Pilgrim writing

Back when I posted about our Pilgrim compare/contrast activity, I mentioned that we started a writing activity. 

First, we read 2 books about life on Plimouth Plantation.  One was about a boy and all of his responsibilities and chores, and one was about a girl's daily life.  I gave the students a writing prompt which was: "If I were a pilgrim boy/girl..." and they were instructed to write about what their daily activities and lives would be like. 

First, students wrote a first draft, or sloppy copy.  When they finished this, I collected them and made corrections in purpl marker.  After a conference to discuss the changes and correctiond, they got started on their final drafts. 

I have a book of writing Tops and Bottoms that has a cute little Pilgrim Boy and Pilgrim Girl.  When the students were finished with their final copies, they decorated and cut out their pilgrim people and pasted it on construction paper so it looked like they held up the papers.

This little guy has his hands backwards. 

 We hung them all on the wall outside our classroom door for everyone to read and enjoy before Thanksgiving!

Pilgrims Compare Contrast

We have been learning to compare and contrast in our reading lessons this week.  I saw some great things on other first grade blogs and decided to do a Venn Diagram comparing Pilgrim life to life today.

After watching several videos on united streaming and brain pop jr. and reading a few books, we discussed what we have in common with the Pilgrims and how we are different.  I wrote several of those ideas down, printed them and cut them out.  I passed them out to the students and they pasted them in our big Venn diagram.  It was a great formative assessment!

Next we labeled the diagram and started a writing activity.  More on that soon!