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!

Five for Friday {10-18}

This week was Pumpkin Week!!!  We had Monday off for Columbus Day and Tuesday we went to the pumpkin patch!  Check out the rest in the pictures below!

1.   Here are our pumpkin patch pictures!!  You can't tell here, but it had just rained for several days so it was MUDDY!!!  A tractor got stuck!

 

2.  We are practicing recognizing and spelling our color words.  Here are a few things we did this week.

Sorry for the sideways photo.  I will try to fix that and re-post!

3.  I put up my Math Word Wall!  If you don't have one of these in your classroom - - GET ONE!!!!

This is where I put ONLY math vocabulary words that we are learning about.  I encourage my kids to use these words in their math talk during stations.  This is a great resource for them when writing too!!
4.  Here is what I have settled on for Literacy Stations! Again, sorry for the sideways picture.  I'll try to update!

This is my old school rotation schedule and as they always say, "why re-create the wheel!"  But I really wanted to give the true Literacy Stations a try.  I just couldn't find a way for it to work for me and my thoughts on how I wanted my reading time to go.  Here, each group spends about 15 minutes at each center and when the timer goes off, we rotate.  Usually "Meet with Teacher" is one of the centers.  I will begin my true guided reading group instruction next week!!!

5.  This chart was made this week during our mini-lessons for writing workshop.  I have purchased Mrs. Deedee Wills and Deanna Jump's pack for writer's workshop.  It is amazing!!!  We are on day 8 and I love every day of mini lessons, "try it out" time and share time.  My kids are making some great strides and are really stepping outside of their comfort zone to write!!

 
I hope you had a good week too!  Have over to Doodle Bugs Teaching and link up or just check out everyone else's week!
Happy Weekend!

Five for Friday (5/31)

I'm linking again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday! 

1. After today, we are now in double digits for days left of school.  The count down is so real now...9 days with kids (only 7 full days and 2 early release days) and 1 work day.  Since my husband is a teacher too, we leave the day after school is done (usually a Saturday) and go to Nags Head for 2 weeks.  I cannot wait to have my feet in the sand!!

2.  We bought my daughter a sandbox on Monday!  She loves it so much, we spend about 2 hours each afternoon in it before the nightly preparations for the next day.   Here is the sandbox she got:

3.  My kids will be making these for their Father's Day gifts next week.  I had some extra foam stars that I found several years ago at Target along with some foam that I cut into 3x3 squares and cut out the middle.  They will glue their picture to the star and the frame over top and decorate around it.  I think they will turn out nicely.

4.  I posted about the Writing Through the Year Units here that I bought from Deanna Jump and DeeDee Wills.  I LOVE them already!!!!!  I cannot wait to start using them!!

5.  SOL testing is finished for this school year!!!!!!!!!  Next week, we will go back to our nomal schedules!!!

Sorry for the lack of pictures in this post.  Our wifi at school has been turned off due to the online testing so I haven't been able to use my iPad to take pictures and upload to the computer.  I will have more pictures for you next week. 

Happy Friday!

 

Writing Through the Year Units by D. Jump and D. Wills

Last week I won a giveaway of $20 to TpT.  I have looked and looked to find something that I just knew I couldn't teach without.  This year my writing instruction was not my favorite.

Well...I'm here to tell you about these AMAZING units from Deanna Jump and DeeDee Wills.  They are avilable on Deanna's TpT store. 

Click either unit above to see more details about them.  I am already loving them and can't wait to get the other units.  These units are brief but detailed and because they are made by teachers, they get it.  These ladies know what writing workshop is like in the regular classroom and can speak to it in their descriptions.  My favorite part so far is that they have already MADE the anchor charts that they reference.  And they are in color to print from the computer.  No more of reading about writer's workshop and then having to create your own anchor charts.  These ladies have done it for you!!

They do have Units 1-4 bundled for $32.  You can find them here. 

Here is the list of titles for each unit.  You can click the name to find it on TpT:

1 - My Pictures Tell a Story

2 - It's All About Me!  Writing Personal Narratives

3 - "How to" Writing

4 - Writing for Reason

5 - Informational Text

6 - Writing Small Moment Personal Narratives

7 - Fiction Writing

I did see in a few questions on Deanna's TpT store that there should be a Unit 8.  She does not answer the questions of what the title will be.  However, she did say that once it is finished, she will bundle units 5-8 as well. 

Happy Friday!!!