I Painted A…

First graders spend time in the Studio creating amazing paintings of what they are studying.  In the classroom, they make labels for these paintings to let viewers know more about the work of art.

First they brainstorm ideas.  Sometimes this is just thinking of words everyone will need to use like “made”, “has”, “painted”, and more. They also look in their research folder to find other important words to spell, including the name of their vehicle and the type of power source it has.

Second, they write their label with pencil, erasing if they make a mistake. At this point in the year, the students are writing a main idea and two detail sentences in their artwork labels! They are becoming aware of mistakes in their own writing and also seek out edits from a teacher. When they’re spelling words that they can’t find in the classroom or in their research folder, they often use “invented spelling”. Invented spelling is when students “invent” their own spelling for the word based on sounds they hear and spelling rules they know.

Finally, they cover the pencil writing with flair pen to make it stand out on the white label from far away.