Writer's Workshop in Kindergarten

In my classroom, writer's workshop is such a fun time of day for my students to express their thoughts.  Here's why they love it: 

- they get to choose their own topic to write about

- they get to decide when they are finished and when to move on to a new book

- they get to choose what writing tools to use (pencils, crayons, markers)

When my students are writing, I am walking around and talking to them about their topics, handwriting, and sentence structure (making sure they have a capital letter, spaces, and a period).  I am also making note of skills that are being misused so that I can develop my next mini lessons for the class.  

There are not behavior problems, because students are so engaged in what they want to write about.  They love having that choice and voice in their work!  

After about 15-20 minutes to independent writing time, we gather back on the rug for a few students to share some of their writing.  Usually, these are students that I see applying the skills I have taught during mini lessons.  I like being able to show examples of how students in our class have applied those skills.  

What do you do for writer's workshop in your classroom?  Do your students have voice and choice over their topics?  I'd love to hear from you in the comments below!

Stop, Swap & Roll - Product Swap and Review {Giveaway}

Hi!  I'm so glad to be a part of this swap again.  I am hopping that my post goes a little smoother than last time.  Thanks to Melissa for getting everything organized!

So I got to partner with Melissa from Creations by Mrs. Mouse.  She is a wonderful paraprofessional from Ohio who recently renewed her teaching license and is hoping to teach kindergarten soon! 

I loved all of her things in her TpT Store and had a very hard time choosing which one for my kiddos to try.  But here is what I picked: 

This pack has 5 different activities for your students to practice matching rhyming words.  For now, I chose to print and use the strawberry, watermelon and lemon packs.  They work well for this time of the year.  You can click their picture to purchase just that pack or the bundle picture above for the whole bundle!  The whole bundle is a HUGE DEAL!  For only $4 you get 5 rhyme packs!!!  They are each $2.75 separately! 

   

So I love that these rhymes are not strictly cVc words.  I just had a conversation with my class this week about how the words sound the same at the end and that is what makes them rhyming words.  One of my students said, "Well they look the same too."  And yes, while some rhyming words do look the same, they don't always have to.  So in steps this matching game.  The rhyming pairs in these games require the students to listen for the sounds as opposed to see the spelling of the end of a word.  

I did choose to write the words on the back of the cards because I wanted this to be a self checking station if there was an adult helper and I wanted to make it easier for me to remember the words too.  You know how busy teachers are all day!  It could take me 15 minutes to remember what that word was!  :)

So here is the prep work that I did to get these "center ready" for my kiddos:

I did choose to write the words on the back as you can see here.

The lemon pack has 3 rhyming words that match as opposed to only two.

Here's what they look like all sorted and stored in bags. 

Here are the finished stacks all cut out.  The lemons should be a much brighter yellow, however, I did not realize my ink was out until they already started printing and I wasn't going to waste the cardstock.  You can see from the strawberry and melon pictures that the graphics are nice and bright.

Here are my kiddos in action: 

  

Here they were stacking up the matches.

This was tricky for them.  They are searching hard for the matches.

So now is your chance to win a copy of this pack.  Enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So here are the other bloggers that got to Swap and Review: 

Stop-Swap-Roll: A Product Swap and Giveaway

Hello!  It has been a rough year so I'm glad this is my first post back. Thanks to Melissa for getting this all together. 
I was partnered with Lola from Preschool Wonders and chose her Camping Literacy and Math Pack.  It is awesome by the way!!  This pack includes math and literacy games that kept my kiddos engaged and learning. Here's a peek at some of the things this pack has: Right now my kinders are learning numbers from 1-20 so this matching game was perfect!  They loved the pictures.  This is a great book to practice positional words. My kiddos loved it!  I could really see who understood this concept and who didn't.  I haven't used this yet, but it will be a great assessment tool after teaching shadows.  Some of my kiddos are struggling with rhyming words so this is a great activity to use for remediation! Since I have already taught patterns, I used this as an assessment tool to be sure all my students could create a pattern and label it.  There is so much more to this pack!  You have to check it out yourself!   Here is my product that Lola reviewed and is giving away.  So after you fill out the rafflecopter to win the Camping Pack, head over to Jungle Learners to see what others have to share and giveaway! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Literacy Work Stations are AWESOME!!!

  Ok...I have stressed and stressed about how this will work for me and my teaching style but with a long reflection of how my Math Work Stations have helped my kids learn with a deeper understanding, I have taken the plunge.  I wanted to share a little about what I am doing for Literacy Work Stations and how they run in my classroom.  
Here is how I keep it organized:

So you can see this is very similar to how I organize and set up my math work stations.  You can find more about them here. My kids are very familiar with math stations so are able to follow this chart easily.  They have a different literacy partner than math partner (just so they aren't working with the same person for an hour of our day).  LWS are slightly different than Math just because there is not a container to take off a shelf.  Instead, there is a section of the classroom where the kids find the work they need (you can see that in pictures below.)  For each of the 12 stations, I have I can charts posted (most copied right out of Debbie Diller's book Literacy Work Stations).  I will give a little detail about each station:

1. Big Book: Here the students are using big books to practice their reading skills. They are able to use highlighter tape and pointers to make their reading fun!

2. Write the Room : The kids have 2 or 3 choices to walk around and write words. When they finish, they have to read the words to their partner. 

3.  Writing: at this station, the kids can choose many different writing tools to write (shape books, cards, sticker stories, flap books, etc.). They love using things other than boring writing paper. 

4. Listening: I have collected many books on cd just from using bonus points at Scholastic. The kids love being in charge of pushing buttons and following along in the story. When they finish listening, they must write about their favorite part - they cannot use the book. This encourages them to actually LISTEN to the story!

5. Stamping: I have rings of sight words where the kids practice stamping the word, reading it and writing it. 

6. Computer: Here, the kids can choose from a multitude of different websites and programs my school has access to. A few websites are: www.starfall.com, www.scootpad.com, www.abcya.com, Earobics

7. Overhead:  at this station, I'm using a lot of Deedee Wills Overhead Pack. The kids can read poems, practice handwriting, make words with letter tiles, or even make sentences with word cards. 

8. Library: This station is simply my classroom library area. The kids choose from a huge variety of books - most on their reading level and others that are themed.

9. Poetry: The students use the poems that are on posters to practice reading fluency, sight word hunts, and concept of word. 

10. Pocket Chart:  With the pocket chart, the activities are really endless. The kids can play hide n seek games with sight words or letters.  They can sequence sentences or match upper and lower case letters. 

11. BrightLink: At this station, the kids use smart notebook files to practice different literacy skills. 

12. Work Work: This station really can be endless.  My kids love using letter tiles to make cvc words. I also use this station to work on sight words and word sorting. 

So, my kiddos have really taken to these stations because they were so well versed in math stations. I am taking a slight break from these stations while I have a student teacher but will definitely be starting them with my kinders in September. 

Here are some snapshots of my kids at work:

Do you have literay stations in your room?