First Grade No Excuses List

1st Grade Writing "No Excuses" List

With Common Core right around the corner we decided as a first grade team to create a "no excuses" list for grammar. Some of us teachers conducted school visits and learned that one particular school who uses the Lucy Calkins Units of Study for writing (like we do) created "no excuse" lists to accompany the writing instruction. The one thing that the units of study lack is grammar instruction. The grammar lessons are supposed to be embedded into the writing lessons. Although we do that, we were noticing that students were still not following the basic grammar rules. So, we created a "no excuses" list for students to use to check their work. Each child will get a copy to keep in his/her writing folder. In addition to the list, I created a chart as a visual. I got the idea for the chart format from a chart I saw on Pinterest on capital letters. My chart includes capital letters, ending punctuation, and commas. Click on the picture to see a bigger version of the picture. If you'd like to create the same chart, you can download the pictures and text by clicking here! I found the clipart online and used the "LD Elementary" from the Lettering Delights website.

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SAMR and Google ~ A Beautiful Combination

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The Purple Parade

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