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The Brown Bag Teacher

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

March 11, 2015

1st Grade How To Writing

  Hands-On Experiences : Building Paper Planes

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Favorite Mini-Lessons

Transition words, favorite mentor texts.

Throughout the week, I’m pulling from three of my favorite mentor texts – How to Babysit a Grandpa , How To Wash a Woolly Mammoth , and How to Teach a Slug to Read . These are perfect for showing students how real-author use how-to techniques (logical order, sequencing, time order words) to share a story or information with a reader.

Read and see more HERE .

How-To Writing within Work on Writing

As we start writing our How-To pieces independently, we’ll self-assess our writing and use the below checklist (personal ones and a class anchor chart) to guide our work.

In retrospect, this is a unit I’ll definitely teach at the beginning of the year. Teaching at this point of the year, is much simpler and requires less groundwork, but still, it’s a nice review of skills we’ve learned throughout the year in reading and writing. Plus, now that we’re officially readers and writers, it’s amazing to see what my students come up with!

• 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 )

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1st grade writing

by: Jessica Kelmon | Updated: November 15, 2022

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If you were amazed at how your child’s scribbles transformed into words last year, get ready for pure delight as your first grader learns to write full, meaningful paragraphs this year! First graders learn everything from expressing their thoughts to the rules of grammar.

While the bar may seem high for first graders, remember that this year’s work is a progression, starting with mastery of the alphabet.

A to Z — and all the sounds in between

Teachers often kick off the year with an ABCs review, just like in kindergarten. But this year’s review is also likely to include a couple dozen high-frequency words (e.g. he, and, good, play ).

If your child didn’t master the alphabet last year, it’s okay. First grade is the year to read the ABCs, know their letter sounds, and to print all upper and lowercase letters.

Cn u rd this?

A first grader may start the year writing “cac” for cake or “becs” for because . Dropping a word’s silent e at the end or middle vowel sound to spell it the way it sounds is known as phonetic or “invented” spelling. (See a real example of “invented” spelling .) Children are often more comfortable using consonants and the sounds at the beginning of words because they’re more distinct than vowels or sounds at the ends of words. By using invented spelling, children are demonstrating what they know about letter sounds. Research shows that letting children use invented spelling (and not immediately correcting them) allows them to focus on the purpose of writing: communication.

With time, your first grader should transition to conventional spelling for words with common spelling patterns (e.g. bike, like, hike , and sing, ring, king (See our first grade rhyming words worksheets for more examples.) and high-frequency words (See our first grade snap words worksheets for some examples.).

Note: Keep an eye on your first grader’s spelling near the end of the year: if a child’s spelling does not improve or their invented spelling is arbitrary rather than phonetic, it can be a sign of a learning issue.

But don’t expect to banish invented spelling completely this year. First graders should be encouraged to keep using what they know about letter sounds and newly learned spelling patterns to spell irregular, unfamiliar, and new vocabulary words, for example “inportint” for important .

3 types of writing in first grade

First graders should practice and learn three kinds of writing: opinion, informative, and narrative . Opinion and informative writing will likely start with kids reading a book and responding to what they’ve learned. In an opinion piece, your child introduces the book or topic he’s writing about, states his opinion about it, gives a reason or two to support his opinion, and then offers some sort of conclusion to complete his writing.

In an informative piece, your child names what he’s writing about and gives some information, facts, or details about it (e.g. Dinosaurs lived on Earth a long time ago. Some dinosaurs were bigger than people are today… ), and, as in an opinion piece, offers some sense of conclusion.

Writing a narrative is like writing a story. A first grader’s story should describe two or more events, include details about what happened, and give some sense of the story coming to an end — not only by writing “The End,” although that’s a good start.

Check out these two real examples of good first grade informational writing: • “ Water is inportint ” • “ How to savs water ”

See what first grade writing looks like

bttr, better, best!

Teaching your child to write well means helping them understand that writing is a multistep process. Before your child picks up a pencil, prewriting begins with reading, thinking, and discussing. When your child’s first draft is done, the teacher and other students might ask your child questions about the work to elicit details or facts that could be added, or to help organize the order of events in a story.

Then your child may be asked to do a revision . After one or more revisions, the teacher might help your child with the final edit — focusing on spelling, capitalizing proper nouns and the first word of a sentence, and adding a period at the end. These steps — prewriting, doing a first draft, revising their work, and editing the final piece — helps first graders learn all the important parts of writing.

Research in first grade, oh my!

In first grade writing there’s an emphasis on kids learning to respond to questions by looking up answers to their questions.

In their writing, this means that kids will pull information from books, websites, class presentations, and other experiences to form their opinions, arguments, and even stories. When they use this information, they should be able to recall where they learned the facts they’re including and organize them into their own writing. An example you may see your child working on: reading a “how to” book and mimicking the writing structure to write their own instructions for something — in order! (For great practice, check out our pizza recipe worksheet .)

What how first graders research and discuss a topic

“I go’ed there,” no more!

Get ready for your first grader’s grammar — in the form of noun-verb agreement, adjectives, sentence complexity, and punctuation — to leap forward. First graders learn to use singular and plural nouns with matching verbs in simple past, present, and future tenses. They also learn to use commas.

Kids also learn about proper and possessive nouns (e.g. Shawn and Shawn’s ), articles (e.g. a, the ), pronouns (e.g. I, me, my, they, them, their, anyone ), adjectives (e.g. good, happy ), and increasingly difficult prepositions (e.g. during, toward ).

In fact, think of first grade as the year of “because” — because your child’s sentences should move beyond simple statements to compound statements, questions, and exclamations using conjunctions (e.g. but, so, and, or, because ) to connect thoughts.

Finally, building on the capitalization rules your child learned last year ( I and the first letter of the first word in a sentence), your first grader will learn to capitalize the first letter of people’s names.

Check out these related worksheets: • Commas • Verbs • Verb tenses • Above, on, below

What about handwriting?

Handwriting matters. First graders are expected to be able to print all upper and lowercase letters.

Check out these related worksheets: • Practicing letters a and b • Practicing letters c and d

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Writing Prompts for First Graders: Topics & Tips for Success

• August 24, 2023

If you’re looking for writing prompts for first graders AND you want to learn how to help kids be successful with their writing, you’re in the right place! In this post, I’m going to share 5 steps to follow when having your 1st graders respond to writing prompts. I’ll also include examples of narrative, informational, and opinion writing prompts that you can use. Plus, I’ll share how you can use differentiation to make sure that all your young writers are successful!

Five Steps for Success When Using Writing Prompts

Step #1: choose a writing prompt that’s engaging and inspires more than a one-word or one-sentence response..

Writing can feel difficult for kids in this age group. Their writing abilities may still be limited, and some kids may feel reluctant to write. To help motivate them, choose prompts that will capture their attention!

You’ll also want to make sure that students have enough to say when they respond to the prompt. Questions that require only a one-word or one-sentence answer will result in students finishing quickly. 

You’ll also want to make sure that students actually have something to say about the writing topic – perhaps from something they’ve experienced at school or in their daily lives, or from something related to a science/social studies topic you’ve taught them about. If you choose something outside of these areas, students won’t be successful. For example, if you ask students to write about their favorite vacation, it’s possible that they’ve never been on vacation and won’t have anything to say. Or if you ask students to write about their favorite sport but they don’t know much about sports (and you haven’t taught about them in class), they won’t be successful with this prompt, either.

Below are a few prompt ideas from m y differentiated writing prompts for first graders that are both engaging and will elicit a good response from most kids. They are organized by type of writing:

Narrative writing prompts:

• Write about a time when you felt angry.
• Write about a first grader who gets lost in the mall/a store. Write a story about what the first grader does.
• Imagine that you walk into your classroom one morning and find a skunk sitting at your desk. Write a story about what happens.

Informational writing prompts:

• Explain how to make toast.
• Explain how day and night are the same and different.
• Give some tips for staying healthy.
• Choose an animal that lives in the ocean. Write interesting facts about that animal.

Opinion writing prompts:

• What is your favorite thing to do after school? Why?
• What is the best part about being a kid? Why?
• What is your favorite part of the school day? Why?
• Should kids be allowed to choose their own bedtimes? Why or why not?

Step #2: Model how to make a plan for your writing.

When you want students to respond to a writing prompt , the first thing you’ll need to do is  model. ​ And I mean fully model – not just get them started or talk about what you want them to do! You’ll need to show them and talk them through each step in the process. (Of course, as time goes on and students become more comfortable with the writing process, you’ll be able to model less. But when they’re getting started or having difficulty, there’s no such thing as “too much” modeling!)

Using a graphic organizer is a great way to guide students in making a plan for their writing. Even if their written response is not going to be very lengthy, drawing or writing in an organizer will help them create a more complete, coherent piece of writing.

On chart paper, on the board, or under a document camera, take a blank copy of the same graphic organizer that you want students to use. Think aloud as you fill out the graphic organizer. 

Let’s say that you want to model how to respond to the prompt, “Write about a time when you tried something new.” You might say to your students (while modeling how to complete your graphic organizer):

“First graders, I want to write about a time when I tried something new – something I’ve never done before. Hmmm…well, an idea that popped into my mind was the time I first went kayaking. That happened years ago, but at the time, it was new to me. I’d never done it before.”

“Let me think about what I did first, next, and last. I’ll close my eyes for a second and picture what happened. Well, first, my husband and I listened to our kayak tour leader who was going to lead us in the water. She explained kayak safety rules and how to paddle. In my graphic organizer, I’m going to write ‘Listened to kayak tour leader explain safety rules and how to paddle.’ This is not a complete sentence but that’s okay – it’s just an idea, and I’ll add more later when I create my draft.”

(And so on.)

For narrative writing, you might give students a “timeline” graphic organizer so they can map out real events or imagined events for their story:

Or, a simple “beginning-middle-end” graphic organizer works, too!

For informational writing, you might try a web (each bubble includes a nonfiction fact):

You might also try an organizer like this that encourages students to plan an introduction, facts and details, and a conclusion:

For opinion writing, you might try a “flow chart style” graphic organizer that starts with an opinion, gives reasons, and wraps up with a conclusion:

After you’ve modeled how to create a plan for writing, allow students to create their own plans. Another tip to help your kids be successful – allow your first graders to talk through their writing idea with a partner before they sit down to fill out their graphic organizers. This conversation can give them a starting point so it’s easier for them to begin working. It can also be motivating for reluctant writers!

Step #3: Model how to take your plan and turn it into a first draft.

Once you’ve modeled how to create a plan and students have made their own plans, it’s time to actually write! Place your graphic organizer next to your blank writing paper (drafting paper) and start modeling how to draft. Explain how you are adding more details and writing in complete sentences. 

You can also focus on a particular skill that you want students to master, like one of these writing skills:

• Segment words and use your phonics knowledge to spell them
• Begin each sentence with a capital letter
• End each sentence with a punctuation mark
• Write in complete sentences
• Use spaces between words
• Write with lots of details
• Use transition words
• Tell events in chronological order
• Avoid run-on sentences

Once you’ve modeled how to turn your graphic organizer into a draft, it’s time for students to write! At this point, some of your young learners will be ready to write, write, write! However, some young students may still need some more support. They might be learning English as a second language, have a learning disability, struggle with language skills, have writer’s block, or simply need extra help to be successful.

This is where differentiated writing supports can really come in handy. Three great tools are sentence starters, word banks, and self-assessment checklists.

Sentence starters  can help show students how to:

• Structure and organize their writing

Word banks  can help students:

• Use more specific vocabulary
• Get a boost when spelling is a struggle for them
• Get ideas for their writing (the word bank in the photo below lists adjectives a student might use to describe their desired school mascot)

Self-assessment checklists  can help students:

• Learn to revise and edit their writing (more on that in Step #4!)
• Slow down and check their work rather than immediately declaring that they are finished

You can even give students a combination of these tools on their writing paper, like these examples:

In my sets of differentiated writing prompts for first grade , you get options for ALL of these supports (and combinations of them) for every single prompt! This means that you can easily choose the built-in supports you want to use. You can also differentiate by giving different students different writing paper!

Of course, as the school year goes on, you’ll want to remove these supports. The goal is for students to learn to write complete responses on their own. But with first graders, this can take time!

Step #4: Model how to revise and edit your writing.

After students are finished drafting, they might think that they are all done! But we know that an important part of the writing process is revising and editing. You’ll want to show your students how you:

• Correct spelling, punctuation, and capitalization mistakes
• Fix grammar errors like incomplete or run-on sentences
• Look for places that could be confusing to the reader, and add more detail
• Add an introduction and/or conclusion, if they are missing
• Fix up messy handwriting

This is a lot for kids to think about. The self-assessment checklists you’ve seen in previous photos can definitely help. It can also help to have kids focus on just ONE area each time they review their work (for example, do a read-through and only look for punctuation errors; do another read-through and only look for capitalization mistakes).

Revising and editing can be tricky for ALL writers – and especially for young children. They will likely need your help to fix certain mistakes. However, one of the best ways to get them to revise and edit without your help is to set up peer editing!

In peer editing, kids read each other their writing and make suggestions for improvement. Of course, they will need to see you model this so they understand how it’s done.

Step #5: Provide an opportunity for students to share their writing.

Having an audience to whom they can share their writing can be very motivating for first graders – and all students! Sharing could be as simple as sitting with a partner and reading them their finished work.

Or, you might have your students re-copy their work onto fancier final draft paper. They can read their work to their peers and you might display it on a bulletin board. You could even invite another class of students into your class, have students pair up, and allow them to share their writing.

Ready to Get Started Using Writing Prompts for First Graders?

To get access to a set of 60 fun 1st grade writing prompts for narrative, informational, and opinion writing, c lick here ! They are great for daily practice and can even be used in literacy centers, once students understand how to respond to them.

To read how I use prompt writing with other types of writing assignments throughout the school year with my 1st graders,  click here!

If you want to save this post to return to it later, pin the image below to your favorite Pinterest board.

Happy teaching!

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I’m Alison, a literacy specialist. I love getting kids excited about reading and writing – and sharing teaching ideas with other teachers!

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How to Teach Narrative Writing

In this post, I share 5 tips for How to Teach Narrative Writing and provide details about the Narrative Writing Units I have created for Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade students. Be sure to download 3 FREE narrative writing graphic organizers !

As teachers we spend a tremendous amount of time teaching our students to write. And for good reason! The ability to clearly express one’s thoughts in writing is an essential academic and life-skill. Study after study has shown that students who are able to master writing skills early on struggle less in overall literacy and communication .

The Common Core writing domain focuses on three big types of writing: informative, opinion and narrative writing.  Each genre serves a unique purpose and follows a specific structure which we must explicitly teach our students.   

In earlier posts I shared tips and resources for teaching Informative Writing and Opinion Writing .  Today I’m excited to move on to the final genre, Narrative Writing.  

I love to teach narrative writing.  Personal narratives are a great genre to start the year with because they allow you to get to know your students a little bit better.  Most kids love to tell us stories about their lives, so writing personal narratives often comes naturally to them.  

Imaginative narratives, on the other hand, allow students’ creativity to shine!  Many students find it very motivating and engaging to be allowed to write the stories they create in their own mind. 

Today I’m sharing 5 tips for teaching narrative writing, as well as details about my narrative writing resource. It is a writing unit that has everything you need to bring narrative writing into your kindergarten , first grade, or secon d grade literacy centers! 

Tips for Teaching Narrative Writing

1.  read narrative writing mentor texts .

Before you can ask your students to write in a genre that is new to them, you must first immerse them in it.  So to begin your unit, you’ll want to share examples of narrative writing with your students.  These mentor texts provide students with examples of excellent narrative writing. 

As you read them aloud, highlight the way the author structures their writing.  Identify the author’s purpose, the topic, the order of the events, and how the author felt.  All of these things will help students better understand what type of writing we are asking them to do.    

When you’re picking narrative mentor texts to share with your students there are a few things to consider .  First, do you (the educator) think it is excellent?  Second, is it easy for your students to understand?  And finally, is it relevant to the type of writing you are teaching?  If you answer “Yes!” to all three, then you’re good to go!

To help you out I’ve created a list of excellent mentor texts you can use when teaching narrative writing to kindergarten, first, or second grade students.  

A List of Narrative Writing Mentor Texts:

• New Shoes – Chris Raschka
• Jabari Jumps – Gaia Cornwall
• Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale – Mo Willems
• Library Mouse – Daniel Kirk
• Rocket Writes a Story – Tad Hills
• Diary of a Worm – Doreen Cronin
• The Night I Followed My Dog – Nina Laden
• Rubia and the Three Osos – Susan Middleton Elya
• The Three Snow Bears – Jan Brett

I’ve saved all these titles on one board so you can easily take a closer look at these mentor texts.  Click here to see this list on Amazon .

2.  Model Your Own Narrative Writing

When modeling your own narrative writing I suggest you use an experience you’ve shared as a class.  It could be as simple as a short nature walk outside the school building, a field trip you went on, or a class celebration you had.  Show your students that narratives don’t have to be about big events.  Small moments, like a walk outside, can be stretched out and turned into a great narrative writing piece! 

Next, model how you plan your writing using a graphic organizer.  Highlight how you have a topic, use temporal words to order your events, details and a closing sentence.   Don’t be afraid to put the events out of order!  Let the students catch the mistake and help you fix it!   

Model how you use the graphic organizer to guide you as you write out your full piece. 

Finally, reread your work aloud to ensure it makes sense and that the events are in the correct order.  Check for any silly mistakes and come up with a fitting title! 

3. Use Anchor Charts

You want your students to know that when they write a narrative piece they are writing a story to entertain the reader.  It can be a true, personal story from their life, or an imagined fictional one.  Creating an anchor chart with this information helps to remind students their purpose for writing.

Create a second anchor chart that reviews temporal words.  Words such as yesterday, today, first, next, or last describe time or order of events and help make a narrative story more clear for the reader.  

When writing fictional narratives, an anchor chart of fictional sentence starters can help students to get ideas for a story.  

Finally, you’ll want to create an anchor chart using the writing you model. This will serve as another example of excellent narrative writing.  As a class, add labels to identify the title, the topic, temporal words, details, and the closing sentence in your shared writing.  

All of these anchor charts can be posted in your writing center. Encourage your students to refer back to them and use them as support as they write their own pieces.

4. Allow students to edit and share their writing

Provide a good writers checklist at your writing center.  For narrative writing you’ll want the checklist to include items such,  “Does my writing have a title?”  “Is there a clear beginning, middle, and end?”  “Did I use temporal words?” as well as reminders to check for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation errors.  

You can also create a rubric specific to the genre. Model how you use it to assess your own work and how it can be used to provide feedback to others.   

Give students the opportunity to share their writing with others!  Pair students with partners and let them read their pieces to each other.  Encourage them to provide feedback using the editing checklist and the rubric as a guide.  

5. Provide Daily Opportunities for Students to Write

As with all things, writing takes PRACTICE!  Students need dedicated instructional time to learn the skills and strategies necessary to become effective writers, as well as time to practice what they learn.  

When you think about your daily instructional schedule, make sure you are giving your students ample opportunities to practice their narrative writing through whole group instruction, small groups, and/or through independent practice in writing centers. 

Narrative Writing Units For Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade Students 

Today I’m excited to share with you the details about my Kindergarten Narrative , 1st Grade Narrative , and my 2nd grade Narrative writing units!  I love them because they have ALL the resources you need to give your students the practice needed to master narrative writing.  

These narrative writing units were developed with standards-based research specific to each grade. You can use them within whole class or small group lessons, or as a literacy center activity where students can practice narrative writing independently!  

Let’s take a closer look at each one…. 

Kindergarten Narrative Writing Unit

The kindergarten resource has everything you need to incorporate narrative writing into your literacy centers all year long!  

To help your students better understand the genre you’ll get two mini-lessons , one on personal narratives and the other for imaginative narratives.  I recommend focusing on personal narratives at the start of the year and moving onto imaginative narratives in the second semester.  

You’ll also get a list of suggested mentor texts and online resources, academic vocabulary posters, printable anchor charts, graphic organizers and differentiated writing prompts.  

These seasonal and all-year-long writing prompts come in 3 differentiated versions to meet your Kindergarteners where they are developmentally throughout the year.  Each writing prompt comes with a vocabulary word web to assist young writers in brainstorming ideas and spelling words while writing.

Finally, you’ll get a narrative writing editing checklist appropriate for the kindergarten level. 

First Grade and Second Grade Narrative Writing Units

The first and second grade resources were designed with standards-based research specific to grade.  You’ll get a personal narrative mini-lesson and imaginative narrative mini-lesson to use as a review of the genre.  You’ll also get a list of suggested mentor texts and online resources, academic vocabulary posters, anchor charts, graphic organizers and seasonal writing prompts! 

You won’t hear students say, “I don’t know what to write about!” when they are using this resource!  The seasonal writing prompts include choice boards for personal narratives and imaginative narratives, as well as sentence starters and vocabulary banks to assist in brainstorming ideas and spelling words while writing.

The personal narrative and imaginative narrative seasonal prompts are both PRINTABLE & DIGITAL. The digital version has been PRELOADED for you, with 1 click add them to your Google Drive or upload them to SeeSaw.

Finally, you’ll get self-editing checklists and rubrics for both personal and imaginative narrative writing.  The rubric makes a great self-assessment tool and can be used as a guide for peer feedback.     

I love these resources because they can be used in so many different ways.  They offer opportunities for students to practice both personal and imaginative narrative writing as a whole class, in small groups, as a literacy center activity, for homework, or as a meaningful activity for when they have a substitute teacher!  

FREE Narrative Writing Graphic Organizers

Are you ready to begin teaching Narrative Writing in your classroom? To help get you started, I am happy to offer you 3 FREE narrative writing graphic organizers! You can download them here.

Writing is an essential skill that benefits students well beyond the walls of our classrooms. As teachers, we work hard to plan engaging activities that we hope will build our students’ confidence and help them to develop a lifelong love of writing.

I hope the information and resources I’ve shared on narrative, opinion and informative writing will help to bring stronger instruction and more meaningful writing practice to your kindergarten, first and second grade classrooms!

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