Work on Writing Folders!

I still remember hearing all about this ‘Daily 5’ talk…how it would save us so much time for teacher prep and the benefits for our students would be tremendous.  Well, everything I heard was absolutely true and beyond!  I love my Daily 5/Guided Reading block. I think I’ve said that already…but maybe you’ll believe me now 🙂

The students are so independent and really enjoy Daily 5.  It never fails that a  school day is not a day if we don’t do Daily 5.  It’s like 5 minutes before it’s time to go home and they are asking, “what about Daily 5?”   Got to love those little ones.

Well anyway, back on subject is my work on writing folders.  In the snapshot below you will see my writing center.  No, mine is really not as cute as I’ve seen elsewhere, but it does get the job done.  The four green baskets are my word work tubs.  The two sets of folders are my work on writing folders.  I have a boy stack and a girl stack.  It makes finding the folder a  lot easier.   

Below are the folders that I purchased from School Specialty.  Click on the picture to link to the product.  They come in a pack of 25 and are listed for $11.99.  They are a poly folder so I got a good two years out of them before retiring them this past year.  I wrote each students name on the folder with a permanent marker and used a magic eraser at the end of the year.  This past year I sent them home with each kiddo packed full of fun summer writing.

Above are snap shots of the activities I place in my work on writing folders.  Remember the fact that Daily 5 is less preparing for us teachers!  Well, I stuff these folders about once a month and they are good to go.  I also make sure to only place activities that (1) we have worked on in class before (2) are self-explanatory (3) allow my students to use their creative minds. 

The top picture shows examples of my writing picture starters.  Oh my….I started these maybe mid-year.  The students LOVE them and I LOVE them.  Never once did I have a student approach me about a rocket ship and say, “I don’t know what to do!”  The writing picture starters were really some of my best stories from the kiddos.  I think it was mostly due to the hard “what do I write about?” step was taken away and all that was left was the actual writing part.  They really did awesome with them!
In the bottom picture are additional activities that are from my Writing Super Pack {listed below}.  Also, the ‘come’ sight word page comes from my 100 sight word practice sheet packet.  We worked on two sight words a week and didn’t always get to the practice sheet during Work Work, so I would stick it in their work on writing folders.
Below are the activities I’ve mentioned above.  They will all be on sale for 10% off Wednesday 6/19/2013- Saturday 6/22/2013.

Writing Picture Starters Bundle {60 pages included}

Writing Super Pack {10 activities}

Inside the Packet:
– Activity #1 Making Lists {6 versions}
– Activity #2 Labeling { 6 versions}
– Activity #3 Opposites Writing {6 versions}
– Activity #4 Illustrate an Easy Reader {6 versions}
– Activity #5 Writing Cards {6 versions}
– Activity #6 Class Pictionary {3 versions}
– Activity #7 Picture Story Starters {6 versions}
– Activity #8 Writing letters {6 versions}
– Activity #9 Weekend News {6 versions}
– Activity #10 Opinion Writing {6 versions}

100 Sight Word Practice Sheets

Color, Trace, and Write each word!

the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it, he, was, for, on, are, as, with, his, they, I, at, be, this, have, from, or, one, had, by, word. but, not, what, all, were, we, when, your, can, said, there, use, an, each, which, she, do, how, their, if, will, up, other, about, out, many, then, them, these, so, some, her, would, make, like, him, into, time, has, look, two, more, write, go, see, number, no, way, could, people, my, than, first, water, been, call, who, am, its, now, find, long, down, day, did, get, come, made, may, & part

Have an awesome end to your week!

8 Comments

  4. Thanks for making this seem so simple! I have looked at doing Daily 5 in the past, but was just so overwhelmed by just reading the book. The resources you created are awesome, too! Thanks 🙂

  5. Hi Tara, I really appreciate all of your information about the Daily 5. So, so helpful. Can you tell me which parts of the Daily 5 the kids are doing during your guided reading groups? Thanks, Jeanette

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