Last week our focus was writing how-to stories. We started off the week extremely simple and taught the students what a how-to was by reading the book," How to Ride a Giraffe". I of course looked everywhere for a book and stumbled upon this one in the very last minute before the lesson. This is prefect for teaching students to use an introduction, materials, steps and closing sentences (And they get to learn how-to to ride a giraffe, how cool is that??) But seriously, they enjoyed learning about something that they didn't know how to do. After modeling how to write a how-to book, we all wrote a how-to make a peanut butter and sandwich sandwich. We brainstormed all of our ingredients and I had all of the students describe the steps to me. The kicker came next when I overly exaggerated some of their cues like, put some peanut butter on the bread. I actually stuck my hand in the jar without a knife because they didn't tell me to use a knife. This was one of those moments where I wished there was a camera in my room to witness their faces once again! Then I asked them to write their own steps independently. The next day, we asked students to get with a partner and make their PB& J according to the directions that were given. They learned that details are the key to successful writing! He are some samples of what really took place.....
Here is one of my students enjoying her reward after a hard day of writing and you better believe that I took part in some PB&J time as well!
After I modeled this strategy several times, I had the students write their very own personal how- to books. I made them pick a topic that they knew a lot about!They turned out so precious! Her are some samples...
This is my favorite! This sweet little one goes to the same church that my husband is a pastor is at and when she told me her topic I almost melted!
Let me know if you have any cute ideas on writing how-to books because I'm like every teacher and trying to fill my idea bank as much as possible! Enjoy your week!
