Writers in Action

First graders do a great deal of writing. We begin the year writing personal narratives which we call "small moment" stories. Small moment stories are stories that capture one part of a child's experience that they wish to tell. We learn how to zoom in to an idea to make it a small moment story. A child might start with the idea that they want to write about playing in the snow. Then we zoom in to discover the child wants to write about playing in the snow with his sister. Then we zoom in even further to find out the child wants to write about playing in the snow with his sister building a snowman. This is a small moment story. It only describes building a snowman, not the child's entire experience outside in the snow. Kids have written many small moment stories since the beginning of the year!