Gift Card Giveaway and Writing Workshop

A bunch of bloggers have joined up to say THANK YOU.  Thank you for following us.  Thank you for your support, encouragement, and friendship.  We have learned so much from you.  

So we wanted to say thank you with a Gift Card Giveaway.  

Simply fill in the rafflecopter below and you have a chance to win one of 3 prizes. 

(You can fill in the rafflecopter on any of our blogs, it's all the same one.) 

3 lucky winners will win a $25 gift card to TPT.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now onto the OTHER important thing I want to share today.  I'm linking up with Jivey to share about my students learning to love to write.  Not everything we write is going to be fun - I tell them that.  I also tell them that it's something they have to do to get better.  There are 3 main things that are constant in my classroom during writing time.  I know I've mentioned them before, but I think it ties into motivating students since they are fun.

My VOICES board is a constant reminder of everything we have covered throughout the year.  All the reminders, all the things to remember.  At the beginning of the year we fill it out together - they are writing the same information in their binders as we go over it.  I think this brings in the kids that aren't extra motivated since we do fun activities to demonstrate the different areas - like those french fry cups for synonyms, or their heart maps, or their Author's Purpose Pies.

Rainbow Edit keeps my students accountable for checking their work.  Each paragraph should be a rainbow of colors when they are done checking.  I've been looking at this anchor chart for months - since last year - and I just realized that I wrote "word" in the cloud instead of "work".  Guess what I will be doing today at school?  Changing it of course!  I have a set of charts and student papers in my store if you are interested.

Every week there is something that the students have to write for me.  It's usually one big project that they work on all week, then the normal story summary, response, etc...  but when they are all done, they get options.  They love options!!  These Whole Class Writing Journals are still a big hit in my classroom.  I have 2 big baskets full of all 40 of my notebooks (Starter Set has 15, Set 2 has 25).  They choose one and share their experiences.  Something that I have added to them is adding a class list inside the front cover.  When they write in them they then highlight their name so it's easy for me to see who has tackled which prompt.  For silent reading, there are always a couple of kids that ask to read them.  I love that they are learning about their classmates.  

Hope you all have a great day!  Make sure to enter the rafflecopter and good luck!