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Tickled Pink in Primary

Educational resources for teachers to help bring the FUN back into learning.

A Classroom Writing Center Students Will LOVE

Have you wanted a classroom writing center, but didn’t know where to start? Do you want your students to love writing? I have a few tips to make writing more fun and ideas on how to set up a whole writing center in your room! My writing center has quickly become a favorite place for students to visit!
There are affiliate links in this post. As an affiliate, I do make a very small commission on purchases at no cost to you. These links can better help you find materials you may want in your writing center.
A Classroom Writing Center Students Will LOVE

Writing Center Tips

All of my tips have to do with GIVING STUDENTS CHOICES! Just by letting your students have more choice in what they write, will encourage them to write more. 
 
1. Give students a VARIETY!. I know we all have topics and types of writing that we have to cover throughout the year, but why not let your students choose the format in which they want to write? If students are writing about small moments, they can choose to make a book, write it in a friendly letter, write a postcard, etc. This gives students more choice and makes writing interesting instead of just writing in a journal everyday. 
 
2. Let students WRITE WITH ANYTHING & EVERYTHING. I did a whole blog post about a month ago about Expanding Student’s Writing Tools and letting them write with something besides a pencil all the time. Do you write with the same blue pen every day? Of course not, that’s so boring!
 
3. Provide HELPFUL RESOURCES for students to use. Are you students always asking you what letter is…how do you spell…what can I write about? Providing some posters on the wall, whether at the writing center or just on the walls in the room, help students become more independent writers. They don’t have to rely on you, but can start to become resourceful. 
It’s never too late to add a classroom writing center! It’s April, and I just put this one up. I wanted to make writing more FUN! Therefore, I created a writing center bundle that has everything you need to set up a writing center for the whole year! It provides a variety of resources for your students, so they never get bored of writing. Some teachers have asked where I found this border and it’s from Creative Teaching Press, you can find it at a local teacher store on on Amazon here. 
Classroom Writing Center - Writing Center Bundle

Writing Center Set-Up 

Here’s a close up of some of the HELPFUL RESOURCES I described. At my writing center, I put up posters for the alphabet, colors, numbers, days of the week, months of the year, monthly vocabulary words, examples of writing, a writing checklist, and ideas/topics they can write about. I see student referring to these often. 

WRITING CENTER FOR KINDERGARTEN, 1ST GRADE, 2ND GRADE

   

The right side of my board includes posters that I change out periodically. I know students like to write about things that are happening each month. For the classroom writing center,  I created a poster with monthly vocabulary words. Students would always want to know how to spell Santa, leprechaun, turkey, etc. depending on the month – now they have a reference sheet for that!

Classroom Writing Center - Monthly Vocabulary

When we learn about a new type of writing, I can easily change out the “I can write” part of the board and put up a sample as well. Here are the signs I included for that area: alphabet, sight words, words, sentences, stories, letters, postcards, recipes, books, cards, poems.

   
I’ve recently added these monthly vocabulary word strips to the writing bundle, so you can now have a portable word wall if needed. It will also save room in case you don’t have space for all of the posters provided. These images are the same as the monthly posters.  If you don’t need the whole writing bundle, I do have these vocabulary strips sold separately here.

Check out how I let students WRITE WITH ANYTHING & EVERYTHING! If you’re a teacher, I know you  love Mr. Sketch markers, Sharpies, Flair pens,  gel pens, and anything that is colorful and fun to write with. Why don’t we let our students have that kind of choice? At my classroom writing center, I have a big tub FULL of writing tools. I can tell you that the students absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having choice and rarely grab the pencils. The gel pens are actually some of their favorite things to use.  Isn’t is just beautiful?!?

I found all of these containers/trays  at The Dollar Tree, so this center was cheap to set-up as well! The pencils, chevron pens, gel pens, stamp markers, and paper cups came from there as well. I also included fat markers, skinny markers, crayons, gel pens, colored pencils, and the new Mr. Sketch Twistable Crayons. They are the coolest!

These trays are stackable, so you could have even more writing sheets available at your center than what I have pictured. Below I have cards, letters, books, and generic writing paper available for students to use.

My classroom writing center will allow your students to progress throughout the year.  Here are some of the generic writing sheets I have created. At the beginning of Kindergarten, I will use the alphabet sheets, then move on to beginning sounds, and then sight words. You can slowly start to add the writing sheets, books, and card for students to get used to writing simple sentences. Later in the year, you can introduce how to write a friendly letter, postcard, or recipe. It’s all about providing a VARIETY of writing resources.

I have also included writing paper with dotted lines and regular lines, depending on the ability of your students. You will also find some of the writing sheets provide a space for a picture, whereas others are full sheet for students to solely focus on the writing. We all have those students that when given space for a picture, that’s all they want to focus on. Now you have a choice of what to give students. 

Maybe because this is new, but the kids seriously love to go here and can’t wait until it is their turn to visit the writing center!

Writing Center Examples

This girl chose to write me a letter about how much she loves our classroom writing center and can’t wait to go back! 🙂 As you can see, the kids can write with whatever they want and even switch writing tools throughout their writing. I remind them that they need to focus on writing and not just choosing what to write with, so they pick their selections quickly.

This sweet girl wanted to make a Get Well Soon card for her friend that was sick. So sweet!

There are pages in this bundle as well to teach students different types of writing. Here’s a student sample of the How To writing page. I let students choose any topic they wanted to write about, which of course makes the writing more personal and exciting!
Classroom Writing Center - Writing Sheet
I also wanted to provide students with some prompts in the classroom writing center. There are 2 writing prompts for each month. Some are holiday themed and some are not. I once again made the option of dotted lines or regular lines for these as well.
Here’s one last look at my classroom writing center. I’m in LOVE with it! It’s so colorful and inviting.
Classroom Writing Center - Kindergarten 2nd
If you decided to use this writing bundle in your class, I’d love to see pictures of how you set it up! Read more to find more ideas on how to help Improve Student Writing. 

Sign up for my FREE resource library to try a few writing prompts.
5 writing prompts papers on a table
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This K-2 classroom writing center is available in my TPT Store, as well as a bundle for 3rd-5th grade.

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    Comments

    4. g says

      I like them, and I llove your writing center! I thought I had read through it all, but didn't? Sorry.

    7. Anonymous says

      its awesome Im thinking of how I could set this up for my 4yr old at home to encourage writing

    8. Anonymous says

      Love your writing center. So, do the students go to the center as a station or when they finish their writing or part of word work? Because Kindergarten students are suppose to write/edit for 30 minutes.

    10. Brittany Lynch says

      I let the kids use the writing a few times each day and have a rotation schedule so that the same kids don't go all the time. I let them go during a literacy center time where they can work on their letters, sight words, sounds, or write a bout a book they read during "read to self". I also let them go during writing time. When they are at the writing table during writing time they still have to work on the skill we are learning, but instead of doing the worksheet, journal writing, etc. the other kids are doing, they get to use the fancy writing tools and choose how they want to write. So if we are all learning small moments the kids at the writing table may choose to write their small moment as a book, postcard, friendly letter, etc. I think the kids like it so much because they have the choice of what to write and the fancy tools are super fun too! 😉

    11. Anonymous says

      Wow! I am so excited about your writing center. I love the information that you chose for them to be able to refer back to.I am teaching English as a second language in Mexico. I really want to do centers with the children. How would you incorporate a center into an interactive notebook?

    12. Kayla G says

      I love this writing center idea! I would love to buy it from TPT, but I can't find the link to purchase it. I only see a link to add to my wishlist in TPT. Any suggestions?
      Thank you
      Kayla

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