Friday, April 17, 2009

Ocean Writing Station

I've changed some of the materials in our writing station to go along with our study of ocean animals. It is amazing how a few new materials can renew a child's interest in a familiar activity. Along with the writing materials I have also set out a tub of several nonfiction ocean books. The girls can look through the books for inspiration for their writing.

The writing station holds a booklet containing several pages of ocean words and pictures that I downloaded from Kidssoup.
An envelope holds some pictures of ocean animals that the girls can glue onto a page and then write their story.
I've added story paper with a blank space at the top for drawing a picture and lines at the bottom for writing a story.
A mini clipboard holds sheets of blue paper. I have also provided blue flip books and white flip books. I am going to add some small stapled books with blue covers cut along the top to look like waves. This tray always sits on the playroom table. The girls can choose from a variety of materials including crayons, markers, pencils, scissors, glue, and hole punches. We also have a tray of white 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper on a nearby shelf.
Here Julia wrote about a sea turtle. Her writing says, "Daon at the bobdm" (Down at the bottom). I suspect she had more to say but ran out of room and decided to stop. Notice the number 8 on the turtle's back. The girls have been enjoying Somewhere in the Ocean by Jennifer Ward and TJ Marsh. Each page in the book has a hidden number and Julia incorporated that idea into her work.
Here she used story paper to write a shark fact after we read about sharks. Usually I do not write on a child's writing station work but (for some reason that I cannot remember) this time I did.

6 comments:

  1. Love it!! I'm so doing this one of these days. Love how you're doing "units" with the girls. You are so good at this!

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  2. Denise- YOU ARE THE BEST MOM! REALLY! I wish I did 1/10 the stuff you do with your girls! We miss you guys! I am hoping to come to church one sunday this July. What time are you guys mtg? Are you at the same building or are you still in Saganaw?

    Great to see you blogging! Can't wait to steal all of your awesome ideas! Love you guys!

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  3. P.S Happy birthday to you both- just a few days late!

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  4. looks great!

    how old are your girls?

    i'm wondering if my daughter would be ready for something like this!

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  5. Hadley,
    My girls are 5 and 2. I created our writing station about six months ago. At first I sat with five year old Julia to model how to use the materials. Julia loves to draw pictures and write notes to put in the envelopes. She gets very interested in the station when I change the materials. Two year old Lauren doesn't use the writing station very often. Sometimes she will make letter like scribbles in a book or on a piece of paper. It is interesting to see that she knows that writing looks different than drawing.
    Denise

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  6. I just got my subscription to kidssoup! you should get a cut! I love those word wall words!

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