How to writing can be a difficult concept to teach, yet my Kindergarten friends had so much fun getting to tell ME how to do things. The first of three how to books was one which was highly scaffolded, meaning we completed the pages as a class with explicit steps to follow. We wrote all about the steps of “How to build a snowman” while playing Frozen’s, “Do you want to build a snowman”. The kids were SO excited, as it had just recently snowed here in Raleigh, NC and they wanted to share all about their snow festivities.

We began breaking our mission into steps, and soon the students were able to use the transition words “first, next, then, last” to order their steps. At the end of the week once students had completed their writing, they got to follow their steps of building a snowman to make an adorable snowman craft. They had so much fun and couldn’t stop singing all of the Frozen songs all day.

 

After this week, we moved on to “How to make a valentine” the week before Valentine’s Day so that students could use their steps to make valentines for their friends, and then they completed “How to be a good friend” during the week of Valentine’s Day in order to really hit the theme of love and friendship. By the end of the third week, they were pros at telling Miss. A exactly what to do.