I’ve recently had several people ask me how I have my writing center is set up. I do Daily 5 during my literacy block and writing is one of the centers that my students do during that time. I do D5 a lot differently than most people. I simply do not have the time for them to rotate through all 5 stations each day. I only have about a 30 minute block for this. I let my students choose which center they want to do each day. Since I have such a small group, I only have 2 or 3 students at a time at each center. I have my class roster inside a plastic sleeve next to each center. If they choose the writing center say on Monday, then they mark their name off like this. (I did have cute signs, but I kept losing kids, then getting new students. I just print off my roster because its so much easier.) Then the next day they choose something else. This lets me know which students have and have not visited specific centers during the week.
Here is what my center looks like. Inside the desk, I have clipboard for them to use, along with our writing binder. I use the Writing Center Start Up kit from A Cupcake for the Teacher. I have limited bulletin board space so I turned it into a binder and they keep it in the desk. This holds all of their writing paper as well. The index card box holds sight word cards for reference.
The 3 plastic drawers hold various writing prompts. At the beginning of the year they were sorted out neatly. Now, they are kind of a big mess, but it still works.
They pick a card, then get the correct writing page out of the binder.
Since I’m normally working with small groups during this time, I don’t have many pictures of my kids in action here. Here is an example of one of my students making a list.
Once they finish their writing, they turn it to our writing basket. I look over them at the end of each week. Then they are placed in their writing notebooks. I know its not much, but this is how I’m doing it in my classroom right now.
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~Verb diagrams: superhero, baseball player, football player, skate boarder, cheerleader (black and white). An example is also included.
~A set of 15 verb picture cards (in color and black and white). There are 6 ideas/activities to go along with these cards. iSpy, scoot, charades, guess who, centers and small group instruction.
~Past, present, future pocket chart cards: Includes headers and 12 sets of verbs (color and black and white) and an answer sheet.
~Activity Sheets: 2 color the verbs, fill in the verb, 2 find the verb, and a word search.
We used this unit back before Christmas but I managed to find a few pictures to share with ya’ll! We played verb charades one day. One of my students drew the word “kneel” and to act it out, he “proposed!” It was so cute!
We filled out action verb bubble maps!
Here is what the noun/verb flip book looks like.
Here is a better look at what you can find inside.
We have not used this in our classroom yet this year but we will in March. Here is a closer look at what you’ll get with this unit.
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