Fountas & Pinnell Blog

Foster joyful writing with minilessons that spark creativity, imagination, and learning with Fountas & Pinnell Classroom™ Writing Minilessons Books.

Explore with the child while looking for words and letters. When the child sees a letter, have them point to it and say the letter out loud. Can you find them all, A to Z?

Have the student create notebook with drawing paper and lined notepaper. Invite the student to write facts about animals they learn about throughout the year, either in class or outside of school.

Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell examine the critical role of teachers as leaders AND the role of facilitative talk in shaping a culture of professional learning.

Challenge the student to identify a challenging goal that they want to achieve. Discuss a reasonable timeline for accomplishing their goal. Once the student meets the challenge, talk about what they learned.

Discuss with the student why it’s important to be willing to try new things, even if you might fail. Have them compare how they feel when they try but fail to how they feel if they never try.

Have the student select a wild animal they are interested in to research. Have them prepare a visual presentation with facts about the animal’s home and habitat.

Have the child discuss their favorite foods and identify which ones are plants. Work together to plan a menu and gather items to hold a plant picnic.

Have the student make list of important events in their lives. When their lists are completed, have the student create a timeline of these important events.

Have the student identify a goal, and then write on blank paper footprints the steps they think they’ll need to take to achieve their goal.

Sounds, Letters, and Words in PreK will give prekindergarteners a strong foundation in literacy that will prepare them for kindergarten and beyond.

Discuss with the student some of the challenges they have faced, large and small. Have the student organize their thoughts on a chart and talk about what they learned.

Have a brainstorm session with the student about foods that different animals eat, then have them write a riddle with the answer being the type of animal who eats that food.

Talk with the student about times when they’ve faced a challenging situation. Then role-play different scenarios, such as helping a friend try out for a sports team or facing a bully together.

Share a variety of fruits and vegetables sliced in halves or quarters so seeds are easily observable. Provide art materials and have the child choose one fruit or vegetable to draw.

Have the student choose one important event in their life and then have the student make a graphic organizer with a box for each of the following: Who? What? When? Where? Why?

Talk about why it’s important to keep trying, even when you feel tired or discouraged. Talk about the characters in favorite books who overcame adversity or stuck with something even though it was difficult or took a long time.

Have the child observe different seeds that vary in size, shape and texture. Invite them to draw the seeds and write about different kinds of plants they know about.