Writing a Big Book Together

In addition to the individual writing that the children are doing, we have made our first book together. We recently read Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle. Then we read a "big book" that my language group put together last year inspired by that book. My current students got excited about what animals they wanted to include in a new version. I drew names to determine the order in which each student could choose an animal and color to use. We made sure there were no repeats on animals or colors. Then we set to work illustrating our book, inspired by Eric Carle's vibrant illustrations in the original book. Our book is called What Do You See? and features an array of our own colorful animals. The photo shows some students looking over the list of colors and animals that they chose.

A Busy Group of Writers!

We are beginning our fourth week of school. I have enjoyed getting to know my Language Group and to begin our work together. I have discovered that they are a busy group of writers. All of them have been intently working on filling booklets with their stories and pictures. Some are adding details to a book that they began the week before last. Others have moved on to new boosk. Topics include trips to the beach, monsters, an art museum, and a car crash. Some of our mini-lessons have focused on the procedures of writing workshop, such as getting our writer's tools and what to do when we finish a piece. We have worked on stretching out words and writing down the sounds we hear in them, when we don't know the spelling. And we have shared some of what we have been writing with each other. Some have been comfortable sharing with the whole language group, while others have chosen to share just with one partner so far.