Small Moment Writing

In writing today we started working on small moments. We looked at the small idea instead of the big picture. It is something my second graders were familiar with, learning about the idea in first grade, but it's always challenging for them at the beginning of the year to narrow down their topic so much. We started off with a mini lesson using a mimio lesson. It reviewed what a small moment story was and allowed students to interact and figure out some details around a small moment. Here is the link if you have a mimio in your room: Small Moment Mimio Lesson

I also referred to a fabulous first grade website which had some really great ideas for introducing small moment stories: http://firstgradewow.blogspot.com/2012/10/catch-small-moment.html

Students were first allowed to make their "hats" to help their brains think of all the little small moment story ideas.

Next, I made my own recreation of her anchor chart and allowed students to brainstorm their own small moment ideas on post-it notes. We reviewed everyone's ideas and if they weren't small moment, as a class we helped narrow it down. 

Students then used some of the documents from the first grade website I mentioned above to write their own small moment story. They turned out pretty good for the first go around, and I was so surprised to see even some of my more reluctant writers adding some details!

I hope you are able to capture some small moment writing!