Writing Center

Thanks so much for joining me today! We are going to talk all things… WRITING CENTER. I absolutely love the writing center or work on writing for daily five! However, it can be TOUGH finding appropriate material to replenish the writing center each week/month. After you swap out the material then you have a new dilemma– teaching the sheet so that the students will be able to do it independently.  That’s when I decided to tackle these two issues and create my new writing center! My new writing center offers MATERIAL on MATERIAL… you will never run short! I also use the same 12 activities for each theme! That means you’ll just need to teach the 12 activities ONE TIME and then you’re S-E-T! Below I will be sharing more about the writing center! I will also be sharing a  giveaway!

What is included in this Thematic Writing Center?

– 450 nonfiction word cards (5 word cards per 90 themes)
– 12 activity posters (2 sizes available)
– 7,800 activity sheets (870 pages per month)
– Start Up Guide

What makes THIS writing center so unique?

This writing centers rocks SIMPLISTIC BLISS! What does that mean? This packet allows you to teach the 12 activities and then have them simply repeat for each theme! This allows you TIME that you are not repeating directions each month!

This writing center offers SO MANY themes that you can easily combine and swap themes. If you are teaching life cycles, you can pull out all of the life cycle themes and teach them at once!

Watch a video of the writing center below!

The Thematic Writing Center includes word cards and independent writing sheets for the entire school year. Each month covers ten themes for a total of 90 themes. The themes can be interchanged between any months. The themes are independent of one another and can be swapped to fit your needs.

Each theme has 5 word cards for a total of 450 word cards. These cards come with nonfiction/realistic photographs. The cards can be displayed for students to access. Along with the word cards, each theme comes with twelve activities. The twelve activities are repeated for every theme so that the task only has to be taught once.

Below you can see the writing center set-up a bit closer! 

The writing center covers 90 THEMES!

September: Apples, School, Transportation, Fairy Tales, School Helpers, Park, Family, Feelings, School Supplies, School Subjects

October: Halloween, Fall Animals, Fire Safety, Owls, Fall, Pumpkins, Jungle Animals, Three Little Pigs, Three Little Bears, Three Billy Goats

November: Thanksgiving, Native Americans, Then and Now, Scarecrows, Veteran’s Day, Maps & Globes, Community, Harvest, Reptiles, Mammals

December: Reindeer, Gingerbread, Christmas, Holidays, Needs, 5 Senses, Polar Express, Winter, Colors, Manners

January: New Year, Arctic Animals, Snow, Bears, Winter Sports, Woodland Animals, Hibernation, The Mitten, Penguins, MLK

February: Dental Health, President’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Germs, My Body, Friendship, Groundhog’s Day, Castles and Kings, Western, Travel

March: St. Patrick’s, Dinosaurs, Moon, Snakes, Spring, Pond, Pets, Construction, Exercise, Healthy Food

April: Easter, Frogs, Butterflies, Plants, Weather, Farm, Bugs, Space, Ponies, Chickens

May: Zoo, Ocean, Community, Pirates, Beach, Summer, Bedtime, Koalas, Picnic, Camping

There are 12 activities included for each of the 90 themes. Each of these systematic activities allow you the simplistic bliss of teaching the activity only one time for the entire school year. Each of the activities include five versions for variety and differentiation.

Greeting Cards, Label it sheets, Tune-Ups, Word Writing, Alphabet, Booklets, Mail It (Letters and Post Cards), Lists, Sentence Scramble, Free Write Story, Story Starters, and Mix It! Fix It!

Below is a breakdown of the 12 activities!

ACTIVITY 1: 

Story starters are perfect for those reluctant writers or students in general that need idea boosts. The students will write a story to match the clip art image. There is also an included checklist for students to check over their work. There are five versions of this sheet included.

ACTIVITY 2:

Alphabet sheets are perfect for the beginning of the year when our students are still learning their ABC’s. However, ABC sheets are beneficial throughout the entire year when we are differentiating our writing center for all learners. There are five included versions covering tracing, color-by-letter and connecting the dots.

ACTIVITY 3:

Lists are an excellent way for students to get several ideas down onto paper without writing lengthy sentences. There are five lists provided for each theme. These lists include open-ended and closed lists.

ACTIVITY 4:

Free write templates are a way for students to create their story of choice. Included on the template is the writer’s checklist. There are multiple versions of writing paper included.

ACTIVITY 5:

Booklets are one of the advanced writing activities included. There are five versions included that cover the five writing genres (informational, procedural, persuasive, opinion, and fiction).

ACTIVITY 6:

This word writing activity encourages students to practice writing the vocabulary words. There are multiple versions included. There is an open-ended version and tracing version as well. Along with word writing there is also sentence writing practice.

ACTIVITY 7:

Tune-ups give students an opportunity to apply mechanics skills they’ve mastered. The students will work on spacing, capitalization, and punctuation. Once the sentence has been corrected, the students will rewrite the sentence and illustrate it with a matching picture. There are five versions included.

ACTIVITY 8:

This labeling activity encourages students to utilize the included word bank to label the picture. The students will also color the illustration. There are five versions included.

ACTIVITY 9:

The students will choose between a postcard or a letter. The students will write letters or postcards to friends and family members. You can also include a mailbox at the writing center. There are multiple versions included.

ACTIVITY 10:

The greeting cards encourage students to write a greeting card of choice to a friend or family member. The students can also color the front cover of the greeting card. There are five versions included.

ACTIVITY 11:

Mix It! Fix It! is an activity that has students first cut and build the sentence. The students can mix and fix the sentence multiple times before gluing it down on their sheet. The students will then write the new sentence and illustrate a matching picture. There are five versions included.

ACTIVITY 12:

This sentence scramble activity includes five sentences that the students must unscramble.  For additional differentiation, there are included word cards to place on top of the picture card.

Setting up the writing center is also easy-peasy!

STEP 1:

Create a space where you will implement your writing center. This could be on a bulletin board, dry-erase board (using magnets), or even directly onto the wall.

STEP 2:

Next, choose which size of activity posters you want to print. There are full and half-sheet versions available. You can hang these up in the writing center with clothes pins, staples, Velcro, etc.

STEP 3:

Then, print out the word cards of your choice. You can choose to display 1-2 themes, 1 month’s worth, etc. Display the word cards on the
writing center board or on a metal ring.

STEP 4:

Next, create matching activity basket labels. You can make these yourself or print out the included labels. Attach these labels to your writing center activity baskets.

STEP 5:

Afterwards, fill your activity baskets with the matching included writing center sheets. You can choose to put out the same sheet multiple times or put out a variety using the five included versions.

Not sure if the writing center will work for you? Read what other teachers are saying…

Theresa says… Another winning product from Tara! If you’re not sure, please view the video because it give a GREAT overview of this GROWING BUNDLE! I love the nonfiction, thematic-based vocabulary words that will support all my students in LITERACY. There are so many options for my students to complete targeted, thematic based writing—can’t wait to start using this product with my students! Thank You Tara!

 Rebekah says… I was looking for ways to improve my students’ writing. This center is just what I need. It will reach all the different abilities in my room, and as the students grow, it can grow with them. I’m so excited to start using this in my room!

A teacher says…This is AMAZING! Its the kind of resource I have always dreamed of having for my writing center. Teach the procedures and change out the themes but room for differentiation! Thank you Tara – you’ve done it again. So excited to use for the remainder of this year and start fresh with next years kiddos!

Ellie says… I have it all printed out and ready to use this week! I am so excited to have the same activities for each of the units! It saves so much time explaining centers when the students already know what to do. It allows for use to focus on the strategies and not the directions for the activities!

You can snag the writing center bundle for 50% OFF through midnight EST Saturday, April 7th! You can view the bundle HERE.

You can also enter below to win ALL of the items in my writing center! The items below are valued at $135! The giveaway runs through Saturday as well! Enter below on the Rafflecopter or click HERE.

Thanks so much for joining me today!