First Grade Writers

Do you know what famous American invented the first bifocals, flippers for swimming, and discovered that lightning was electricity?  First graders do, and they are fascinated about people in our country’s history!  After reading the biography selection in our reading anthology entitled, “Meet Ben Franklin”, students began the task of writing a report.  This project combined both writing and social studies standards as students used the writing process and also compared and contrasted life now with life long ago. 

Students learned that writing sometimes has many steps and is a lot of work!  First they used a graphic organizer, or web, to write down notes from their reading to use in their report.  They also added an interesting detail from another text about Ben Franklin.  Next, each student used the words on their web to write complete sentences for a rough draft.  After doing some editing with their teacher, first graders were ready to “publish” their report by writing it in their best handwriting and adding an illustration.  It WAS a lot of work, but first graders discovered that the end result was worth it!  They were very proud as shared their efforts with the class.

Submitted by Jen Brandel, Lester Prairie First Grade Teacher

March 15, 2016