I am often asked how I organize my student writing folders. Then the other day I was cleaning out a "special drawer" that I had (AKA: junk drawer, catch-all, blackhole) when I found an old writing folder I used with my 2nd-grade students. I'd forgotten all about them. So I decided to whip up a cleaned-up version and offer them to you all! Here are your Writing Folder Organization FREE labels for your early ...
Writers Workshop
Shark Activities for Kindergarten and First Grade
Shark Activities for Kindergarten and First Grade. Check out the book ideas for reader's workshop and writers workshop. You can find a free file towards the end of this blog post too! Shark Activities Mentor Texts Surprising Sharks by Nicola Davies Surprising Sharks by Nicola Davies is such a great book! This book contains a ton information about sharks! I love the illustrations and so will your class! We ...
Using Mentor Texts in Kindergarten
Kindergarten Mentor Texts to teach reading and writing with Cynthia Rylant's Scarecrow book (affiliate link)... you bet! This last week I had the pleasure of visiting a kindergarten classroom. She had already started the book, Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant for her Guiding Readers/Close Read, so when she asked me to do a lesson on word choice... I could not contain my excitement. This book is PERFECT for word choice (among other ...
9 Books that Get Kids Writing in Writers Workshop
I want to share with you some of my favorite books to help students get started with writing. I just got a new book today {EEK} so I added to my evergrowing collection! Books that tell a story with just pictures One of the things that might make kindergarteners a little reluctant to write is that somewhere along the line, they were given the impression that only words make the writer. To help build their author~ness, share some ...
5 Things You NEED to Know About Writers Workshop
So... to be honest... there are WAY more than 5 things you need to know about writers workshop. But I hope this will get you started! I have been reflecting on the questions I get asked most frequently when I do presentations on writers workshop. Here are the some of the biggies! Student Choice I will start right off by saying writing prompts for writers workshop are not considered best practices. Don't take my word for ...
10 Wordless Books to Teach Story Telling
I love using wordless books to teach story telling. These 10 wordless books that are my favorite. Before students can be asked to write a story, they must first be able to tell a story. The Why! Has this happened to you? You are so excited to start writers workshop early in the year. You dismiss your students to start to write their stories, only to hear a chorus of "I'm DONE!" 2.2 minutes later. Or later in the year, you read a ...
Writers Workshop… I love kid writing!
Shamelessly, I have carried these student samples around for MONTHS! I audibly gasped when I saw this date... (um...3 months in my bag? How does that happen?) Forgive me my sweet kinder friend! All About Polar Bears First polar bears can run and with claws swim far. Polar bears can catch seals. Next polar bears can have two cubs. Polar ...
Writers Workshop: How is it going? (FREE download)
I haven't written about writing in awhile... where does the time go? Writer's workshop is alive and well in my classroom. We have been busy writing "How-to's" and "All About Books" over the last few months. Here's a glimpse of what has been going on. We are really working on making our writing readable! The finger space is sort of a big deal! Writing time is sacred. Very little gets in the way. ...
How-To Writing in Kindergarten
I have written this post 10 times (in my head). I have carried these writing samples around for weeks in my bag. I have been without a scanner (so that is my excuse for not posting these earlier). Better late than never... right? My class was knee-deep in "How-to" writing in November. This is a tough switch to go from writing narratives to writing procedural texts. Here are a couple of samples I wanted to share. I love ...
Writers Workshop: Second Week of Kindergarten
Today we just completed our 9th day of writer's workshop. I get a lot of questions about writer's workshop, so I thought I would answer some questions and show you where we are! How can you teach students to write when they don't know their letters and sounds? I believe that students can compose even without words. I want my students to know they have a story to tell. When they come busting into your classroom to tell you about when they ...
Writer’s Workshop: Making Progress!
I have been thinking a lot about looking back in order to see where you are. Meaning... sometimes you don't realize the leaps and bounds a student makes until you glance back. I have heard it said [not sure who] that looking at writing progression is sort of like watching a tree grow. Every day you look and it appears that your tree is not growing. However, looking back to photos from 3 years ago...WOW! Look how big that ...
Writer’s Workshop and Conferring (FREE Download)
After just a few months of writers workshop you can see how far my kindergarteners have come. This post will explain conferring in writers workshop and give you tips to make it go smoothly! Narrative Writing: Making Books We have just completed our second unit in our Writing Through the Years unit on narrative writing. I grabbed a few samples on my way out of my classroom door this evening and I am excited to share them with you. ...
Writer’s Workshop-Updates!
Kindergarten Writers Workshop Fall examples are included in this post! Writing Around the Room During writers workshop, we get BUSY! Many students decide to spread out around the room. As long as they are working, I let them! SIDENOTE: This little friend is looking at the word wall... not chatting it up. Kid Friendly Materials Our materials are kid friendly. All of the paper options are ...
Writer’s Workshop: Trusting the parachute
Writer's Workshop Making Books in kindergarten is not always easy. However, the reward is worth the effort! Launching Book Making in Writers Workshop This week we launched Unit 2 of writer's workshop which centers around narrative texts. We also started making books. Yesterday I was thinking that whoever wrote Unit 2 was an idiot! I mean Unit 1 went so smoothly...why on earth would I want to change a perfectly ...
A week in photos! Writers Workshop
Kindergarten Writing in September! We have made progress in writers workshop. Each day students have been working hard in their writing and the tree is beginning to bear fruit! Writers Workshop Publishing At the end of each unit (20 days of instruction), the students select one piece to revise, edit, and publish. Those pieces that they decide to not publish, go home with a note to their parents. The ...
Writers Workshop and Writing During Guided Reading
Let me share about the guided writing work I do with my students as a part of our guided reading lesson. This book is from Rigby Sails. I love them because of their high-frequency words! Students can read engaging books successfully. Nonfiction and fiction are awesome. My only wish is that they would change the font a little. The capital "I" looks like a lowercase "l". Nothing a Sharpie won't fix. After ...
Writers Workshop-The Anatomy of my workshop and some conferring
WARNING: This is a long post... you may want to get a snack or a drink! The Mini-Lesson (10 mins) Students meet me at my carpet. Students know this is time for me to model write. I do a LOT to think alouds. Before I added a page, I modeled how I went back and reread the previous pages to be sure what I was going to add would fit in the book. I asked: "So writers, if I wanted to write about what I ...
Writers Workshop-Katie Wood Ray Style
Oh Boy! Let me just get this out there... I am a control freak in my classroom! Confession is good for the soul! I first started to wonder if there was more than one way to bake this cake known as writing when I purchased this book. Then I was fortunate enough to go see her last week and the wheels started turning. Confession #2: We have not made "books" in writer's workshop. The old Mrs. Wills had her ...