FREE - Practicing & Writing Story Leads for Personal Narratives

Friday was a fun day!
I visited a second grade classroom.
The students were very sweet and eagerly waiting for me to present a lesson on writing.

I decided to teach story leads for personal narratives because most students usually revert to writing the "One day" beginning. That is such a boring introduction to a story!

I began my lesson by reading the leads from several trade books and asking the students if they wanted to hear the rest of the stories. "Yes," they shook their heads in agreement. We discussed why they thought those books would be interesting to read after just hearing the first few sentences. . . because good leads have something important and interesting to tell. Good leads attract and invite the reader to continue reading.

If you would like a FREE copy of my lesson(s) on story leads please click on the picture below. It's posted on TPT.

Best Wishes,

Kathy

Sneeze, Big Bear, Sneeze! (Book Review)

I was visiting a kindergarten classroom and noticed lots of fall books displayed across the tops of several shelves. Ooh yes, love those picture books! They get my attention every time. (I can spend hours looking at picture books.) Immediately I began browsing.

After thumbing through several of the books, this one caught my eye, Sneeze, Big Bear, Sneeze! It's a fun and wonderful way to introduce fall.

Big Bear is walking through the forest. The wind is swirling around him and he sneezes. Bear notices the leaves falling off the tree. He thinks his sneeze caused the leaves to fall down. So he gets a hammer and nail and tries to hammer the leaves back onto the tree.

Bear sneezes again and thinks he caused the apples to fall from the tree. He thinks his sneezing caused the geese to wake up and fly south.

The wind tries to convince Bear that she is the cause of what was happening. But Bear does not believe her. Finally the wind gets angry and lets out a whirling, twirling mighty shout and says she does it all because she is the autumn breeze.

At the end, Bear has no choice but to believe that what the wind said was true.

I really like this book! It it a great addition to any classroom library. I decided to make some comprehension question and answer sticks to go along with the book, common core aligned, as well as a windsock craft and writing prompts. It's a great way to support literacy and stretch student understanding and appreciation of the story.

Please click on the picture to view.

Have a great week!

Kathy