A monthly newsletter to help parents stay “connected” with the classroom

instruction and student learning taking place at Elm Street.  

During October, our students were involved in a school wide activity that addressed the state writing standards for narrative writing.  All students from kindergarten through fifth grade used the writing prompt, “The day I met a scarecrow…” to create their story.  Student writing was guided through the writing process with rubrics, graphic organizers, rough drafts (“sloppy copies”), and editing to prepare the final copy.  We hope you will enjoy this issue of Curriculum Connection which spotlights these activities and processes.

Mrs. Brass’ kindergarten class started their scarecrow stories by making a story web.  The web helped them create the who, what, when, where, and why of our story.  Then the students made a sloppy copy of their story to put all of the information together.  Finally, they made their final drafts to display.  We checked to make sure we had sentences that started with capital letters, space between words, periods at the end of sentences, and neat handwriting!

Students in Ms. Gibson’s Class utilized action steps to complete their narrative writing.   The steps and products completed by the student are shown below.

Step 1:  Draw a Picture of the Scarecrow

Step 2:  Complete a Graphic Organizer to Order Your Thoughts

Step 3:  Write a Rough Draft and Revise Work

Step 4:  Type Final Draft