My students have been BEGGING me to add letter writing to Work on Writing, but I had to teach them all about how to write a letter before setting them free! So, this past week, we were all kinds of excited (yes, WE meaning my students and me!) when it was time to finally learn how to write one. I know some teachers DREAD writing time, but I LOVE IT! I just adore the inventive spelling and creativity behind each masterpiece. So, it was only appropriate that The Life-Sized Letter Guy would join our class on Friday to help us write a letter back to poor Timmy who needed some advice on how to solve his BIG problem.
Before writing a letter back to Timmy, we first watched this cute Brain Pop Jr. video.
Then, we learned about the parts of a letter using The Life-Sized Letter Guy’s body! I had a few students come up at a time and label him using these cards. You can download them for free here. 
Afterwards, they did a little movement activity using their own bodies. I would say, “ this is where you write the date” and they would put their hands on their head or, “this is where you greet the person” and they would wave with their hand. We did this for each of the parts of a letter. They LOVED it and I think it really helped them understand the importance of each of the parts of a letter. Then, it was finally time to set them free and let them write their own letters! I gave each of them an extension card (each card has a different problem on it) from my We Are Problem Detectives packet, and had them write a letter to the person on the card giving advice on how to solve their problem.
They wrote the letters using this cute writing paper from my Writer’s Workshop packet. They are still working hard on these! I can’t wait for them to share them with the class!
In addition to all of the letter writing they’ll FINALLY be doing Work on Writing this week, I’ll also be adding these new writing prompts! You can grab them for free! Just click on the preview below to go download them. Enjoy!
Have a great week!
Jean-Marie Strickland
October 6, 2013Looks like a fun way to teach the parts of a letter!
Jean-Marie Strickland
October 6, 2013Looks like a fun way to teach the parts of a letter!
Mary Lirette
October 6, 2013LOVE the writing prompts and the letter writing stuff! 🙂
Mary
Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives
Trisha
October 6, 2013When you have work on writing…are you meeting with your guided reading groups during daily 5? They are writing independently? Right now i am using your idea with the chevron book and your cute labels. The kids are doing a wonderful job. But what do you do with what they write? Do you always review them? Also do you let them have options? Or is it just one thing they are writing? Sorry for all the questions, but this part of D5 is new for me this year and I am still confused 🙂
Danielle K
October 7, 2013Thank you for the cute prompts! I always love your ideas and printables!
Mrs Cupcake
October 7, 2013Love it! Thanks for the freebie!!
❤Teri
A Cupcake for the Teacher
learningmyself
October 7, 2013thanks for sharing your fun ideas and prompts…appreciate it!! Amy 🙂
Jeannie Partin
October 7, 2013love these great ideas for teaching letter writing! Thanks so much for the freebie too!
~jeannie~
Kindergarten Lifestyle
Hod
May 17, 2017Thank you. I love the cute writing ideas.