Need some ideas for your Writing center in Kindergarten or First Grade?

Students can choose from a variety of writing materials to practice writing letters, names or words. I have my students work on writing workshop stories (Lucy Calkins), theme related stories (season, events), and other writing activities ( letters, lists, puppet show/plays, greeting cards, comics).

Tips for the writing center include:

• Use a date stamp on each journal page. I buy mine from Staples, Amazon, or Vista Print.
• Provide a variety of writing utensils (colored pencils, markers, crayons) and writing materials. The students love post-it notes and the little free notebooks I get from conferences.
• Provide stencils and stamps. Get these at yard sales, stamps can be very expensive. See bulletin board example.
• Provide Dictionaries and Thesauruses in the writing center.
• Snip off corner of pages they have already used and it will be easy for them to find the page they are supposed to write on next. This is a great little trick I learned from a teammate.
• Use these materials to form letters or words:
  ~playdough, shaving cream, hair-gel or fingerpaint in sealed baggies, wikki-sticks, or sand on a tray.

• Journal writing: Students may write on a specific topic given or own choice.
• Journal Starter: Have a label on a spiral notebook that says.. “A dream I had…”, or “Once I got hurt…” Then have the students only write stories about that topic, it becomes a class story book. To read more about these, click here to see my other blog post.
• Mailbox/Post office: Students can write letters to their friends and family and put in a mailbox.
• Science Observation Journal: Students examined displays and then draw and record what they see.
• Art Book: Students may create their own books using pre-made books or books that they make themselves.