Throwback Thursday 06/20/13: Writing

Happy Thursday!

I couldn't pass up the chance to link up with the fabulous Cara from The First Grade Parade for a super fun linky party...

Throwback Thursday: an ode to old blog posts. :)

I picked one of my fave posts, but also a popular one.

Enjoy your reading!

 

**********Original post published on August 30, 2012**********

Writing: How it works in my room...

I have been trying to write this post for SEVERAL days now with out success, until now. It seems like I don't have a lot of free time at the moment, but I am MAKING myself stop and write this post. :)

I'll start back with at my Writers Bulletin Board.

I have the writing process displayed with posters explaining what to do at each step. Because of my surfing theme this year I am calling my kids Wave Writers. Kind of cheesy I know. Side note... I love that huge pencil with the reasons why writers write. :) Anyway...

I am using the ribbon with clothes pins to display where my students are in the writing process. They will be responsible for moving these clips and I will use them to help me conference with my students during Writing.

Next, we move on to the 6 traits. Oh boy these are not easy for my ELL kids. They are not as concrete as the writing process and we get a bit lost some times. I am hoping this will help us keep it together this year.

  I did not staple these down. Rather I attached them with a paper clip hung on a push pin. When I teach Ideas trait, I will move it and place it next to the "We are learning about..." sheet. Then when I move to the Organizations trait, I will switch them out.

I also plan to add mini versions of my districts anchor charts, but I don't have them yet. :/ I will update when I do get and laminate them.

On to my writers storage and supplies.
This is what the front of my room looks like. Right under my white board I have this sweet little set up, that took me forever to think through. I had the custodian take the bottom legs off of 2 desks to make it just the right size. :) And I have extra storage in the desks. I am thinking of either turning them around or adding some fabric/ table skirt to cover it up. For now it isn't bugging me too much.

The purple crate houses our writing paper. I wish I had a close up shot of it. The red hanging folders house the Kinder writing paper, the blue is for 1st grade and the green is for 2nd and 3rd grade. My students never have to ask permission to get paper during writing time and this works great. Then I can conference in peace. I have some updated versions of my writing paper for each grade level so look for that coming soon.

The crates house my 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders binders. Can't tell you how happy I am to be back to binders. We had a donation last year of gently used binders from an office building and I snatched them up. However, if your looking for a multiple pocket folder go here and here for a quick fix.

My kinder kids still use 2 pocket folders and they are housed in one of the drawers of my 3 drawer cart. On top of that cart, I have my extra writing supplies. Everything from pencils, to erasers, sharpeners, staplers, even some Popsicle sticks to make our spaghetti and meatball spaces. MY students are allowed to go here at any time to replenish their supplies. No need to ask.

Can you see that I added some fun tissue paper to the bottom of my pencil buckets? I hate when they get marked up from the pencil lead. I am so OCD, I think I have a problem. :P

Finally, a shot of my Word Wall. Obviously it is not up on the wall yet. Still waiting on the district people to come in and drill it to the wall.

 I went with the 2 tone paper again. I like how it separates each letter and that is so important for my kids. Especially when I start adding words for 4 different grade levels. Yikes.

So a freebie for you...
Below you will find links to writing folder cover sheets.

We use these in the front of our binders so that I can easily distinguish, by color what grade it is. 
Kinder Writing Cover
 1st Grade Writing Cover
2nd Grade Writing Cover
3rd Grade Writing Cover
4th Grade Writing Cover
5th Grade Writing Cover
General Writing Cover 
For my kinder kids who use a 2 pocket folder, I will glue their sheet to the front of their writing portfolio. I will collect all their writing at the end of every quarter and store it in there.

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A few things have changed in my room since then, like the word wall did finally make it up on the wall and I added tons of posters around it. Here are some updated pics, that you can also find on my 

Instagram page.

 However, most of it stayed the same! I plan to share updates at the start of this year when we return.

Be sure to join in the fun and link up with Cara.