How To Write About Family Traditions
With the holiday season in full swing, this is an excellent opportunity to discuss your student’s family traditions and customs. Here are some tips and a free writing booklet you can use.
Let Them Talk
First, define what a tradition is. You can share what traditions you have and invite students to share theirs.
You can also use books and educational videos to help to gather important information. A great resource is Epic books. It has a vast digital library on customs and traditions.
Students love talking about their families and lives, so allocate considerable time for this discussion. Let students feel heard when sharing about their family traditions.
You can teach students that traditions are not just about holidays. It’s about how you celebrate your birthday, dance, food, and even what you do when you lose your tooth! Allow them to think-pair-share with a partner or tell the class about their traditions.
Independent Writing
Now, it’s time to write. I model how to brainstorm, write, and draw. Then, it’s their turn.
Since they are writing a non-fiction book, we complete the table of contents, headings, and page numbers together. I love this process! Students start to identify themselves as authors and illustrators and apply what they learned about text features to their books.
Tips for Writing
Some students will write independently, and some will need varying degrees of support. Here are some tips that can help you.
- Provide students with a picture bank or a word bank to help them spell
- Provide sentence frames during discussions and provide those same frames to assist with their writing
- Oral rehearsals – Have students practice with you what they want to write and help them as needed
- If you have a few students that need help with writing, work with them in a small group.
Share our Writing
Provide time for students to share their books. Let them read their books in small groups or with a partner. This allows them to share it multiple times.
You can grab the family traditions booklet below:
What resources or tips do you have to get students to share their family traditions? Let me know in the comments section.
Happy teaching,
Tee
