If you’ve ever had trouble making your writing center work the way you want to, this article is perfect for you. This is the first in a series of how to set up a writing center to make it effective, motivating, and easy to maintain.
Kindergarten And First Grade Writing Center Woes
Chances are you have encountered one of these problems with your writing centers for kindergarten or first grade:
- Your students leave papers EVERYWHERE.
- There are broken pencils and crayons scattered all over.
- There is so much talking and off task behavior that your students aren’t actually writing.
- Or maybe they’re drawing amazing pictures… but still not writing.
- Your students aren’t writing their best, they’re just writing because you’re making them.
- Your students never learned your writing center routine.
- Or they just find your writing activities boring.
Literacy Centers are my favorite time during the day, and I became a pro at all the OTHER centers in my room. But my first grade writing center was pretty chaotic, and worse yet, my students really didn’t enjoy going there.
How To Set Up A Writing Center In First Grade Or Kindergarten
When you’re planning your kindergarten or first grade writing center, or any literacy center for that matter, it’s important to put a lot of thought into how you’d like to set up an area that will be effective for the task the students do. We need a functional place where your students can write their best. So let’s consider what that will look like in your classroom. This is the first step when learning how to set up a writing center.
It was becoming a pretty big problem with off task behavior, and the quality of work I was getting just wasn’t great. So I spent some time in my classroom to really focus on the writing center, and I had a LOT of success. And in this series of writing center articles I’m going to show you what I did.
Make sure not to skip this step either, putting thought into it now will save you trying to fix problems down the road.
For your centers, you have a lot of choice between having your students sit on the floor, at their desks, or at tables. These are little kids who need to get the wiggles out, so we’re glad to get them up and moving as much as possible.
However, your writing center will work best at a table or at your students desks. Your kiddos are still working on their fine motor skills and a clipboard with a pencil balanced on their lap is just too much to fumble with. So let’s solve that problem right out the gate and give them a place to write successfully. I made this mistake when I was first learning how to set up a writing center in my classroom. Clipboards are great, but for other activities.
What Furniture Will You Use For Your Writing Center?
Let’s think about your classroom. Do you have a table that you can use? Or do you have a supply of extra desks you could put together? In years past, I’ve zip-tied the legs of four desks together. Or if this is not possible, you can also have your writing center materials on a shelf or in tubs like this one where your students can gather what they need and write at their desks.
The thing that worked the best for me was taking two of the trapezoid tables and pushing them together. And the bonus for this is that I used this table set up for different ways throughout the rest of my day. If I had aides come into my room to work with my students, they used my writing center.
Where Will You Place Your Writing Center?
Next step for how to set up a writing center: go back to imagining your classroom. If you’re going to use a table, where would you like it to be placed? Ideally, you’ll want it in sight of where you’ll be working so you can keep an eye on your students.
This is a very rough drawing of my classroom. You’ll see where my writing center table is, and where I sit and work with my small group of students. You’ll also see that my writing center table is right next to my carpeted area that I use for small group.
Now you can use this table if you’re showing your students something requiring a flat surface… they can see it from where they’re sitting or there’s plenty of room to crowd together around the table.
I hope that you can see that thinking through the actual furniture you’d like to use NOW will help you make sure your writing center sets your students up for success.
What’s Next In The Writing Stations Article Series?
The next article in this series on how to set up a writing center will be about WHERE you’d like to place your writing center. I know it sounds silly, but there are a few things to avoid when you’re deciding where your writing center will live all year.
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