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Hey friends, welcome back to the Firstieland Podcast. I’m your host, Molly Schwab, and I’m happy to say that spring has sprung. Here in Ohio we get a lot of snow and really cold weather over the winter months, so the minute the sun starts shining and I see a little crocus pop up from the ground, I’m feeling happy.
Since we’re officially in the spring season, I thought it might be a good time to talk about what to put at your spring writing center. It’s time to dust off those cobwebs and freshen it up to get your kids excited about some spring writing. So let’s get started.
The minute the calendar turned to March in my classroom, I was ready to do all the spring things. I wanted to learn about springtime baby animals and the spring holidays like St. Patrick’s Day and Easter, flying kites, and just all the things that you think about that are associated with spring.
So today we’re going to talk about how you can get your kids motivated at your writing center by freshening it up a little bit with some spring things.
First of all, we should probably talk about how your writing center is set up. I was always fortunate enough to have a classroom that was large enough to have a space designated as my writing center. I think that’s always the ideal situation because when kids have the opportunity to move around the classroom instead of just staying at their seat during center time, it’s more motivating for them.
There’s just something about seeing a desk or table set up with pens, markers, and special papers that makes kids want to visit that writing center. But if space in your classroom is limited, you can always keep your writing center supplies in a basket or on a tray that kids can take to their own desk.
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I always feel like when you add special seasonal things to your writing center, kids are just more interested in going there. So stock it up with some fun springtime pencils and pens.
You can get decorative pencils at the Dollar Tree. They often have them for holidays like St. Patrick’s Day or Easter, or just general spring themes. Sometimes you can even find fun pens with things like a bunny head on top or something like that.
One time I found a really cute St. Patrick’s Day pen that had a little leprechaun on the top. There was a button you could push that made his arms move like he was boxing. The kids thought it was hilarious, and little things like that get kids more interested in visiting the center.
Alright, so let’s talk about some other supplies you can add to your writing center for spring. You definitely want some spring-themed paper with fun borders like flowers or bugs, just to make the writing a little more fun.
You can also add some little tubs with spring-colored crayons or markers, especially soft pastel colors. You might also include some fun erasers for the kids to use. You can find those at Dollar Tree too, with shapes like flowers or bugs.
I also think stickers are always a fun thing to add to the writing center. Kids can make sticker stories by creating a little picture with a few stickers and then writing about it. So you could add some spring-themed stickers for them to use.
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In terms of literacy and word support, you can add a spring word wall to your center with words like flower, sun, rainbow, nest, puddles, and things like that.
This could be a word wall you hang next to the writing center, or it could be a small printable word wall that you laminate and keep right at the center.
Sometimes I would make word cards and put them in a small tabletop pocket chart. That way kids could take the word they needed from the chart. You could also put the words on a ring and leave that at the center. There are lots of ways to display a spring word wall.
You could also make sentence starter sticks to keep at your center. These can change for different seasons. You could write sentence starters on popsicle sticks and kids can choose one to write about.
You might have simple ones like:
• One sunny morning…
• I woke up and it was raining…
• My favorite thing about spring is…
You could also have little picture cards with sentence starters for kids who might need a visual example.
I also liked having different writing templates at my writing center that were differentiated for students with different writing abilities. That way any child who visited the writing center would have something they felt confident working on.
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For instance, for my struggling writers I would have easier tasks like:
• Write a list of farm animals
• Write a list of colors in the rainbow
For March, I might include a prompt that says: Make a list of things that are green.
Since Earth Day is in April, I might have one that says: Write a list of things you can recycle.
These list activities are great for struggling writers because they only have to write one word at a time.
I would also include pages they could color and label. For example, there might be a picture with different bugs that they could label, or a St. Patrick’s Day picture they could label. Then they could also try writing a sentence about the picture.
So kids could use the pages in different ways depending on their writing ability.
You could also include letter-writing templates at your writing center. You might have cute borders with Easter eggs for April or shamrocks for March. Kids could write letters to a sneaky leprechaun or to the Easter Bunny.
Another idea is to have kids write postcards or greeting cards to friends. You could place a little mailbox at the center or somewhere in your classroom. Kids could address their letters to classmates, and then you could choose one student to be the mail carrier for the week who delivers the letters.
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You could even coordinate with another teacher and put the mailbox in the hallway so kids could write letters to friends in other classrooms.
Those are the kinds of things that get kids excited about going to the writing center. They’re still getting lots of writing practice, but they’re having fun at the same time. And that’s what makes them want to write.
Remember how I always say at the end of every podcast to make learning feel like play? Well, that’s how you do it. Adding fun elements like erasers, cute pencils, fun writing prompts, or a classroom mailbox helps writing feel like play to kids. And that’s what makes them really want to visit the center and practice their writing.
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You can also add some story starter writing templates. I had some that included a picture at the top of the page and writing lines at the bottom. Kids could write about the picture.
For example, there might be spring pictures of kids planting a tree for Earth Day, the Easter Bunny delivering baskets of eggs, or kids planting a garden.
All of these templates I’m talking about are part of my monthly writing prompts on TPT. I have a set for each month of the year. If you want to see what’s inside them, you can visit:
firstieland.com/writingprompts
You could also have kids practice different types of writing, like how-to writing or opinion writing.
For example:
• How to fly a kite
• How to color Easter eggs
Or opinion prompts like:
Which do you like better, jelly beans or marshmallow Peeps?
There are so many fun things kids could write about at your spring writing center.
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Finally, you could even staple a few pages together so kids can write their own little book.
They could use the story starter sticks to create a story and illustrate their own book. Or they could choose a book from your classroom library and write a simple book report.
I had a very simple template where students wrote:
• The title of the book
• The characters
• The setting
• Their favorite part
It was very simple since they’re only in first grade, but it was great practice.
So as you can see, there are lots of different ideas for what kids can write about at your writing center.
When students are finished, you can also have them publish their work. For example, you could hang a little clothesline with clothespins so students can display their finished writing.
If you have a bulletin board nearby, they could pin their writing there as well.
You could also add colored construction paper at the center so students can mount their writing before displaying it. That gives it a more finished, published look.
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So there you have it, lots of ways to freshen up your writing center for spring and give kids something to look forward to when it’s their turn to visit.
If you’d like to take a look at my writing prompts, you can see them at:
firstieland.com/writingprompts
I actually have all of my writing prompts on sale right now. So if you’re listening in real time, each monthly set and the full year bundle will be on sale from today through Saturday, March 14.
Okay friends, I hope that gave you some great ideas for getting your writing center ready for spring and making it a place your students really want to visit and practice their writing.
If you enjoyed today’s episode, I’d love it if you took a minute to leave a review. It’s really simple.
Just head to my show in your podcast app, scroll down, tap the five stars, and write a quick review. It really helps because when you leave a review it encourages other teachers to listen too.
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And you may not realize this, but I also have a YouTube channel where all of my podcast episodes are posted. In the YouTube videos, you can actually see the resources and materials I’m talking about in each episode.
So if you’d like to see the writing prompts and pages I mentioned today, you can head over to my YouTube channel and search for Firstieland, or you can use the link in the show notes.
Okay friends, thanks again for listening. Until next time, remember to make learning feel like play, and I’ll see you next week.
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Thanks so much for tuning in. I hope you’re walking away with some great tips you can use right away.
Be sure to hit the follow or subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you’re enjoying the podcast, I’d love it if you left a review.
You can find the show notes and links for everything mentioned in this episode at:
firstieland.com
I’ll see you next week in Firstieland.