Teaching First Graders to Write

Activities that Teach Beginning Writing Skills

Dec 15, 2008

Teaching first graders how to write in fun, creative and meaningful ways.

Teaching young children how to write should be fun and interactive. For each element of the writing process, there are fun and exciting ways to encourage learning. From the beginning of building sentences, to learning correct punctuation and how to space their words, to practicing their new skills, teachers can create an atmosphere of having fun while learning.

Building Sentences

A way to teach vocabulary and proper sentence formation that all students will enjoy, is building sentences. Create words and punctuation marks on poster board and cut each one out. These words can be as big or small, complicated or simple as you think is appropriate for your students. Allow the students to sit on the floor and physically put together the sentences. Be sure to collect the words and store them in a plastic zip lock bag and label for reuse.

Learning Punctuation

Having your students act out the punctuation marks as you do a shared reading activity in class can help to reinforce the meaning of each mark. Have your students practice these signs with some sample sentences first, and then as you read together, have the entire class join you in demonstrating the punctuation. You can also move on to sentences with no punctuation, and the students must decide on which motion to use.

For a period, show your hand in a signal to stop. For a question mark, place your hands on your hips, and shrug your shoulders. The sign language gesture for clapping (shaking or spinning hands up in the air) can signal an exclamation mark. Put your finger to chin like you are thinking to signal a comma, and for quotation marks, use your fingers to make air quotes.

Spacing Between Words

Students need to be taught to leave space between the words that they write. You can do this by having students use a finger between each word, or create a “spaceman” to help. You can buy them or make them using Popsicle sticks. You can also make Mr. Eraser the Spacer by cutting a rectangle eraser into appropriate sized pieces.

Practicing Skills

To practice new skills, have your students correct sentences on a white board with different colored dry erase markers. The students should be required to say what they are fixing and why, then read the good sentence together afterward. As students learn more about sentences, add different kids of mistakes.

You can also provide a method for self-evaluation and have your students strive for 5-star writing by checking each of the following before turning a paper in:

Think creatively to teach your students the basics of writing, and be sure to involve all the learning styles by getting students up and moving around, listening and looking to learn. The more active the students can be in class, the more they will enjoy the activity and the better they will remember what they have learned.

The copyright of the article Teaching First Graders to Write in Lesson Plan Help is owned by Jennifer Wagaman. Permission to republish Teaching First Graders to Write in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.