I like teaching procedural writing as you can give children a basic template/framework to complete the writing.

Heading – How to _____________

Materials/Ingredients – the things you will need

Method – step by step

checklist

Follow my instructions

I gave the children instructions on how to make a paper airplane. Each child had a coloured piece of paper and they had to follow the instructions – listening carefully. (Soon many guessed what they were making).

Give instructions

Next, I chose a child to make the airplane again. This time the class had to give the instructions and I wrote them on the board. (Shared writing). Once we were happy with the instructions, I asked the teacher next door if we could ‘borrow’ one of her children for 2 minutes. The child followed the instructions and we saw that 1/2 of them were not clear so we had to change them.

BOSSY Words (verbs)

I explained that procedural writing/instructions needed to be written as commands and we had to be bossy. We brainstormed and wrote a list of 5/6 bossy words on the board. (Put, Stir, Mix, Cut, Break etc.) The children then wrote their own list in their Magpie copies and we shared again and ‘magpies’ each others ideas.

The children then wrote the instructions on how to make a paper airplane into their copies.

Make

We made Rice Krispie buns yesterday. Many children had made them before so knew what to do. We started with shared writing and talked about the first thing we needed – A Title and then the other headings we needed (Materials and Method).

I chose different children to do each of the jobs (using lollipop sticks – to make it fair) – break the chocolate, melt the chocolate (in the microwave), add the rice krispies and mix. Each child then got a chance to spoon up and make 1 rice krispie bun.

While they were setting we started writing our step by step recipe for making rice krispie buns. (Children used their list of time connectives and bossy words from their magpie books.)

Next week we will write instructions on how to turn your teacher into a toad. It is great to link it with Halloween and the children will really enjoy writing it. We will do the first draft into our copy and then edit and revise and make it for a display!