keepsake booklets,

Writing Prompts

1-2-3 Come Make A Keepsake With Me!

I’m Surviving In School is a quick, easy and fun way to get students to practice their writing skills.
Graphic organizers are extremely beneficial for visual learners and help students organize their thoughts and think succinctly.  These mini-writing prompts are more do-able and less intimidating. Doing a page at the end of each month, is a terrific Daily 5 activity, or independent writing center. Alphabetize the booklets and number them, so students can quickly and easily find theirs to work on. These are a great addition to a portfolio or file, to share with parents, during conferences, as they should show marked improvements along the way.  Completed books make an outstanding keepsake.

writing activities, writing centers, monthly writing prompts, writing promps for fall, daily 5 activities, keepsake booklets, portfolio activities, Encourage students to use proper capitalization, punctuation, spaces, adjectives etc. and you have covered a lot of Common Core State Standards as well.  There’s a generic cover as well as covers for preschool through 6th grade.  Define what an adjective is and why using describing words are important.  Pass out markers and have students write adjectives that describe themselves, in each bubble box on their cover.  Explain that they can add more words as the year progresses.  To make this extra special, have students glue their school picture inside the bus.  You may want to make a booklet yourself, to use as an example to help explain things each month.  Students really enjoy learning about their teacher.

The pages are geared from easy to more difficult as students advance.  Later, explain to them that instead of just a list, you want them to write sentences.  You can also have them start with the header, so that they are working on a complete sentence with proper capitalization, instead of just answering the topic.  i.e. Favorite food:  My favorite food is pizza. Later, have them expand their thoughts even more, by explaining why and adding adjectives: i.e. My favorite junk food is pizza, because I like spicy pepperoni.

writing activities, writing centers, monthly writing prompts, writing promps for fall, daily 5 activities, keepsake booklets, portfolio activities, To get in more fine motor practice and add some pizzazz to the pages, have students use colored markers, pencils and crayons.  In the Me... section, students practice writing their name and drawing a self-portrait.  This is especially important for preschool and kindergarten students.  In the beginning, younger kiddo’s can draw a picture of how they feel, with a happy or sad (etc.) face.  They will be limited to 1-word answers in the boxes.  You can also opt to have students do these 1-on-1 with a helper, who writes down their answers, or send a page home as homework to be returned in a week.

writing activities, writing centers, monthly writing prompts, writing promps for fall, daily 5 activities, keepsake booklets, portfolio activities, Click on the link to view/download the I'm Surviving School, monthly-writing prompt booklet. If you're looking for another fun keepsake book, that students can write in monthly, check out The Very Hungry Student.  Children write what they learned each month.  Of course they are still hungry for more, so they move on to the next month... The rhyming text makes it a fun read-aloud. There's a page in the back for students' autographs. It's also a nice way to review the names of the months and a super way to show progress/improvement to parents. Click on the link to view/download The Very Hungry Student.

writing activities, writing centers, monthly writing prompts, writing promps for fall, daily 5 activities, keepsake booklets, portfolio activities, I also have an entire year's worth of writing prompts.  Each month's writing prompts are based on popular stuff that's going on during that time frame. Click on the link to view/download the Monthly Writing Prompts packet.

writing activities, writing centers, monthly writing prompts, writing promps for fall, daily 5 activities, keepsake booklets, portfolio activities, Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  To ensure that "pinners" return to THIS blog article, click on the green title at the top; it will turn black, now click on the "Pin it" button located on my menu bar.  If you'd like to take a look at all of the awesome educational items I spend way too much time pinning, click on the big heart to the right of the blog.

"Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why!" -Bernard Baruch

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Back to School Ideas: A Class Keepsake Booklet

1-2-3 Come Make A Keepsake Booklet With Me!

parent communication, proud as a peacock, back to school bulletin boards, self-esteem building bulletin boards, progress reports, peacock activities, praise reports, monthly praise reports, building a child's self-esteem, ideas for building self esteem, keepsake booklets, school memory books, monthly booklets, writing ideas for the beginning of the year, reading ideas for the beginning of the year, class booklets, class made booklets, memory books for school, I loved it when my children made special things in school that became cherished keepsakes, so I was thinking what a nice self-esteem and confidence builder a special keepsake booklet made by parents would be.

During the first week of school, send home the letter of explanation along with the cover and dedication page.

parent communication, proud as a peacock, back to school bulletin boards, self-esteem building bulletin boards, progress reports, peacock activities, praise reports, monthly praise reports, building a child's self-esteem, ideas for building self esteem, keepsake booklets, school memory books, monthly booklets, writing ideas for the beginning of the year, reading ideas for the beginning of the year, class booklets, class made booklets, memory books for school, The last week of each month, send home that month's "praise page."

Parents jot down what they were most proud of their child for accomplishing that month and return the page before the end of the month.

Make a file folder for each student.

When a page is returned, share it with that student and have them color their page.

This can also be done at home with parents reading the note and then having their child color it.

parent communication, proud as a peacock, monthly praise reports, building a child's self-esteem, ideas for building self esteem, keepsake booklets, school memory books, monthly booklets, writing ideas for the beginning of the year, reading ideas for the beginning of the year, class booklets, class made booklets, memory books for school, As the pages arrive, have a room helper put them in the folder, in consecutive order by putting the current page at the back of the pile.

parent communication, proud as a peacock, back to school bulletin boards, self-esteem building bulletin boards, progress reports, peacock activities, praise reports, monthly praise reports, building a child's self-esteem, ideas for building self esteem, keepsake booklets, school memory books, monthly booklets, writing ideas for the beginning of the year, reading ideas for the beginning of the year, class booklets, class made booklets, memory books for school, The last month of your school year, send home the remaining pages and then collate each student's booklet.

Send the booklets home the last week of school.

Click on the link to view/download the Proud As A Peacock Parent Praise Booklet.

parent communication, proud as a peacock, back to school bulletin boards, self-esteem building bulletin boards, progress reports, peacock activities, praise reports, monthly praise reports, building a child's self-esteem, ideas for building self esteem, keepsake booklets, school memory books, monthly booklets, writing ideas for the beginning of the year, reading ideas for the beginning of the year, class booklets, class made booklets, memory books for school, Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find useful. My Pin It button is at the top.

parent communication, proud as a peacock, back to school bulletin boards, self-esteem building bulletin boards, progress reports, peacock activities, praise reports, monthly praise reports, building a child's self-esteem, ideas for building self esteem, keepsake booklets, school memory books, monthly booklets, writing ideas for the beginning of the year, reading ideas for the beginning of the year, class booklets, class made booklets, memory books for school, A perfect "go along" with this booklet, is my Proud Pupil Peacock Progress Pal! Makes an adorable bulletin board.

I designed this last year.  It's been one of my most popular downloads, and a wonderful self-esteem builder, as students add feathers when they master a standard or accomplish a goal.

Click on the link to view/download it.

"It only takes a solitary light to guide a thousand ships in from the night." -Unknown

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