Writing is in full swing!

We've jumped into the writing pool and the water is just fine!

I revised my student writing journal to incorporate the Common Core focus on the three types of writing: opinion, informative and narrative.  Last week we started by doing an opinion piece about fall.  The sentence stem was either: I like fall because, I love fall because or I don't like fall because.  Then, after reading 2 non-fiction books about leaves during Storytime, we started an informational piece on leaves and will wrap that up today.  Tomorrow we'll start writing a narrative piece about an autumn memory.  

Before we even started writing, Writing Dude visited us and taught us about the 3 Types of Writing.  I also have a poster that I display at our Writing Station to remind us of the types of writing.

  

It's a freebie that I'm sharing over at 

If you'd like to see what my writing journal looks like and what it's all about click below

Common Core State Standards

I'm up in Alaska where the CCSS have been the buzz this year...

But that leaves me wondering if we're way behind on learning about them?

In any case, I'm trying to familiarize myself with them and keep them current in my brain (along with all the other stuff buzzing around in there).  I'm a very visual learner, so I made some "cheat sheets" for Reading, Writing and Math.  I attach them to these subject area folders that I use for my lesson plans, etc.

I'm linking up with 

to share them with K-2 teachers.

Even if you're not a 1st grade teacher, Kindy teachers can keep them as a reference for what their students will walk into when they leave them.  And 2nd grade teachers can keep them as a reference for what their students just came from and should be capable of.

Click on the photo to grab this freebie!