Spring Writing Elementary Lesson Plans
Text Structure – Write Simple Sentences, Rhyming Words, Acrostics
Mar 6, 2009
Identifying and analyzing the text structure of children's picture books will help students understand how other writers compose their works and give them ideas for how to write their own works and improve their own writing.
In these writing elementary lesson plans for spring writing activities, share spring picture books with different text structures with students. Then, help students identify the text structure and pattern in each case and practice using each text structure to write their own books about signs of spring and spring sights and activities.
Writing Simple Sentences
In short sentences and minimalist pictures, Spring Is Here by Taro Gomi [Chronicle Books, 1999] narrates what happens in one field over the course of one year. The simplicity of the structure of each sentence makes this book ideal for studying text structure.
After reading the book aloud to students, list each sentence from the story on the board. Have students identify similarities between the sentences, such as the fact that the book begins and ends with the sentence Spring is here. Students should note that with a few variations, all of the sentences follow one of two forms:
- The [noun] [present tense verb].
- The [noun] is [adjective].
Discuss why the author might have used the same sentence to begin and end the book, noting that a year also comes full circle. Discuss how using the same sentence structure to describe the field at different times of the year makes it easier to compare what the field is like from season to season.
Next, have students think about a place that is special to them and how it changes throughout the year, particularly what it is like in spring. Ask them to begin a book about this place with the sentence Spring is here. and then use the two sentence forms above as models for writing sentences for the middle of their book, ending once again with Spring is here.
Depending on available class time, students can write just the text for their stories or illustrate their stories and produce bound, published books for the class Reading Center.
Writing with Rhyming Words
Each line in Spring Things by Bob Raczka [Albert Whitman & Company, 2007] uses a series of words that end with ing to describe spring activities such as spring thaw or outdoor games. Copying this text structure will give students practice with using varied, descriptive words that rhyme.
Ask students to pick three events from a list of popular spring sights and spring activities. Then, have them brainstorm words that rhyme and end with ing that capture the feeling and action of these events and signs of spring and write a sentence full of these words for each one. Students can then combine the three sentences with a fourth line that reads Spring. to create a spring poem.
Depending on available class time, students can just write their poems or illustrate each line and produce bound, published book-length poems for the class Reading Center.
Writing Acrostics
Each page in Spring: An Alphabet Acrostic by Steven Schnur [Clarion Books, 1999] contains an acrostic poem, or a poem where each line starts with one of the letters from the name of the subject of the poem. Spring subjects from A to Z are covered.
Ask students to brainstorm their own list of objects related to spring that begin with letters from A to Z. Then, divide the words among students and have them practice acrostic writing by writing acrostic poems of their own.
Once students are done writing acrostic poems, have them illustrate their acrostic poems and then gather them in alphabetic order into a class spring book of acrostic poetry.
The more practice students get with writing with different text structures, the more comfortable they will become with using varied patterns of text and sentence structures in their own writing.
Teachers can use another text structure in this elementary spring writing lesson plan.
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