Saturday, September 27, 2014

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. 

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!


5 comments:

  1. Yay! I'm so glad you liked the idea. I think we are going to have an amazing writing year this year!!

    Jennifer
    Mrs. Laffin's Laughings

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh my gosh! What a clever idea! So simple, but I bet all those kids will want to take care of those treasure chests and fill them will all their best writing! I love it! Thanks for the link to the great resources too! I'm glad you linked up Ana!
    Joanne
    Head Over Heels For Teaching

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is an adorable idea! I'll have to try it out. Thanks for the great tip :)

    -Katie
    http://thepawsitivepencil.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Katie!! Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a comment. I hope that you are able to use these folders in your class. I'm sure your kids will love them!! Did you know that you're a no-reply blogger so I can't respond to you via email? If you want help changing that let me know :) Happy Sunday!
      Ana

      Delete
  4. We have Big Writing Folders but they are not very inspiring. The idea of a writing treasure chest is great and will be much more exciting! Thanks for the idea!
    Growing Little Learners

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for stopping by! I love to read and respond to comments so I would really appreciate you taking the time to write me a comment about your thoughts on what you have read. Be sure you aren't a no-reply blogger so I can respond to you via email!