Write on!

Today, I took a deep breath and introduced Work on Writing. My students cheered when I turned over and introduced a new choice. They were so excited to learn what this choice would entail and begin working. I, on the other hand, was a bit apprehensive and nervous to how my students would handle WOW. It is a big deal for a 5 year old to start putting thoughts to paper and forming a sentence. So I put on my big girl panties and dove in head first and boy did my students prove me wrong today!

We had so much fun talking about why Work on Writing was so important. They named some of their favorite authors and of course Dr. Seuss was on the top of the list. Many said they wanted to be famous just like him. This led to a great discussion of how Dr. Seuss became a famous writer and all the time and effort he took to practice writing. Now all of my students want to be famous just like Dr. Seuss. They were ready to put the pen to the paper and start writing! But where would I start them? And how could I help them become successful?

Thanks to my fabulous teammates, we decided starting our children off with SIMPLE writing prompts would be the way to go. This gave them some direction and allowed their thoughts to start flowing. Eventually, they will not need this.
So they had the choice of:
 I love....
My mom....
My dad....

We brainstormed lots of ideas and things we could write about. And boy were they ready to go. I was still way nervous to let them go. But we kept going and I let my students choose the speed. I showed them where the materials where, where to find their special Daily 5 journal and reviewed our working spots in the room. One by one, my students got their materials, chose a spot and opened their journals to start. I was FLOORED! I thought for sure SOMEONE would yell out they didn't know how to write. PHEW, maybe all those anchor charts and modeling and building confidence really worked this year!

The noise level was not appropriate work time and I was not going to allow that to continue so I quickly gave my signal and my students came back to the carpet. We talked about all of the awesome things I noticed and some things to work on. They were then begging to go back and finish. So what kind of teacher would I be if I didn't allow them to?

We gave the signal and my students went to work. We practiced a total of 3 times this morning and they built their stamina to an amazing 7 minutes! I was so proud of every one of them. Some did a great job writing a sentence and using spaces and some need some extra guidance but overall they did fabulous. I cannot wait to see how their writing grows throughout the year!

Did you try something new today? What have had to put your big girl or big boy panties on for?