Hamburger Helper

It's time to fire up the grill and get cookin'... and I don't mean steaks.  I'm talking about some stories piled high with juicy details.  Stories you can really sink your teeth into!

I love using literature to launch my writing lessons.  Here are a few of my favorites for introducing Writer's Workshop.  

After reading about what an author does, I love to show my class that kids are authors too!  I have several books from Scholastic that are written and illustrated by kids.  You can find a list of  these books here.  Then I pull out a surprise from my book bag... a book I wrote in 5th grade.  That's right - I have the my-mom-was-so-proud-she-got-it-bound-into-a-hardback-book-version of my very own story!  The kids get such a kick out of this!  

We read, read, read, and we talk, talk, talk about the process an author goes through when writing a story (back to the hamburger).  I use this anchor chart to list the steps of the writing process as we discuss them.

To review the steps my kids play Build-A-Burger.  They can play with a partner or alone.  Click the picture to download.

Here's whats on the menu for the rest of the week...super juicy words, Editing Ed, and how to hook your reader!