An Award and Some Writing Pizzazz

First things first - I want to thank Kristi and Crystal at Teaching Little Miracles and Betsy at Coco Goes to First for the Lovely Blog Award!  You really have to head to their blogs and check them out. 



So, here are the rules for this Lovely Award:

Once you receive the award, you must follow 3 rules:
 1.  Follow the person that gave you the award
2.  Link back to the person that gave you the award
3.  Pass the award on to 15 new bloggers

 

Ok, numbers 1 and 2 - check!  Now, number 3 is going to be the hard one, but I'm always up for a challenge!  It might take me a while to find 15 new blogs, but...I love searching for and finding new blogs!  I just ask that you give me until tomorrow to find them, okie dokie?  I'll post the new ones tomorrow.

 

Now, onto some writing pizzazz.  Our state has a state writing assessment that the kids take in fourth grade.  Our school consistently has the top writing scores in our district and one of the things they use to help them teach writing are tips and tricks from Melissa Forney.  Apparently, she's a masterful writing teacher as our teachers go to her workshops almost every year with great results.  So that got me thinking, since we know that we have to start teaching good writing habits and skills right from the beginning, shouldn't early grades have the chance to learn from the best as well?

 

Well, I found this book last summer, and never got around to reading it. 

 

 

 

So, this summer my goal is to read all of the books I bought to read last  year, lol!  I thought I would read and share some of my thoughts about the book.  Let me tell you first that I consider myself a HORRIBLE writing teacher.  I never enjoyed writing and have always thought that it is so subjective that it's hard to teach.  Hopefully, this book will help me out. 

 

Here's a little excerpt that describes the book:

"In the pages of this book, you will find ideas, songs, games, make-n-take manipulatives, lesson plans, recipes, poems, and readers theater that have been conceived, blueprinted, and tested with real kids and teachers."

The book even comes with a CD that is chock full of songs you can use while teaching writing skills.  The book is basically divided into two sections: Part One is titled, "Adding Sparkle to Your Teaching" and gives some getting started info.  Part Two is made up of 30 Writing Skill Units from recognizing and writing letters to publishing on the computer.  Each writing skill unit has 6 sections: a list of supplies you'll need, a group lesson, a learning center activity, independent writing activity, vocabulary list, and a literature connection. 

 

If you'd like to join in reading this book with me, you can find it here:

Primary Pizzazz Writing on Amazon

Or, you can just follow my posts here and chime in with your thoughts, tips, or tricks about writing!  I'll be starting with Part One: Adding Sparkle to Your Teaching tomorrow.  See you then!