Contact UsYoung Author Portfolios and Celebration
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.
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!
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
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
How many of those adorable parent volunteer gifts did you buy at $70 each???
They were less than half that price!
I would love more info on creating the ebook. Do you have a student sample to show? Love your blog and all your resources! 🙂
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! 😉
Hi Lori!
I have a workshop on monthly mini lessons but have not created a curriculum map. I'll think about it! 🙂
No pressure! 😉 Thanks for your response!
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
I love this time of year when you can see how much they have grown as writers! Thanks for sharing how that looks in your classroom.
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!
These are PRECIOUS! I love the idea of keeping their writing portfolio! Where do yo ustore their writing throughout the year?
Where do you get the writing paper with "Topic" on it?