Writing Center

I was so glad I got to my classroom a little earlier than usual this first day back from Spring Break. My classroom furniture and tables had to be moved back to their spots as the janitors deep cleaned and shampooed my classroom. They even shampooed my three rugs! Those ladies are just too sweet.

My kiddos went CRAZY for the bugs and insects that I put in the writing center today! When I explained to them that my boys were letting them borrow some of the bugs they were so careful with them all and even put them back into the theme basket in little rows. Here is a look at my writing center and the items that I currently have out.

 

I got these finger puppets from IKEA. My kiddos can pick one out of the box, put it on their finger and write a story about the character or animal.

 

These are my cups of writing prompts. Each cup has a theme that my kiddos can grab and look around the outside to spark their writing brain. The six themes are superheros, circus, Fancy Nancy, bugs, weather, and transportation.



These are my silly story prompt cups. My kiddos pick one pink cup (character), one green cup (place), and one blue cup (action) and look at the pictures on the cups to write a silly story. Thanks to my writing teammate for creating these pictures for my cups! I change the pictures out every month or two. I got the three baskets and baby cereal cups at the Dollar Tree.

Around my writing center I have posters and pocket charts of adjectives, verbs, No Excuse words, and punctuation anchor charts for my kiddos to reference. I also have the above "Instead of...use..." color charts. We learned to expand our word choice in the fall including use of colors. I love it when my kiddos write, "the mocha brown bear" or "the eucalyptus green leaves". I just took some free paint swatches from Lowes and put them on solid colored construction paper.

 

Well looking outside the "marshmallow white" snowflakes are beginning to fall. Many large school districts around us have already closed for tomorrow. Maybe I can finish my spring unit tomorrow???