Writing Conference Organization

Writers workshop is one of my favorite parts of our day in my classroom (my students' too). My workshop is structured using Lucy Calkins units of study and I am amazed every year at just how much growth my students show! A brief overview of our workshop structure is as follows:

I DO - I give a teaching point and model the teaching point.

WE DO - We practice the teaching point together through shared writing. This active engagement piece is crucial!

YOU DO - I send students off to practice the teaching point independently while I walk around and have writing conferences with my students.

The last portion is the area I struggle with! I love having writing conferences with students but I find that afterward, students don't always remember what I wanted them to focus on! I wanted to create a resource that would help me take anecdotal notes and would also help my students have a focus for their writing even when I am not working directly with them.

I wanted something tangible that students can look at each day as they get started with their independent writing, but I also wanted it to be something quick and easy for myself. I am having my students keep one of these in their writing folder and at the end of each conference, I give them a label with a focus point until our next conference.

When students master the skill, they can color in the label. This page and 15 different pages of labels are included my writing conference setup resource. **These labels were intended to be printed on Avery Labels 8860 but when I saved the templates as PDFs, the printing got slightly off the template. The PDFs are in the file in case you want to print on regular paper and cut them out, otherwise I recommend using the word templates I included and changing the font to your liking!**

Click on the photo above to see this product. This resource includes:

"Writing Conference Binder" cover (pictured above)

Emergent writer checklist and observation sheet

Fluent writer checklist and observation sheet

Writing conference note taking sheet

"I am working on..." sheet for student's writing folder

15 different pages of labels with focus points for students (both PDF and .doc format)

There are also setup ideas included in this resource but you can click any of the images below to get them as a freebie!

What tips and tricks do you have? I would love to hear them!

Christmas Crafting

For the last few years, the time in between Thanksgiving and Christmas has seemed to fly by so fast that I don't have nearly enough time to enjoy it. This year I decided to jump right in so I can enjoy every second of the season. I put my Christmas tree up and decorations out a few days before Thanksgiving and even managed to create a few things of my own!

Growing up, I could not wait to change the number every morning on my family's Christmas countdown as we got a day closer to Christmas. I have always loved the idea of taking the countdown a step further with an advent calendar and am hoping to make it a tradition for my (future) family. There are so many free, printable activities and ideas on Pinterest so after a little perusing, I decided to go for it! With no direct plan in mind, I headed to Hobby Lobby. I was able to piece together some different materials I liked and luckily, everything I needed was 50% off and I was able to gather my materials for under $25! Here is how it turned out:

Material breakdown: 

• Framed burlap board- $20 - $9.99 
• Gold ribbon- $4.99 - $2.49
• 2 sets of 20 gold patterned craft sacks- $2.99 each - $1.49  Click here to see the patterns
• 5 sets of 12 gift tags- $1.99 each - $0.99 each - There were TONS of tags to choose from! I wanted a variety so I got 5 different ones but you could make all 25 the same or different!
• Mini clothespins- $2.99 - $1.49
• Number stickers- $1.99 - $0.99

TOTAL: $22.89

I used a framed burlap board and stapled on 5 rows of ribbon, evenly spaced. (The staples are covered up by the craft sacks).

I matched the gift tags to a pattern on the craft sacks since I had 5 different kinds of each. Next, I cut the strings off the gift tags and hot glued them onto the craft sacks. I arranged them how I wanted them on the board and pinned them onto the ribbon using the mini clothespins. When they were arranged to my liking, I added the number stickers to the bottom of the craft sticks. Super easy!

I am also a proud (somewhat new) owner of a silhouette portrait cutting machine! I bought my portrait 3 months ago and am still amazed at everything the machine can do. I am still a complete newbie and have just been exploring the design software and creating simple things for my classroom and home. While playing around with the software, I created a design that I (kind of) liked! I had my machine cut it out and I decided to pair it with some scrapbook paper that I had laying around. I couldn't decide which pairing I liked best!

 

Click any of the above images to download the silhouette studio design I created as a freebie!