Writing Workshop Painting Word Pictures

In writing this week, the mini-lesson focused on Painting Word Pictures.  We talked about how writers use words to help readers visualize what is happening in the text. I told the group we would be writing a poem about winter. 


We started the lessons by pretending to be outside on the playground making images in our minds. I encouraged students to use their five senses. We shared with a partner and the large group too.

 I Knew It Was Winter

The students came to the rug, and we brainstormed
noun to go with the number word 

 

On different days, we went back and took a picture in our mind of what the snowballs were doing? We also added a "when," "where" or "how."

This mini-lesson came from the book Marvelous Minilessons for Teaching Beginning Writers by Lori Jamison Rog. 

 I  modified her lesson to make it work for my class. I strongly recommend her book. My primary focus was to get the students thinking about words that paint pictures. I think this would be a great lesson during Halloween time or for each month in your classroom. My students loved reading the final piece, and that is why we made it into a little book.  

You can see below, we made a Valentine one too!

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 A few days later, we took the same poem and created a Valentine version. We followed the same steps as before, except this time; we are inserting adjectives and other descriptors in different parts. You can see the times we went back and added with different colors. 

On Monday, I saw one Valentine Fairy with sparkling wings 

in the air shooting Cupid arrows.