Hey teachers, welcome to the second article in this blog series about setting up a writing center. Writing centers can be really messy, so it’s important to keep the chaos controlled instead of having it absolutely bonkers. If you missed the first part of this series, the articles will be linked below.
Setting Up A Writing Center That Works All Year
In the past, my writing center was less than effective. My students were off task, their writing (if they wrote at all) was not what they were capable of doing, and really, we were all pretty bored with the activities that I kept there all year.
Your kindergarten or first grade writing centers can be messy with all the papers and supplies everywhere. You also want to avoid the off task behavior that inevitably will happen when 6 year olds get bored. So today we’re discussing WHERE you’d like to put your writing center, and I’ll give you some good tips if you have a smaller classroom like mine.
Here are three things to think about when setting up a writing center.
Use A Larger Space When Setting Up A Writing Center
You’ll want to save the biggest area for your writing centers. because you’ll need a lot of space for your supplies and activities. So if we look at my very rough drawing of my classroom here, you’ll see that at the back of my room, next to my easel, there is a perfect spot for my writing center table. There is a space to add a large pocket chart if I need one, and I can have some drawers like these to keep your writing supplies.
So think about an area in your room that is large enough for a set of desks or a small table. Remember, from the last article on setting up a writing center, you’re going to want to choose a table or desks for your kindergarten or first grade writing centers. It’s easier for your students to write.
Put Your Writing Center Within Eyesight
You’ll want to pick an area where you’re keeping your eye on your students. This, of course, goes for any of your literacy centers but especially the writing center. Independent writing is hard for our younger kiddos and that understandably leads to off task behavior. This is totally normal based on their ages, but we still need to hold them accountable. It’s important to keep an eye on your writers, even if you’re across the room
Consider How You’ll Display Writing Center Anchor Charts
Hopefully, by now, you’ll have an idea of where you want to put your writing center. But there’s one more thing to consider if you don’t have a large pocket chart, and that’s setting up your writing center near a wall or counter where you can post helpful anchor charts, or keep tubs or baskets of your writing center activities.
So you’ve chosen a pretty large area to set up your writing center, but you can absolutely maximize this space. When I have aides or volunteers working throughout the day with my students, they use my writing center table.
So there you go, I’d love to see pictures of your process of setting up a writing center!
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