How to Plant a Seed Writing

Read the fact box together and underline the facts your child will use. Have your child finish each sentence, then read the whole piece aloud so it sounds like a short report. Compare with the answer key afterward.

List what you need to plant a seed, draw and write three steps, then write the how-to with First, Next and Last. Informative writing teaches. A how-to tells the steps in order. The directions on the page read: Read the topic. Then, write what you need to plant a seed. Then, draw each of the 3 steps in a box. Then, write each step on its two lines, in order. Then, use this plan to write your draft on page 2. On page 2: Read your plan on page 1. Then, write a title on the Title line. Then, write at least 4 sentences: what you need, then one for each step, using First, Next and Last.

Yes, both. We made it for 1st Grade writing, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with informative writing. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

CCSS W.1.2 asks first graders to name a topic, give some facts about it, and provide some sense of closure. The All About sheets supply the facts to read, so students practice choosing and writing them, and the how-to sheets ask for steps children already know.

Ask whether the sentence is something that is true or something someone thinks. Facts can be checked in a book, like frogs begin life as eggs. Have your child point to the fact in the reading box before writing it.

At first it is fine to copy one fact to learn the form. Then have your child write a second fact in their own words, as several sheets ask. Over time the facts move from copied to original.

The 10 All About sheets include a key with a marking guide and model sentences. The 4 how-to sheets have no key, since each child writes their own steps.

First graders should write opinion pieces with a topic sentence and a reason (CCSS W.1.1), informative texts with a topic and facts (W.1.2), and narrative pieces with a beginning, middle, and end (W.1.3). They should also use capitalization, spacing, and basic punctuation in their writing (L.1.2).

By the end of first grade, most students can write several connected sentences (3-5) on a topic with appropriate spacing, capitalization, and ending punctuation. The focus at this level is on communicating ideas rather than length. Daily writing practice - even short journal entries - builds fluency faster than occasional longer assignments.

Start with sentence frames (I like ___ because ___) that scaffold the writing structure. Use pictures as prompts to give the child something concrete to write about. Practice oral storytelling before writing, since children often have more to say than they can write. Worksheets with a picture and a few sentence starter lines are excellent scaffolds for reluctant writers.

The 36 opinion, narrative, informative and writing process sheets have an answer key with a marking guide and a model answer. Since writing varies, the key shows what a complete piece includes. The 16 two-page reading response, letter and how-to sheets have no key, because each child writes about their own book, letter or steps.

Rotate them. An opinion page asks what a child thinks and why, a narrative page asks what happened first, next and last, and an informative page asks for true facts about a topic. Mixing them keeps writing varied while building the structures in W.1.1 to W.1.3.