Work on Writing, a NEW writing product and Secret Flash Sale!

Happy Weekend everyone!  I hope you are enjoying your 3 days :)  I spent the bulk of yesterday watching "training videos" from our HR department.  The one I'm watching right now... "Chronic Health Conditions" yeah I know you are jealous!! :)

 

So I have a quick share of my first introduction to "Work on Writing" during D5.  Of course all these ideas can be used during your writer's workshop time too!

 

My students all get a journal... I add colorful card stock to the front and back to make it look ooohhh so cool :)

 

Here in this picture, one of my students decided to chose a picture prompt card to help her with some ideas on writing.  I know you've heard this one before... "I don't have ANYTHING to write about!"  Well I give them ALL kinds of tools to avoid that! :)

 

If you look at the far right of her desk she has a picture prompt card.  I made these a million years ago by just using clip art on word (or print shop), printed, glued to construction paper, and laminated.  They are a BIG hit!

 

Another item I can't live without is my student dictionaries.  They are AMAZING (and FREE!!)  We use them during word wall~the kids highlight the words of the week as I intro them (what kid doesn't love using a highlighter!)  And then we use them during writing time to look up words and add new words!

 

Here one student is helping another student find a word in his dictionary.

 

 

I know... you are saying ... where do you get the dictionary! :)  Well... they are from Barbara Gurian and if you google "My 2nd Grade Dictionary" it will pop up as a PDF file.  Its pretty amazing and you really can't find anything better!!

 

 

I also introduced the AWESOME idea that was floating around the blogosphere this summer.  If you look carefully at this picture one of my students is holding a light bulb.

If the student has "writer's block" I tell them to take a light bulb moment.  Target had light bulbs ($1 each) and I put them into a basket like this:

 I was skeptical at first because I wasn't sure my second graders could handle this... that maybe they would think they were a toy.  I WAS WRONG!  They took it totally seriously and an amazing thing happened.  They got up.. got a light bulb... sat for a minute... put it back and started writing again.  WOWSERS!!!  It was a beautiful thing.  If you want to read more about this... click {here}

 

Another new thing I'm going to try this year is class journals.  I found these from Stephany Dillon on TpT.  You can check it out by clicking {here}  I'll have to let you know how it goes! :)

 

Finally, I thought I had something in my classroom that I spent an hour looking for.  When I couldn't find it I spent another hour searching online and could find it.  So then... what do all teachers end up doing.. making their own.  That is when this snazzy product was born.

 

I call it... Writing Wheels!

This will help the children with the creative writing process by providing them with a character, an action, and a setting.  Then they can fill in the rest!  PLUS it builds good sentence structure (for the little guys!)  The best part.. sometimes you can make the sentences silly!  What kid doesn't love silly!!  My son and I had a blast making all kinds of sentences... he loved the one... "A dinosaur built a snowman on the Moon!"  hehehe...

(how fun would that one be to illustrate!)

 

 

Click above to check it out! :)

 

One last thing... as this is getting LONG (sorry!!) I am doing RANDOM flash sales in my TpT store!!  All weekend mystery items are popping up at ONLY $1!!!!  You have to stop back and see what it could be! :)

 

Thanks for reading!