Let's Get This Party Started!

There's a party in my classroom, ladies!  This party is one I like to call..... Writers Workshop.  We have been setting up rules, routines, and procedures and my firsties are ready to rock and roll!  :)  Practice makes perfect, right?!?  So today, we practiced.  And tomorrow???? We'll practice.  And everyday for the rest of their firstie lives..... we'll practice.  :) 

Here's a little bit of our practice. Our firsties have been given time to "free write" which doesn't happen that often in our writers workshop. 

A giant was attacking the castle.

I went to Kings Island. I rode the Banshee.

Dear Kindergarten Teachers,
Thank YOU!  I can't wait to see what else these guys write!
Love,
Maria

Our writers workshop has only three rules.  Yep, that's right, three rules.  That's about all I can muster and it's about all our firsties can handle too.  Unlike my colleagues who introduce reading strategies that the kiddos come up with, ( You can read that amazing post HERE. ) I haven't figured out how to let my kiddos come up with the rules probably because I'm a teeny, tiny control freak.  I'm not afraid to admit it because..... well there are certain things I can control and others I can't, so the rules.... I make them.  I'm not ashamed friends. 

 

We like to write our rule on the white board first before I make my chart because I see four classes of firsties each day. (Don't judge, I know that rule #3 is missing an 's', but as you will read in a sentence or two, I was under the influence of heat exhaustion.) We introduce ONE rule per day.  That's all we can handle.  Especially when it's 1,000 degrees in my classroom and I have to beg, plead, and kindly (in my mommy voice) ask children not to put their heads on the desks because seriously, it's H.O.T. for EVERYONE. Also, our firsties sit in air conditioning 3 out of their 4 classes, but me, no air, so I don't feel sorry for them except for a tiny little bit. :)   After we talk about the rule and what it looks like, sounds, like, etc. we like to put a motion and a picture to it as well,  just in case we forget what the words say, that picture.... it's priceless.  As Em said in one of her other posts, we read Smarter Charts and this book TOTALLY changed they way I think about my charts.  Hence... the colorless pic on the right as well as the simplistic drawings. 

There you have it friends. Now you know our secret to a happy, utopic Writers Workshop.  :)  And for sticking with me I have these rules as a FREEBIE for you! :)  One version has simple pictures, one with no pics and one paper is for cutting them up and putting them into your writer's notebook. :)

 

Click on the first picture or click right HERE. :)

Happy Writing!!!!