I little over 8 years ago I decided to live like a writer. I had a passion for teaching young writers in the classroom and I was constantly encouraging them to live like writers, but I didn’t actually spend much time writing for myself. I decided it was time to walk the walk AND talk
When teachers are asked to present work samples of their kids’ writing, we cringe a bit. We feel like we will be judged on our teaching ability based on the work the children are able to produce. I’m here to reassure you that, at the beginning of kindergarten, kids are at different levels and THAT
Sight words are a big deal in kindergarten these days! It’s Spring and we’re trying to master our ever-growing list of words and make it to Reading Level D by the end of the year. I try to find a variety of ways to practice reading and writing our sight words in the classroom. We
There’s something magical that happens in my kindergarten classroom each and every Spring. They start growing, by leaps and bounds, as writers and then they start choosing to write during our free choice/center time. I love it when kids write just for fun, rather than as an assignment.
I try to show kids in my class that writers have many different reasons to write. Sometimes, adults need to write something as simple as a grocery list.
Writing out a grocery list
I found some printable lists on the Nellie Edge Pinterest page. There is a list for birthday gift ideas, favorite colors, favorite animals, groceries, and several others. My students are able to write on their own, but sometimes they just love to copy. I have grocery word cards with pictures and text available for them to copy if they choose.
One of my students went to his grandma’s house for Spring Break. He took our stuffed Pete the Cat and a few Pete the Cat books with him and wrote about all of their adventures together. You can tell from the proper spelling that his mom helped him out on some tough words. If you know this guy in person, you can totally hear his voice coming through in his book. He read the book to his classmates today and they were very impressed. There were rumblings of, “Of going to write a book like that when I get home today.” This type of thing makes my heart sing. I love it when parents are our partners in education!
Reading a self-published book to the class
During Center Time, we had several different rock collections out for the kids to check out. One of my little guys, who is passionate about science, looked at me with a look of panic on his face. I thought there was something wrong but then he said, “OH MY GOSH. I need to go get a book and write about these before I forget everything I’m thinking.” He ran over to the bins where I keep pre-made blank books and started writing. His story was about the shapes of the different rocks and how they reminded him of certain animals by their shape. I was kind of amazed at the ideas he came up with for his story.
My last post explained what writer’s notebooks are (and what they are not). Now I’m going to show you how to make them in your classroom. Let me tell you, up front, that my kids were SO excited about these notebooks. They are simple composition notebooks, but once kids had the chance to personalize them, they
