The Wonderful World of Paper Folding

About a month ago, we had an inservice about the Four Square Writing technique.

First grade has used Four-Square for several years, but we did learn something really neat.

The presenter taught us how to fold a paper to make a four-square model.

I always start with a piece of manilla paper and fold it in half "hamburger" style:

Then, fold the top down to the bottom:

Find the corner that cannot be opened and pinch it:

Fold that corner toward the middle of the paper about half way:

Unfold the paper all the way.  Trace the fold lines of the diamond in the middle.  Then trace the other fold lines. 

The center diamond is for the topic sentence.  The top two and bottom left box are for details.  The final box is for and "I think..." or an "I feel...." sentence.  You now have a paper set up for your students to organize a paragraph!

My kids think that it is neat that THEY are the ones creating the sections for the paper.  I like that there is only one place for an opinion sentence!!

Happy Writing!!