Category: Writing Resources

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Let’s Spring into Writing

During the month of March we will be offering strategies to support and inspire your writing students.

Our spring stories bundle for 2nd grade is a wonderful place to begin. As is the case with all the Earlybird units, your students will explore five wonderful books, journalling their way through each story. They will explore wonderful words, learn to describe how characters think, act, and feel. They will be supported in constructing sentences that re-tell the plot. And, they will bring shape to a small weekly idea.

Journalling about great stories, overtime, builds strong skills in young writers as they spring into writing!

~Kimberly

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Great Sentences Begin Here

Beginning Sentences 
One of the challenges of writing sentences is creating variety. Sometimes a short, simple sentence will do just fine, but there is something wonderful about a long luscious sentence! Let’s practice writing concise sentences with a punch of rhythm. In this beginning activity, let’s practice writing ideas into exceptional short and long sentences. Click through to this activity which will pair perfectly with students in CORE, Level 1 (3rd grade, or older struggling writers).

By now, you’ve likely heard about Print Shop for Primary students, kindergarten through 2nd grade. We are very excited that our first few Print Shop offerings for elementary and middle school are now live!

Introducing, The Writing Mentor

The Print Shop Writing Mentor will grow into a collection of exercises to help young writers write well. Great writing begins with words. Words combined well form phrases. And great sentences are made of wonderful words and fantastic phrases that communicate ideas articulately with precision.

Through the end of February, all our Writing Mentor lessons on Print Shop are FREE.

Intermediate Sentences
It’s easy to write the way we speak to our friends. However, when we write the way we speak, our writing can be confusing to readers. Writing like we speak often ends up in run-on sentences and sentence fragments. These distract the reader from focusing on our important ideas. Since, as writers, we want to make the reader’s job as easy as possible, it’s important to avoid run-ons and fragments! In this intermediate activity, let’s practice tightening up ideas into exceptional, concise sentences. Click through to this activity which will pair perfectly with students in CORE, Level 2 (4th or 5th grade, or older struggling writers).

Advanced Sentences
Stilted, awkward paragraphs are jarring to read. Reading one is like hearing a choir that is off key. They grate on the ears. They are repetitive and lack flow. In this advanced activity, we will practice tightening up ideas into exceptional, rhythmic sentences. Click through to this activity which will pair perfectly with students in CORE, Level 3 (6th – 8th grade, or older struggling writers).
~Kimberly
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Valentines and Letter Writing

Valentine’s Day is the perfect opportunity to craft a letter by hand!

A card and letter—the kind that is written by hand—is a true kindness, a keepsake.

This offering can take many forms. Original poems are little gems that pair perfectly with a sweet Valentine card! Terrific poems start with smart sentences. Read how by clicking through, then encourage your students to practice poetry.

For longer Valentine’s Day messages, our FREE Letter Writing will scaffold the activity each step of the way.

And, when it comes time to putting  an original poem or letter into the polished draft ready for the card itself, check out our Letter Forms activity.

Remember, handwritten sentiment is a beautiful gift!

 

~Kimberly

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Our Wonderful Alphabet: Ox, House, Stick!

When you consider that the alphabet plays such a HUGE role in our daily lives, consider the fact that most of us don’t know much about the history of those 26 letters!

Ox, House, Stick: The History of Our Alphabet tells the story of how the English alphabet came to be, starting way back in 2000 B.C. .

This book is full of intriguing tidbits. Did you know that the letter “A” was originally written in the Semitic languages to look like an ox head—turn it upside down and you will see a triangular head with horns! And did you know that the word “alphabet” comes from combining the first two Greek letters alpha and beta? Speaking of the alphabet, we all know the specific order of our alphabet. Every child learns the ABCs, no one learns the CBAs. This order goes back to Phoenician times, around 1000 B.C., and hasn’t changed much since. Why this order? No one knows!

The more I learn about the alphabet, the more enthralled I am by its history. These letters we write so casually have rich origins! This lovely little book makes a terrific supplement to our Print Shop ABCeDarian activities! So check out Ox, House, Stick and share it with students and friends to cultivate wonder in our alphabet. 

 

~Claire S.

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Leonardo’s Flying Machine

Campfire Tip #12: Be like Leonardo

Leonardo Da Vinci was a polymath (someone whose knowledge spans many different subjects and has an enormous body of knowledge.)

Look • Imagine • Create

Did you know that Leonardo Da Vinci was not only an artist but also an inventor? His sketchbooks included hundreds of ideas—catapults, flying machines, musical instruments, tools, water systems, and so much more! Leonardo dreamed BIG.

So how do we inspire our students to be like Leonardo?

It all begins with a book, a pencil, and our Leonardo da Vinci Observation Journal kit. Set your students on a Leonardo adventure. Observation begins with a question: What am I seeing? In a world filled to the brim with stimulation, it is easy to take our senses for granted. Though we are usually quick to have thoughts on things that we taste and smell, sight (of all things) can often be overlooked. We see so many things on a daily basis that it’s easy to forget to stop and really look.

Learn to think and create. This 20-lesson interdisciplinary unit guides students into biographical research of Leonardo. Students will read to discover and write what they glean. Each week they will be guided through observational exercises, and learn to draw from the Renaissance Man’s sketchbooks, encouraged each step of the way by our instructional videos that can be accessed at your convenience.

We are offering a discount on the unit through the end of January. Simply use the code DaVinci15 at checkout.

Enjoy the journey with Leonardo.

 

~Kimberly

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Struggling Writers: Filling the Gaps

Campfire Tip #11: Remediate to Read & Write

Does your student struggle to spell well? Stumble to decode simple words and phrases? Does your student struggle with lingering ELA COVID delays? Or do you have a student who just needs a bit more direct instruction, a bit more time and practice.

What if you had everything needed to engage your students in the process of remediating reading and writing skills at your fingertips? We’ve got you!

 

Click through to:  The Wonderful World of Phonics

Reading builds a rich vocabulary, grows our knowledge of the world, and sparks BIG ideas.

Writing begins with an idea and is crafted to words on a page by a courageous thinker.

Our open-ended unit provides you, the teacher, with all the tools necessary to guide your students into the wonderful world of phonics. Our curriculum, rooted in Orton-Gilligham wisdom, is user friendly and affirming for the older student who needs additional direct instruction and independent practice to shore up skills. Includes all you need to know about phonics, a placement guide, plus lesson guidance each step of the way.

Help your students dive into 2026 with the ELA tools that will enable them to read and write and think well!

 

~Kimberly

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One Bite at a Time: Long Research Writing

Campfire Tip #10: One Bite at a Time

“The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time,” or so the saying goes.

That’s also the mindset one must adopt when tackling the year-long research essay, known as Essay Volume 6: Advanced Research. This unit is designed for 11th and 12th grade students, representing the culmination of their research and literary writing skills. 

This school year marks my first foray into teaching Essay Volume 6. Over the last two sessions, I’ve learned a lot—and I’ve also fallen in love with this essay unit! It teaches life skills and writing habits that will stick with students for years to come. 

Is Essay Volume 6 a good fit for your student, either this coming year or years down the road? Here are some of my takeaways from teaching the long research project:

1. How It Works

Before we get into WHY I love Essay Volume 6, let’s go over what this unit entails. The Long Research Essay can be organized into two parts: the research process and the writing process. And conveniently enough, the guides are broken down into A and B volumes along the same lines. 

In the first half of the project, students choose a person, place, and thing they want to learn more about, unifying the three topics with a single theme (like creativity, truth, perseverance, or tragedy). Then they take a self-directed tour through the library and internet to find their sources and build a fund of knowledge. As I’ve taught this Pages class, I’ve given lessons on how to find and use credible sources—which is one of the most important skills in college writing—and expect students to present their research findings each week. This stretches their abilities in new ways!

In the second half of this course, students synthesize their research by writing and revising. Because they combine their person, place, and thing with their theme, they create a brand new narrative about their topics—chances are, no one has combined their topic and theme in the same way before! This is an exciting opportunity to apply a literary essay style to one’s own research.

2. Motivated Learning

A major principle of the psychology of memory is that we remember information that’s personally meaningful to us and struggle to remember information we don’t care about. You probably know this just from living life. 

Because Essay Volume 6 gives students so much creative freedom, they can choose to research topics they’re passionate about, transforming a potentially mundane research project into a motivated pursuit of knowledge. Writing doesn’t have to be boring. If you’re writing about the right things, it can be the most engrossing activity imaginable. 

For example, my student, Kingsley, has long been inspired by ballerina Margot Fontayne. She has a book about Fontayne’s life on her bookshelf that she’s never had the time to read. But Essay Volume 6 says, “Pursue your interests!” So that’s what Kingsley’s done. Choosing Margot Fontayne as her person to research, she’s taken a dive into this legendary dancer’s life, satisfying her curiosity and honing her research and writing skills. She finally had the chance to read her book!

When done right, research writing gives thinkers the chance to pursue questions they have about the world. 

3. Rising to the Challenge

Time and time again, I’ve seen this truth play out: Set high expectations and students will rise to meet them. 

The Long Research Essay is a daunting task. It demands self-discipline. Motivation. Consistency.

But, I believe our Blackbird students are more than up to the challenge. When students set big goals for themselves and then achieve them, they build their confidence one brick at a time. The impossible becomes possible. Students learn that they are capable!

The week-by-week scaffolding of Essay Volume 6 provides the framework necessary for students to soar to great heights. You don’t craft a masterpiece in one sitting; rather, you chip away at your work of art day by day, sometimes fueled by perseverance rather than inspiration. 

Let’s set some lofty goals. And then get to work. 

 

~Claire S.

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Editing Student Writing

writing

Campfire Tip #1: Empower Students to SELF-Edit

We’ve got you! Head over to Print Shop to download for FREE our student self-editing checklists—Writer’s ChecklistLevel 1, Writer’s Checklist Level 2, and Writer’s Checklist Level 3. These resources are designed for use with writers at three levels: Early Elementary (CORE Level 1), grades 3, sometimes 4 or 5 depending on the writer, Upper Elementary (CORE Level 2), grades 4 and 5, and Middle School (CORE Level 3), grades 6 through 8. At each level, the goal is for writers to re-read the first draft, the rough, and to self-edit, looking for issues ranging from indentation and capitalization to spelling errors, to run-ons and fragments and much more. The checklists will gently encourage writers to engage in writing as an artform and to raise their voice accordingly!

It’s important that we help students, early on, to engage in the process of writing—all the stages. Real writing is not a one-and-done activity. Real writing is sparked by curiosity, simmers in the imagination, and is brought to shape through a process of steps: brainstorming, writing it down, reading it over, self-editing, teacher-editing, refining, and polishing.

We’ll talk about role as Teacher soon enough… until then, hand your students a checklist and get them self-editing!

 

~Kimberly

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Moving BEYOND the Topic Sentence

Squirrels are everywhere. That’s for sure! Most young writers have had a squirrel encounter or two. Tapping into a rich storehouse of knowledge is a great place to learn to craft a HOOK—not a topic sentence, a HOOK! The best place to begin a writing lesson is to tap into what the writer knows and to read a book.

Nuts to You by Lois Ehlert is a gorgeous and simple story of a quintessential city squirrel who, naturally, zips mischievously through life. Told in lively rhyming verse with beautiful collage illustration, the book is sure to capture the attention of students. At the back of the book the author includes some terrific facts about squirrels. We chose five facts to focus on:

Five Facts About Squirrels

1. Squirrels are rodents

2. They have front teeth—incisors—that NEVER stop growing.

3. They live in big nests or hollow trees.

4. They have five toes on their front feet, four on their back.

5. Their bushy tail is as long as its body.

 

Often times, when facing the blank page, students are intimidated and resort to simplistic, and, well, let’s face it, BORING solutions! Young writers resort to what they have been taught: Open your paragraph with a topic sentence. This is not technically wrong. But we can BETTER equip them!

For example these perfectly fine topic sentence are boring:

Squirrels are cute animals.

Squirrels are everywhere.

And my least favorite topic sentence of all:

I am going to write about squirrels.

So how do we teach our students to make topic sentences sparkle and shine?

We teach the to transform the topic sentence into a HOOK!

To help them get there, I gave them a BIGGER squirrel fact: Did you know that squirrels are everywhere in the world except Madagascar and Australia? We looked at a globe together and marveled at this interesting fact!

Next, I asked them what kinds of noises squirrels make. I got some very fun responses, too! I told them that we writers like to create words that represent sounds and, when we do it’s called: onomatopoeia. They liked that word! Now it was time to craft a HOOK for our paragraph about squirrels.

“Let’s imagine what it would sound like if we could hear all the squirrels all over the world.”

We generated a significant list:

Barking, Chirping Squeaking Squawking, Whistling Scampering Scratching Gnawing Grinding, Rattling, Buzzing, Crying

Next I said, “Let’s include our BIG fact via an Em Dash,” and went on to remind them that this special punctuation mark helps the reader take a long pause while adding some important information to the sentence.

Now we had our fodder and were ready to craft a HOOK! Here’s were we landed:

They are chattering, chirping,  squawking  all over the wide world—everywhere except Madagascar and Australia.

That’s the way to open a paragraph about squirrels!

 

 

~Kimberly

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Crafting a Wonder-FULL Sentence is Courageous

Staring down the blank page is a courageous endeavor.

Where to begin?

We say: Begin with a BOOK!

BIG ideas are sparked by knowledge + curiosity.

“All you need to do is write one TRUE sentence,” so said great American author,  Ernest Hemingway. But what exactly did he mean? Let’s face it, accuracy of expression may be learned in a grammar book, but depth of expression begins when a writer decides to pick up a pencil and scratch an original idea onto a blank sheet of paper. The first, BEST lesson, is to teach your students that writing about wonder leads to wonderful writing.

Here are four ways to compose a wonder-FULL sentence about owls.

First let’s gather information.

When faced with the blank page, first things first, press into food for thought. For this lesson, we dove into  Animalium for Kids, by Kate Scott and Jenny Broom. With over 160 specimens to explore in this wonderful biological compendium, we are narrowing our focus to Owls. We don’t need an exhaustive study here—this is a sentence writing exercise after all. We need just enough information to become curious and inspired to write. Getting ready to focus on composing even a single sentence requires gathering intriguing information.

The owl entry in this book is just enough to spark curiosity.  After reading, focusing in on the amazing illustrations, sharing what we found amazing about owls—storing new facts in our memory, adding to our growing knowledge of owls—we made a list:

  1. There are two main families of owls within the order Strigiformes: Tytonidae (barn owls) and Strigidae (typical owls).
  2. Huge owl eyes are stationary, fixed in their sockets—no eye rolling!
  3. Owls can rotate their head 270 degrees.

Next, let’s review the four types of sentences:

Statements are declarative. Statements tell us something.

Are questions interrogative? (Yes.) Questions ask.

Commands are imperative. Commands demand action.

Exclamations are exclamatory! Exclamations roar!

Now, let’s get writing.

A our first attempt at “NOW, let’s write a statement together,” I listened and wrote the group consensus on the board:

There are two types of owls, typical and barn owls.

Here’s where writing get’s fun! Add details, rearrange, think about word choice to make the above statement a tale that will turn heads. Follow the W Rule:

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, to WOW the reader!

For this sentence, I had a basket of blocks all different shapes but only two colors that I poured out onto the floor, asking my students to quickly sort by color. We, obviously, ended up with two colors. Then I gave them another fact about owls—there are 200 species in the world—and asked them to help me add this detail to our statement. Here’s what the group came up with:

All 2 million owls in the world (200 species) can be sorted into two BIG piles—Strigidae (typical) and Tytonidae (barn owls).

Finally, let’s translate the statement to a question, command, and an exclamation:

Statement:

All the owls in the world (all 200 species) can be sorted into two BIG piles—Strigidae (typical) and Tytonidae (barn owls).

Question:

Isn’t it amazing that all 2 million owls in the world (all 200 species) can be sorted into two BIG piles—Strigidae (typical) and Tytonidae (barn owls)?

Command:

Please sort the 2 million owls, all the owls in the world (all 200 species) into two BIG piles—Strigidae (typical) and Tytonidae (barn owls).

Exclamation:

All 2 million the owls in the world (all 200 species) can be sorted into two BIG piles—Strigidae (typical) and Tytonidae (barn owls)—Wow!

There you have it, all four sentence types in one fell swoop! Once you’ve tackled this exercise a few times as a group, it’s easy-peasy to make it an independent activity—from gathering information to four TRUE sentences!  Ernest Hemingway would be proud.

 

~Kimberly