How-to Writing in the Primary Grades

You all know my love for writing!  It was always my best subject growing up and in college.  I think that's why I just love teaching it to young children!  The growth that kids make is also amazing and I love witnessing it each year!  This is the time of year when I really feel proud of how well the children are doing with their writing.  For the first few months of the year, I introduce the writing process with my Narrative Writing Unit and Writing for Others Unit.  I also use all the resources in my Writing Workshop Start-up Kit.

In the winter, however, I like to transition to something a little different to spice up my instruction.  I do my Non-fiction Writing Unit. I've been doing this unit for 8 years now and I have to say it's one of my favorites!  The kids respond really well and even my most struggling writers feel very confident writing these types of pieces.

I begin with "How-To" writing, as it's fairly simple. First, we talk about how we find out information on things that we want to learn how to do.  I show lots of examples, like game board boxes, recipe cards, oatmeal, hand washing posters, books, etc...:

Next, we brainstorm a list of some things that the kids know how to do:

We typically read a book or two:

I have the kids do a sequencing page just to get them used to seeing the sequence connector words:

All of the above is done the first two days, as my introduction to this type of writing.

On day three, I start teaching from my non-fiction pack, beginning with the graphic organizer:

If you are interested in learning more about this type of writing, just click the pink and green product photo at the top of this post.  My set includes pictures, directions, paper templates, sequence connectors and more.  It's a non-fiction pack, so it also includes teaching students to write "All About" pieces, which meet the Common Core Writing Standard: W1.2: "Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure."

In addition, I have a Holiday Themed How-To Writing Pack which is available.  You can implement this type of writing all year long with holiday themed topics!  Click the picture below to take a peek.