I'm so excited that I've finally got my writing center up! This week we finally started doing the Work on Writing component of the Daily 5 independently. I realize that it's clear into the 2nd week in October, but I didn't decide to try the Daily 5 until the middle of August, so I was doing all sorts of overhauling/creating on top of getting ready for school to start. Consequently I'm a bit slow. A few weeks ago, my to-do list for this project seemed insurmountable. I contemplated tossing the whole thing out the window. Now it's all pulled together AND the kids are loving it. Every time I look at that part of my classroom I smile. 🙂
Here's what the finished product looks like:
I used some writing centers I'd seen on Pinterest as inspiration. This one is from Jessica Meacham.And this one from Katie at Persnickety Pickles:
Here's a look at the choices I give the kids. The first thing is to work on a piece from Writer's Workshop (I do a more focused writing time in the morning).
They can also write in the class story journals (another Pinterest idea from Delightful Daily 5 Cafe). There's so much emphasis on nonfiction and persuasion in the new core, that I was sad to see a lot of the personal narrative time lost. Hopefully this will be like a sort of personal narrative patch.
I put out some "Take it to Your Seat Writing Centers" from Evan-Moore that I'd inherited from Em.
Students have the choice of writing in their journals about any topic they choose or they can pick one of my suggestions. I started with some general prompts (What's your favorite holiday? What do you think about frogs?) that I printed on stickers and put on Popsicle Sticks (Pinterest idea from First Grade Fresh).
Since I don't have a Jehovah's Witness student this year, I'm going all out for the holidays!! For October, I got some little notebooks in the Target Dollar Spot. I cut out all the papers and wrote a prompt on the inside cover. The bowl is also from Target. The rule is they have to write about whichever prompt they pick UNLESS they've already done it.
I originally started with 12, but since this is such a popular choice I ended up using all 18 little notebooks. Some prompts I found, some I made up.
- If a witch lost her cat, what could she use for a pet?
- What would happen if you were in a graveyard at night?
- Imagine you run a restaurant for monsters. What sorts of things would you serve?
- What if you were trick-or-treating and your bag broke? What would you do?
- I think my teacher should be ____ for Halloween because _____
- Have you ever been really scared? What happened?
- I wish I weren't afraid of …
- How would you make a robot costume?
- What do you think about spiders?
- What do you think about mummies?
- How would you catch a vampire or a ghost?
- The mad scientist was creating a new monster that could…
- How do you carve a pumpkin? Write all the steps.
- What if you had a pet werewolf?
- Imagine you're walking your dog and he runs into a creepy, old house. You follow him. What happens?
- Tell all about your favorite thing about Halloween?
- What were you for Halloween last year? What did your costume look like?
- Pretend you have a magic broomstick. What does it look like? What does it do?
I have a bunch of notepads from the dollar store and Target Dollar Spot. The rule is one "fancy" paper per day. I wish you could find stationery sets like they used to sell at the dollar store, but I guess no one writes letters anymore.
Writing letters is the favorite choice right now.
The idea of a classroom post office has always scared me, but this is running really smoothly. Our mailbox is a plastic container from the dollar store. Unfortunately, I waited to cut the slit until AFTER I'd painted so it got pretty thrashed from the scissors. 🙁 And, of course, I'm now out of blue spray paint. The battered box drives me nuts, but the kids don't seem to notice.
I read all the letters after school. In the morning, I have one of the early birds hand them out. So far it's running well and I've only had to weed out a couple mean spirited notes and one love letter.
I love the list choice, but so far no one has been interested in it. You can get the list steps here.
I found some printable Halloween labels and added Octobery themed prompts. You can download the file here. I don't know who created the clipart and I've tried doing a Google search. If anyone knows, please tell me so I can credit the designer.
The right side of the bulletin board is our stamina graph (from F is for First Grade.) The kids get so excited to beat their time everyday!
Once we're done needing the daily stamina booster, I want to add poetry and research in as writing choices. However, I don't have a clue how to set those up! Any suggestions??
I love the battered blue box! It looks like an old-timey mailbox, which is perfect for “snail mail.” Embrace it!
Ha! That made me laugh–thanks!
I love your ideas!
Thank you!
Sent from my iPhone
Are all lists written in the school bus notepad? Or do you change that out too?
I changed it every month.
I noticed that you are using a counter for your writing station. I have a great counter space that could serve as my writing station as well. I was just wondering, do you have your students choose and then return to their seats?
Once students have made a writing choice, do they stick with that choice? For instance, if a student chooses list, does he have to only write lists during that time or can he write one list and then write in a classroom journal?
I love your writing centre! For the option cards on the board on what students can work on, it says that they can work on a piece from Writer’s Workshop or write in their journal. Do they have a separate writing notebook for the Writer’s Workshop and a journal or do they just do all their writing in one notebook?
We use loose sheets of paper for Writer’s Workshop. Their journals are for pieces they’re interested in, writing prompts, or writing during a math or science lesson, that doesn’t necessarily get published.
Sorry I’m so late to respond to this. I let students switch choices during their time at that station, unless they’re switching so often they don’t have time to actually work on something.
I noticed you have community journals, for example the ouch journal and the vacation journal. What are the other one’s labeled and how do you let the students use the,. I am setting this up in my room right now I LOVE IT!
Hi Heidi,
Can you explain the difference between your Writer’s Workshop and your Daily 5 Work on Writing center? I like the Daily 5 but prefer a more focused time for writing so I was thinking of incorporating both as your have done.
Thanks 🙂
I am going bonkers looking for your “I can make a list of” worksheet. I have a paper version but can’t find the electronic copy! Please help, my email is [email protected] if you could send it to me I’d so appreciate it!
I’m not exactly sure what you’re looking for. This is a link to our Work on Writing post and all the resources we have available for download should be in that post. https://www.secondstorywindow.net/home/2012/10/daily-5-work-on-writing-monthly-resources.html