Friendly Letter Writing!

Throughout the year, first graders have been working on a variety of writing projects.  They have written personal narratives, a class story about our Hudson Hike, and nonfiction books about our areas of expertise.  Our latest project is friendly letter writing!  We began by reading some stories with letters in them to become familiar with the format.  Two favorites have been Dear Mr. Blueberry and Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters From Obedience School. The teachers also started writing the morning message in the form of a letter!

The students follow the writing process with each project.  First they do some brainstorming to share ideas to include in their letters, then tbey begin drafting. As they draft their letters, they participate in conferences with teachers to revise and edit their work.

The students have also been working on using all available resources as they draft.  Students refer to their personalized word walls which they have in their journals. They also use environmental print around the classroom, their rapidly developing set of phonics skills, and their memorized sight words, to help them spell.

In this photo, you can see a student referring to his idea paper and his personalized word wall as he works on his friendly letter.

Letter writing is the perfect project for first graders at this time of the school year! They are full of energy and love writing to friends and their loved ones! It’s a great opportunity for them to incorporate the spelling, handwriting, and punctuation skills they’ve practiced thus far in the school year.