of school! ( Our homeschool does not have room for a table for us to work together at, but if we move next year, that will be a priority! )

They have fallen in love with Zotz candy, so I think we may do “Zotz and Zotz” of writing!

May 14, 2014 at 12:58 pm

Great idea, Jenny! I’d love to hear how it goes.

January 5, 2014 at 6:45 am

Hi Anna, for some reason your link to “Revising: Re-Read Your Writing” doesn’t work this morning. I found the post on Becky’s site, but I thought I’d let you know. 🙂

January 12, 2014 at 4:41 pm

Thanks so much for alerting me to that, Heather. Fixed now!

October 16, 2013 at 12:16 pm

THANK YOU so much for this!!!!! My daughter (3rd grade) has always, always been a struggling writer.

We started out using Abeka’s Language Arts in first grade. It seemed to hop everywhere and the writing parts were more along the lines of: “Write a sentence about this picture” or “Use the following words to write about Abraham Lincoln”. How in the world could my first grader do that? She had no clue how to put ideas into words. Tears, frustration, pushing, exasperation… finally I just put it aside. I focused on the more phonics side of language and skipped the writing assignments.

For second grade, I created a fun parts of speech curriculum. I thought that understanding what a noun and verb is would help her create simple sentences, then from there, she could add adjectives and adverbs to make it more interesting. She understood everything very well, but could not write a sentence of her own creation. “I don’t know what to write!!!”, followed by loads of tears. I turned to Teachers Pay Teachers to find things that public school teachers use with their students… mostly more writing prompts. Second grade passed and it was another writing fail.

This year, I was determined to have a child who could create and write her own thoughts and stories. I’ve tried a few things on my own… still no results.

Sunday, I came across this series and decided to give it a try. Monday, my daughter made an expert list (mostly with my prompting). Tuesday, I took one of my expert topics (taking care of babies) and wrote a paragraph that was “all over the place” while she observed. On her own, she commented that I wrote about too many things. So I had her help me find the tiny topics. Then I chose one and wrote a new paragraph as she watched.

She was smiling (not crying) and I saw the light bulb turn on. She chose one of her expert topics (make-up) and wrote a list of tiny topics. Then chose the tiny topic (blush) and wrote a 27 word paragraph. She forgot everything about capitalization and punctuation, but I was so happy she actually created content that I didn’t even care.

I figured we’d repeat the same sort of thing today… pick an expert topic, break it down, write about a tiny topic… but her dad requested she write something for him today, and she was determined she would write a story not a non-fiction paragraph.

I hesitated sure that this would be an epic fail splashed with a boat load of tears, but I hated to squelch her enthusiasm. I printed out your fiction organizer ans had her start with that. She filled it out, told her story out loud, and then proceeded to write it out.

Today, my daughter wrote a story that nearly filled an entire page.

THANK YOU!!!!!

October 22, 2013 at 8:25 pm

Brenda, I want to thank you SO much for your comment. I can’t tell you how much it made my day to receive it! I love all the details you shared and appreciate knowing that our writing series helped your daughter overcome her writing block. As you know, all writers hit bumps along the way, so please feel free to come back here with questions or concerns about future writing projects. Thanks again!!

September 27, 2013 at 8:57 pm

Hi Anna, I’m excited to use this series with our two homeschooled kids, in 1st and 2nd grades. Right now I’m piecing together their writing curriculum, and I’m wondering, do you have a curriculum you’d recommend where I’d find all this good stuff in one package? It would be reassuring to me that I wouldn’t be leaving anything out. 🙂

Thanks, Heather

September 29, 2013 at 3:31 pm

Very good question, Heather – I’m not sure if something like that exists – partly because Writing Workshop is meant to be designed to respond to the child, and not to a prescribed curriculum. However, you can find lots of places with lists of possible mini-lessons, which I like to use as a reference. I put together a list of sample lessons to work from as we write this series — not how to teach, but a list of ideas. I will send it out to you via e-mail. Let me know if you’re looking for something else in particular!

January 15, 2017 at 11:10 am

This sounds great! I would love a copy too if you’re willing to share. Thank you!

January 15, 2017 at 12:11 pm

Hi Amy! I don’t email these out anymore, as I put all the resources together in my ebook, which is referenced in this post. However, if you follow by email I will eventually be sharing posts with suggested mini-lessons. 🙂

August 14, 2013 at 6:06 am

Looking forward to this series! I featured this post on Mom’s Library this week!

August 19, 2013 at 1:24 pm

Thank you so much for the feature, Ashley!

August 5, 2013 at 9:09 pm

I have one of your spelling games all ready to go. And I’m also hoping to get some of the word family games constructed. And I plan to use a couple math ideas for centers this year. And here you are helping me to get my students writing, too!! And, and, and… how I wish it were early July instead of late August. Thank you so much for all the wonderful ideas!

August 5, 2013 at 9:39 pm

Your comment brings a big smile to my face, Margie 🙂 Thanks so much for tuning in – as our little girl moves into first grade I should have lots more to share for older kids!

August 4, 2013 at 6:03 pm

This sounds wonderful! I’ll be following along 🙂

Thanks, Linda! I hope it’s really useful for you.

Shaunna @ Fantastic Fun and Learning

August 3, 2013 at 6:26 am

This is going to be a great series! I look forward to following along.

August 5, 2013 at 9:38 pm

Thanks for tuning in, Shaunna! We’re excited!

August 2, 2013 at 1:20 pm

Sounds like this is going to be a great series. I can’t wait to see more! 🙂

August 2, 2013 at 8:10 pm

I’m so glad you’re tuned in, Kirstylee! Becky and I are so pumped – it’s just love having a reason to pull out all my old teaching books and brain:).

Tenida Plummer

September 17, 2017 at 10:16 am

Thank you so very much Anna!!!! You have been a life saver in my classroom. The material and tips are so very helpful and saves a lot of my valuable time.

[…] Simple Writing Lessons for Primary Grades (a 12-part series) […]

[…]  wonderful explanation and guide to the writing process for budding writers from The Measured […]

[…] of the year is…’  I have been scrapping those altogether and instead going through the Simple Writing Series from The Measured Mom.  I am seriously considering switching to Primary Language Lessons next […]

[…] The Measured Mom – Check out her Simple Writing series. […]

[…] strategies for opening and closing sentences.    We are currently working through these Simple Writing Lessons for Primary Grades by The Measured Mom.  They are an excellent introduction.  She works with her first […]

[…] am super pumped to announce an upcoming and awesome series that Anna of The Measured Mom and I are tackling together: Simple Writing Lessons for Primary Grades {for 1st and 2nd grades}.  […]

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5 High-Impact Writing Strategies for the Elementary Grades

Simple, effective exercises can help elementary students develop the foundational writing skills they need for their academic journey.

When considering writing as part of the instructional day, teachers may think only of the type of writing where students engage in storytelling or informational pieces. While the ability to leverage student choice and produce fiction and nonfiction text is beneficial for all grade levels, it’s important to consider how writing can be incorporated and layered across all content areas, as well as develop the deep foundational understanding to prepare young writers for authoring texts.

For us as teachers, it’s vital that we share a common language and understanding about the types of high-impact writing strategies that students can engage in and how to effectively implement them in the classroom. 

1. Handwriting in the Early Grades

In the digital age, prioritizing handwriting education during phonics instruction remains instrumental in nurturing well-rounded learners and sets them up for success when more stamina is required of them. The tactile experience of handwriting establishes a profound connection between language and sensory perception, contributing increased cognitive development .

Teachers can adopt a common path of movement language (language used to describe how to form the letters) when teaching the letters. In addition to that, providing students with multisensory ways of forming the letters helps create a strong understanding of the letters’ features.

A practical example of this type of instruction is having students trace a lowercase a in a tray full of salt, repeating the path of movement language, “over, around, down.” Then, students practice writing the letter using a pencil or dry erase marker. As the teacher models the directionality, it’s important to ensure that students know what “over,” “around,” and “down” mean and look like and that the teacher is using on-the-spot intervention for correction.

2. Dictated Sentences

Utilizing dictated sentences in elementary phonics instruction holds profound importance in nurturing early literacy skills. This strategy serves as a powerful bridge between decoding individual phonemes and comprehending them within a meaningful context. 

For example, in a phonics lesson where students are practicing decoding and spelling words with a short i vowel and have practiced reading the high-frequency words they and the , the teacher may end the lesson with students writing the dictated sentence, ”They will fill the big bin with wigs.”

This method encourages the application of phonics knowledge in real-word scenarios, promoting fluency and automaticity. In addition, dictated sentences provide a valuable opportunity for students to hone their listening skills, enhancing their ability to discern and reproduce distinct phonetic elements accurately and to authentically apply irregularly spelled high-frequency words in context. This practice benefits students of any grade level working on phonics skills.

3. Writing to Read

Another foundational type of writing that prepares students for more demanding types of writing in later grades is writing to read. This is an interactive approach to early writing instruction where the teacher models early literacy and print concepts starting as early as prekindergarten through early kindergarten. Through collaboration with the students, the teacher models drawing pictures and sentence creation.

Teachers can start by engaging students in a conversation around an event in a book or nursery rhyme they read together. Then, the teacher offers a prompt: “In the story, the characters went to play at the park. That gives me an idea for a story. What kinds of things do you like to do at the park?” Students can share multiple ideas for the story, and the teacher chooses one to model. 

While the teacher explicitly models drawing and develops a sentence about the drawing, the students offer ideas on where to start writing, count the words in the story, identify the sounds they hear as the teacher spells out each word, and notice where spaces will occur. The more that students engage in this type of instruction, the more responsibility we can hand over to them, and they can write the story along with us. As students are given more opportunities to apply early writing principles and rereading strategies, they begin to understand the reciprocal relationship between reading and writing.

4. Reading to Write

When the foundations for early writing have been established, students can quickly move into another layer of high-impact writing, which is writing about the texts that they’re reading. 

Even starting in kindergarten, encouraging students to write and/or draw in response to reading across multiple content areas is a valuable strategy that helps deepen comprehension and understanding of a particular topic, as explored in Linda J. Dorn and Carla Soffos’s book Teaching for Deep Comprehension .

These “writing about the reading” prompts require students to analyze, synthesize, and connect ideas, fostering a deeper understanding of the material. For example, if first-grade students are working on story elements, after reading a story, a student might write, “The character in the story is a bear who lives in the forest. The problem in the story is that he is sad, but he solves his problem when he learns to be happy.” 

This expression encapsulates comprehension, language reinforcement, and academic vocabulary. As students progress through grade levels upward to 12th grade, the scaffold of giving the students a prompt for writing about the text should decrease as they develop enough self-regulation to write about their own thinking.

5. Writing About Learning

Similar to reading to write, this strategy is solely focused on writing about what the student has learned, why the learning is important, and when to use the learning. This type of writing can happen as early as kindergarten, but in a highly scaffolded manner that mostly focuses on articulating why the learning is important.

Students up to 12th grade can benefit from writing about their learning because it keeps the purpose of what they’re learning in various content areas relevant and promotes quick retrieval of the information.

This strategy also promotes metacognition , because it helps learners organize their thoughts and reflect on their learning process. For instance, a second-grade class could collaboratively study the nature of bees in a nonfiction text. Then, because the teacher focuses on the skill of identifying and explaining main ideas and details, a student may write, “I learned the main idea by using headings and key details. Knowing main ideas helps us understand the most important information in a text.”

Reading & Math for K-5

• Kindergarten
• Learning numbers
• Comparing numbers
• Place Value
• Roman numerals
• Subtraction
• Multiplication
• Order of operations
• Drills & practice
• Measurement
• Factoring & prime factors
• Proportions
• Shape & geometry
• Data & graphing
• Word problems
• Children's stories
• Leveled Stories
• Context clues
• Cause & effect
• Compare & contrast
• Fact vs. fiction
• Fact vs. opinion
• Main idea & details
• Story elements
• Conclusions & inferences
• Sounds & phonics
• Words & vocabulary
• Reading comprehension
• Early writing
• Numbers & counting
• Simple math
• Social skills
• Other activities
• Dolch sight words
• Fry sight words
• Multiple meaning words
• Prefixes & suffixes
• Vocabulary cards
• Other parts of speech

Punctuation

Capitalization

• Narrative writing
• Opinion writing
• Informative writing
• Cursive alphabet
• Cursive letters
• Cursive letter joins
• Cursive words
• Cursive sentences
• Cursive passages
• Grammar & Writing

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Grade 2 Grammar & Writing Worksheets

Second grade language arts.

These worksheets introduce students to the parts of speech, punctuation and related concepts which form the building blocks for writing proper sentences and paragraphs.

Other parts of speech  

Writing paragraphs

Writing prompts

Grade 2 Grammar & Writing Worksheet

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