Young Author Portfolios and Celebration

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This week we held our Young Author Celebration.  This has been a tradition for our school.  It is held during the school day.  We invite people from our city, county, and surrounding area as well as parents to come join us in celebrating our students as authors. Links to all writing lessons are embedded in the post, as well as bundles for writing mini-lessons and all the science and social studies foldables through the year. Keep scrolling if you need that!

To begin, in first grade, students create an eBook.  We do an animal research investigation, and each student creates an eBook from the research.  While our guests are in our room, each student plays their eBook and stands at the front of the room.

(The next few pictures are from parents)

 

As you’d expect, the students are VERY EXCITED! It is such fun!
In fact, parents texted me these pictures to share since I didn’t have a chance to take pictures.
Therefore, once the presentations are finished, students share their writing from the year with their families during this time too.
For example, here are a few pictures of what is on the desks from our year.
School beginnings writing saved from the first week
All About Me flip up book
What makes a sentence
Veterans Day Writing
Writing Center Writing I didn’t keep ALL their daily writing, but I did keep some where I felt that the student had shown growth or that it was special in some way.

 

Daily writer’s workshop lessons
(Engaging writing vol. 3 paper shown- Student preferred)
Special science and social studies lessons were also saved.  Many times, science and social studies was the inspiration for our writing.  It all fits together so I wanted to keep it as a large portfolio of different avenues of writing.

  Winter Art and Writing                                                   Graph Pack

 

 

MORE SCIENCE AND SOCIAL STUDIES BOOKS PLEASE

Above all, if you enjoy this type of teaching tool, I have thirty-two of these books spanning science and social studies topics for the entire school year!  Be sure to check out this post to learn more!

Science and Social Studies Topics 1

Science and Social Studies Topics 2

 

Writing Mini-Lessons Month by Month

To conclude, I have developed writing mini-lessons like the two I shared here for each month of the school year.  There are 8 mini-lessons for each month.  Some will span a few days and others will just be a daily lesson.  The lessons are aligned to the common core and the Texas TEKS.  Below you can find the links for Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade.

Kindergarten Bundle of Writing Lessons for the Year

First Grade Bundle of Writing Lessons for the Year

Second Grade Bundle of Writing Lessons for the Year

Acrostic Rainbow Namebows hung proudly on the windows
To make the writing folders I just kept it simple.  I wanted each student to be the big focus!

I took a picture of each student and printed it full size.  Then I used 12 by 18 black Astrobrights paper.  I folded it and just created a very simple folder.  The student work went inside in order.

 

The students helped me arrange the work once it was all passed out to them.  There were such adorable moments where they remembered past projects and writings.  I saw some trying to erase and fix but I stopped them and explained that they have grown tremendously and that it is ok to leave those old mistakes alone.

As far as seeing the process of writing, I kept certain writings out of this because we are supposed to keep a district portfolio for each student.  In this portfolio, there must be work that has been through the entire writing process.  Those pieces are not shown in any of these pictures.

 

Writing Mini-Lessons Month by Month

Kindergarten Bundle of Writing Lessons for the Year

First Grade Bundle of Writing Lessons for the Year

Second Grade Bundle of Writing Lessons for the Year

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11 Comments

  3. I would love more info on creating the ebook. Do you have a student sample to show? Love your blog and all your resources! 🙂

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  4. Reagan, do you have a curriculum map/timeline that shows when you do each writing activity during the school year? I would love something like that to help me plan our writing for next year. My TPT cart is filled with all of these amazing writing packs (I already have Engaging Writing Activities, Vol. 1 and my firsties LOVED it!)…now I will wait patiently for a sale! 😉

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  6. Reagan, how many pieces a year actually go through the entire writing process? We're supposed to restart the process each week but because of that, we don't get a chance to do some of these quicker writes that it looks like you have…

    Kristin

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  8. I love how you put a picture of the children writing on the cover. I want to do that next year! I keep a writing sample from each month and put it all together in a similar folder like you have. I write on the cover in sharpie So and So's writing portfolio, 1st grade, and the year. I also love how you share everything with your parents. I will have to ask my principal if we can do that next year! Thanks for all the ideas. I've pinned them now! Good luck with the rest of your school year!

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