As I have said before, 8 years ago Writer's Workshop was unheard of in my kindergarten class. In
the last few years it has become my focus! I have gone to different conferences on writing, read books, and have adjusted what I have learned to work with my kindergarten class.
When I first started teaching a fellow teacher used stuffed animals for reminders for different writing strategies. I loved the idea and decided to create my own writing friends. I also love the idea of a writing journal. I have tried many different types of journals and have found that binders work best for the needs of my students.
So lets start first discussing my Writer's Workshop Journals. Lets face it all kindergarten students come in at different levels. So their writer's workshop journals need to be differentiated to meet their needs.
I used to use journals that I had pre made. These journals were great (I thought), but not necessarily practical. Like I said, my kindergarteners are at different levels. When it comes to writing some kiddos were ready for words, some were drawing, while others were ready for sentences. While my pre bound journals had pages for all components some kiddos needed more pages for words, while some kiddos only needed one page for labels. I found that pages were wasted or sometimes their just weren't enough pages for some kiddos to master a specific writing concept.
I decided that I wanted to create a system that worked for my students, all of my students.
I came up with a master Writer's Workshop Journal and had binders for each student. When they are on a specific level of writing I add pages of that concept until they have it mastered. I can then add pages for the next concept. Some kiddos may not even need to work on writing letters and my go straight to writing words or sentences. That is okay! I just by pass that part of the journal.
Kindergarten isn't one size fits all so their Writing Journals shouldn't be either.
This past week I introduced my Writing Friends to my kindergarteners and they LOVED them.
Check out some of my pictures!
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| Space Spider |
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| Capital Cow |
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| Punctuation Pug |
In the next 3 pictures we are using our Writing Friends to fix a sentence.
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| Fixing my sentence using Capital Cow during the mini lesson. |
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| Using Popcorn Poodle to Check our Popcorn Words |
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| Fixing my sentence using Punctuation Pug during the mini lesson. |
Here are my students using the Sentence page and checking our work by using our Writing friends.   |
Although I have come a long way with my Writer's Workshop I am always looking for ways to improve. These journals and writing friends have been a huge help. The pages are a good reminder to check to see if the remembered specific concepts.
I also incorporate my writing friends throughout the day. For Example, as students are writing and I notice that they have forgotten a punctuation mark I will say,
"That looks nice, but Punctuation Pug might be sad."
My students will check their sentences right away and add punctuation.
My Writing set includes all of the items needed to create journals, Writing Friend Posters, and a few pointers on how to use them. Hope you enjoy!
