Writer's Workshop

One of the things Hannah struggles with in 1st grade is writing. And not just writing but coming up with a topic to write about. She can spend so much of her time thinking about what she wants to write about that she does not get much writing done. She wants her work to be perfect and if she can't spell a word or if she thinks she can't draw a picture of something she will not want to write about it.
One day I was in her class working on a project and the kids were sitting down to write in their journals. Hannah could not think of something to write about so her teacher sent her to talk to me for ideas. I said "Well, we went to the farmer's market on Saturday. We got some corn and some yummy peaches. You could write about that." Hannah thought about it for a minute and said "I can't draw corn."
We are working on this and she is getting better at trying things she thinks she can't do.
Here is one of her writing pieces that she did several weeks ago.


Her spelling takes some practice to decipher. Here is the translation:
Me and my Grandma are kind of pen pals and I love her and that she has stuff for me and her name is Ann and shes really special and nice to me and that she plays games with me.

We are working on spelling and making sentences but progress is progress.