A Special Place to Hold our Writing

Today the students had the opportunity to use their pictures and stickers and other items they brought in to decorate their writing binders and make them special and personal to each student.  This is always one of my favorite beginning of the year activities because I want the students to take ownership over their writing.  Making a personal binder helps this happen.  We use our writing binders just about every day and now the students have a special place to keep their special memories that we write about.  Tomorrow  we will begin our first writing lesson.  We begin by brainstorming topics.  What do I know about?  What am I an expert in?  What could I tell somebody?  The second graders are always ready to dive in and tell about something they did over the summer.  The first graders may begin more hesitant, but they soon see that we all have a story to tell, and we are all writers!  It is very fun to watch all of the students grow in their writing over the school year!

On a side note, I was so impressed to see several students share items they brought in today.  The kindness and willingness to share made me feel so happy to have a class filled with such nice students!