Writing Treasure Chests

This week was long. 

Very long. 

I felt like every morning I was running to a meeting....

and by Friday I just wanted to sit at my desk,

and get a few things done. 

Boy, am I glad I didn't!

I went to our school writing committee meeting

and came back with a wonderful idea. 

Jennifer, from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings

is on this committee with me. She teaches

4th grade and has a passion for writing.

She really has inspired me this year

to put that at the forefront of my teaching. 

She found this great resource, which is aligned 

with the CCSS for the 3-5th vertical team to 

begin to implement this year in writing. 

Check it out here... there is also resources for other grades too,

we're just starting with 3-5 for now. 

She brought her student writing portfolios to the meeting to share. 

They were very simple, made of manila folders

and stored in a milk crate

She called them their writing 'Treasure Chests.'

I really loved the name of these folders and what they were being used for. 

Instead of having a portfolio that will be passed from

teacher to teacher each year,

students will make a treasure chest to store writing

and then get to explore their writing several times a year.

They can go back and watch their progression. 

I made similar  manila folders for my writing center this week

but I didn't call them treasure chests. 

They were plain, and just sitting in a book basket bin for 

the students to add their pieces of free writing to. 

This was from my 5 for Friday post.... talking about getting our writing center up and running. Here are two students using the writing prompt book that I made to help them come up with an idea for a story. You can see my folders in the corner (a little...) in a red bin.  They are just folders, and nothing was special on them. 

As soon as I got back to class after my meeting,

I introduced the treasure chest, and allowed students to

decorate them. I was so impressed!

Most of them put their names on the front so I tried to pick

 a few that didn't have their names on them to share.

They loved the treasure chest idea from the beginning. 

I had many of them actually draw treasure chests, 

or things they would want to find in a treasure chest. 

Thanks to Jennifer, this is just another way that I'm 

Sparking Student Motivation this week!

I'm linking up with Head Over Heels for Teaching today

for this great linky called Spark Student Motivation Saturdays!!

 Be sure to stop by and see how others are 

getting that spark started for their students!! :) I'm so thankful for everyone 

and their amazing ideas!