Some of the afternoon mini lessons used charts and lessons on the blackboard followed by a favorite – a paragraph written on the blackboard, eliminating all punctuation, as they watched while trying to decide upon changes. Then various children volunteered to suggest the corrections and to see if others agreed with them.

Two Samples:

mrs broadbent put a collection of rocks in our science center do you know they come from all over the world did you also know that they are all different colors some of the rocks are hard and some are soft some are large and some are small some are smooth and some are rough

periods  5                     question marks  2                     capitals 7

did you know that this year I have gone on six field trips in october I went to dead man’s gap a man named mr steele was our guide I also went to the civic center in october to see a play at the end of october i went to stickley furniture company our class went there on a       tuesday in january I went to the eraser company in february i went to see syracuse stage

periods  8                     question marks 1                      capitals 33

Later in the year dictated sentences were corrected on the back of the weekly spelling tests.

Learn more about the writing program and teaching the techniques of writing in my book, Early Childhood Programs: Opportunities for Academic, Cognitive, and Personal Success. Included is a web site where programs and activities can be downloaded for use in a classroom. Also, see 7 reviews on www.amazon.com