Thanksgiving Writing Freebie!

Exciting news! We've just released a Thanksgiving themed freebie writing resource. This activity focuses on sentence-start practice with nouns and adverbs. Click the image above to access your FREE download :)

SCW Store Update

Hey everyone! We've got some exciiiiiiiting news to share...Our newest writing mega unit is finished and available through our store! We are so pumped about this one!! Argument writing and the argumentative essay are essential common core elements required throughout middle school and high school but like most in depth essay styles, it can be a bit daunting to know where to start on this one. Our goal in creating this comprehensive resource was to take the sequencing and handout/practice activity prep work largely off your plate. The resource is broken down into 12 information packed lessons, most of which could be expanded into two lessons if preferred. Each lesson includes teachers notes, instructional handouts and printable practice activities. Click the image below to for more details and a preview! 

Just in time for the Halloween and Thanksgiving season, we've also released our Pumpkin Fun: Varied Sentence Starts activity packet. This resource features 5 printable activities to help your students practice 5 different ways to vary their sentence starts. This skill set is fantastic for all writing forms and styles, not just essays. Click the image below for more details and a preview!

Finally, we've got two new literary essay practice resources available! One offers students the opportunity to practice their literary essay writing skills after reading the classic novel, 'To Kill A Mockingbird'. The other offers a similar practice opportunity but for a more spooky literature classic: The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. Perfect for Halloween themed writing practice! Click images below for more information and previews. 

Lately // 1

Just wanted to jump on the blog tonight to post a quick real life update. It's about time we had one of those around here, isn't it? ;)

So September has been busy! Can I get an amen? I'm sure you're all feeling it too. Avaline is back at work on program development, teaching sessions and curriculum design which is always at its most demanding in September. Meanwhile I've been busy at work designing and laying out some of the resources we planned over the summer. Avaline's been fine tuning the material and let me tell you…it's amazing! Now I'm really digging into the design intricacies to make sure that the resources we produce are beautiful and super easy for teacher's and student's to enjoy in their classrooms. Lots on the burner for sure. We can't wait to start posting them on TPT and are working hard to do that as soon as possible. Product update post to come when they're live! 

In non-SCW news, Ryan (my husband) is out of town this week so Avaline joined Lincoln (my wiry and loveable Irish Wolfhound pictured above…her beloved doggie grandson :) and I for a sleepover. We love this time to catch up and explore our beautiful surroundings with Lincoln. He tends to have an adventuring affect on anyone he's around. And we're not complaining. Starting our days traversing river banks and breathing in the crisp fall air always seems to get our creative juices flowing! 

I'm planning on posting a few more real life updates here on the blog in the coming weeks. We'd love to let you know a bit more about each of us and our lives outside the resources we produce and our involvement in the educational community. And on that note, we'd also love to get to know you! Feel free to tell us a bit about yourself in the comment sections of these posts. We're excited for that conversation to develop! 

Happy weekend everyone! 

SCW Store Update

We're super excited to announce our paragraph instruction and practice resources are now complete and available for purchase in our store!! We've been planning these babies for some time now, so it's thrilling to have them finished in time for the start of this school year. 

Proper paragraph writing is vital. If taught simplistically and consistently, students grasp the concept rather quickly and forever benefit from this versatile skill. With these two resources we aim to provide teachers with the visual aids and engaging practice templates to help their students confidently and correctly write paragraphs. We hope you enjoy! 

INSTRUCTION & PRACTICE RESOURCE

CUSTOMIZABLE & REUSABLE PRACTICE RESOURCE

SCW Store Update

Hey all! I hope your August is going well and that preparations for the new school year are well underway. I'm popping in today with an exciting update about what's new over at our Start Communications Writing (SCW) store!

August is BIG for teachers so you can trust we're busy bees at work, perfecting more new products than ever before with the kind of systems, simplicity and style you've come to expect from us. We have sooo many ideas, so more teacher-time-saving products are always around the corner. Yay! It's just finding enough hours in each day to create them that's our challenge ;) A good challenge to have, if you ask us! 

NEW IN THE SHOP!

This Home Schooling beginning-of-the-year vision planner is a fantastic resource and the first of many home schooling products to come. Map out your family's learning priorities, education vision, curriculum preferences, support structure and more with this interactive booklet, written from Avaline's extensive home school consulting experience.

In case you're new to our story, Avaline is a home schooling teacher and consultant of 21 years and I was fortunate enough to be home schooled by her for several elementary years. Needless to say, in addition to education in general, we are passionate about home schooling done well. We look forward to sharing our tips, tools and resources specifically geared towards home schooling in greater volume in the near future!

This resource is a particular favourite of ours because it facilitates daily practice of an essential essay writing skill, the outline. Included in this pack is a note to teachers, a blank weekly topic sentence template (Monday - Friday) and 5 blank outline templates (Monday - Friday). The purpose of this resource is to encourage students towards strong outline writing by practicing it 5 minutes a day. This resource makes it simple and efficient for teachers to engage student's in this important activity. Photocopy these templates as many times as you'd like for use in your classroom! 

Start the year off right with these graphic dividers for your students' writing portfolios. Many of our resources already file beautifully into this portfolio system and we are in the process of creating the remaining resources which will complete the system. Of course, these dividers are meant to work for your collecting writing resources as well, so be sure to customize the system in whatever way works best for you and for your classroom!

There's a lot more coming soon, so stay tuned! Happy Thursday everyone :)