I will admit openly that I've been trying to pawn off teaching writing with the girls. We recently had the opportunity to review a program from The Crafty Classroom called How to Write a Paragraph. The girls have convinced me that we can do this!!
How to Write a Paragraph is a simple to use Kindergarten to 2nd grade curriculum that introduces students to the basic ideas of writing paragraphs. This 12 week program, was written for those of us who take advantage of a 4 day a week school schedule.
The very basics are started with, including nouns and verbs. Simple sentences then begin to grow as your student learns how to build their basic sentences with adjectives.
How to Write a Paragraph ($9.00) is a downloadable PDF file. There was very little prep that I needed to do for these lesson. Literally, I read the sheet for the week as I printed their worksheets. That's it. That's the kind of writing that I can teach!!
Included also is an outline so that you can schedule out How to Write a Paragraph in your lesson plans. You know ahead of time what extra posters/worksheets that you need to print.
As we have been working our way through, the ease of use has been awesome. At the top of each worksheet page, there are reminders to read with your student. As well as instructions for what you should be doing that day.
I know Lydia is a little older than the suggested age range. But since she struggles sometimes with writing sentences, I decided that she could benefit from trying out How to Write a Paragraph.
The girls have enjoyed using How to Write a Paragraph very much. Lydia liked the little bits of art on each page. She said the projects that she was "assigned" to write were fun. After the first 4 weeks, her sentences had totally made a turn around. She started making more improvement, and it was quickly.
Lydia actually was able to work independently on a lot of the program, but they had fun working on How to Write a Paragraph together. They would read their sentences out loud to each other. Caty who balked a little when we got started, actually shocked herself. (She shocked me too!) Without even realizing it, she was writing a full sentence even though she was telling me that she could not spell. The pictures above were taken when they were learning how to add adjectives to their sentences. The charts that are included with How to Write a Paragraph can be printed in both color or black & white. The girls really like these in color.
Int he picture above, you can see a hamburger hanging next to Lydia. This was another poster from How to Write a Paragraph. The girls thought the illustration of the hamburger was a great way to "sandwich" all their sentences together into a readable format. I like the cute poster that I can keep pointing to when they are writing their paragraphs now.
After using this program for 8 weeks, I asked the girls if they were ready to start an online writing program that I found. They both started whining and said they didn't want to take an online writing course. They really liked the format of How to Write a Paragraph and they promised to continue working hard. They want me to make sure I use the color posters as reminders for them. I was shocked, I would figure they would want another person to teach them this.
In the short review period, the girls made great improvements!! We plan to continue through the remainder of the Twelve week program, and see what else they need to make improvement on. If you have an elementary student who is struggling in writing, be sure to check out How to Write a Paragraph. You can view a sample of the program by visiting their website.
Several members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given the opportunity to review How to Write a Paragraph from The Crafty Classroom. But this is not all they offer. Other crew members reviewed their programs, such as Alphabet Curriculum notebook, Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum notebook, or U.S.A. Curriculum bundle.
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