I was doing my lesson plans tonight and I had to interact with this calendar of writing prompts from my school. I get so irritated I want to spit every time I look at it. First off, it’s just too broad of an age spread to combine K-2nd grade. Note the current prompt for my kids:
Explain the difference between a solid, liquid, and gas. Give two examples of each.
Never mind that our current science unit is FABRIC……. My kids can hardly put the sentence together, “I like (insert something here)” I would have to do a whole unit on solids, liquids and gases just to get to the point where we could put a sentence together. THEY WANT TWO EXAMPLES OF EACH. That is so ludicrous that it defies words. I’ll just shut up now……..
Writing Prompts
2009 – 2010
K – 2nd Grade
| 9/8/09 – 9/11/09 | No Prompt – 4 Day Week |
| 9/21/09 – 9/25/09 | My favorite holiday is _______ because… |
| 10/6/09 – 10/9/09 | No Prompt – 4 Day Week |
| 10/19/09 – 10/23/09 | In a letter to the President, persuade him to change a law of your choice. |
| 11/3/09 – 11/6/09 | No Prompt – 4 Day Week |
| 11/16/09 – 11/20/09 | Explain the difference between a solid, liquid, and gas. Give two examples of each. |
| 11/30/09 – 12/4/10 | Think about what you like to do the most. Write a paper telling what you enjoy doing and at least three reasons why you like this activity so much. |
| 12/14/10 – 12/18/10 | Dear Santa Friendly Letter |
| 1/11/10 – 1/14/10 | No Prompt – 4 Day Week |
| 1/25/10 – 1/29/10 | Light is very important because… |
| 2/8/10 – 2/12/10 | Sometimes we give help, and sometimes we get help. Think about a time when you helped someone or when someone helped you. Tell a story about what happened. |
| 2/22/10 – 2/26/10 | Write a poem about your favorite food. Use all your 5 senses to describe your favorite food. |
| 3/8/10 – 3/12/10 | A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away lived a… |
| 3/22/10 – 3/26/10 | If you were given a free two-week dream vacation, where would you go and why? |
| 4/12/10 – 4/16/10 | Write about the butterfly life cycle. |
| 4/26/10 – 4/30/10 | Write a personal narrative about an event you enjoyed doing with family members or friends. Give details and tell what happened in time order. |
| 5/10/10 – 5/14/10 | Write about how plants grow. |
| 5/24/10 – 5/28/10 | Write about your favorite animal. Be sure to include descriptive details about your animal. |
| 6/7/10 – 6/11/10 | On a deserted island I’ll need… |
| 6/21/10 – 6/25/10 | Write a description about your favorite place. Use your five senses to help describe the place for the reader. |
| 7/6/10 – 7/9/10 | No Prompt – 4 Day Week |
| 7/19/10 – 7/23/10 | Write about what you’re looking forward to next year. |
I could DO all that…. if I didn’t have an already full curriculum (which this of course isn’t alligned to). Building the background knowledge for half of these would take most of my day. Many days.
Teaching Kindergarten/1st Grade 
I have to say, this one is my favorite:
“In a letter to the President, persuade him to change a law of your choice.”
I choose the letter “Q”.
Good one Nate. I think I would pick X though, what’s with THAT pronunciation?
And that was one of MY favorite too….. First off, it isn’t even logical. NOBODY writes ONE letter to the President, and gets a law changed. He doesn’t even MAKE laws. That would be the legeslative branch….. And the keen intellect and logic of a kindergartener, (who generally still can’t separate fact from fantasy yet) will outweigh the logic of “The President” in one letter. It aught to at LEAST say, Try to get him to change a law.
ARE. YOU. FREAKIN’. SERIOUS.?!?! You are supposed to use those with your KINDERGARTNERS?!?!?!? You just made me feel way better about the crap they’re asking me to do with mine! Yikes!
It’s plug down affect, 5th grade is supposed to write on a certain level to pass the state mandated testing. So 4th grade should write on “this” level, and 3rd on “this” level and etc. right down to kindergarten. I don’t know how many hours of training I have been in with them teaching writing skills that are so far over the heads of my kindergarteners that it ends up being a big waste of time. But they would rather give ALL grades the same inservices, than differentiate. Funny that, WE are supposed to differentiate, but they can’t be bothered.
This has utterly depressed me. Mainly because it reinforces my belief of how dauntingly sane I am.
It depressed us too. But nobody had a real problem with us changing the prompts. The person who made them made two lists, on for the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades and one for K, 1st, and 2nd. Clearly it was mainly a case of one size does NOT fit all…….