We start our How-to writing in January and we use Deanna Jump & DeeDee Wills’ Informational Writing unit (if you haven’t checked them out yet, you need too!).  As part of the unit, the children create topical lists, so they can refer back to it when they need to.  They also have a Topic List in many of their other units.  I love that they can draw 9 separate ideas on their “list” sheet and come back to it as they need a new topic to write about.

We work on sequencing our writing by also using the Informational Writing unit.  Deanna & DeeDee include a sheet where the children draw an illustration and write a few words or sentence next to it.  We teach the children how to carefully check their steps by acting them out, but if they find that they missed a step or have one in the wrong order, we cut their paper up and tape it back together in the correct sequence (or add in the missing step).