Work on Writing in its purest form allows the students to work on any type of writing that they wish. This could include poetry, journal entries, narratives, expository writing...anything! My students do not have this luxury. Instead, my students are asked to work on activities that are related to writing. This could include nouns, verbs, adjectives, contractions, compound words, homonyms, synonyms, antonyms, or any number of grammar related lesson. I also include lessons on sentence elaboration and story writing. Regardless, the students are given clear directions and guidelines for completing the assignment.
I have three days worth of work on writing built into my rotations, so I typically plan 3 separate activities, or the students will work on one activity for multiple days. If the students are not working on writing sentences or stories, I typically have them working on skills that they learned during our writing time the previous week. This helps to reinforce skills and spiral our curriculum.
Examples of Work on Writing Plans
Week 1 - Day 1 - Prefixes and Suffixes Game - Students will draw a card and then spin a spinner. If a word can be made with the prefix or suffix that the spinner landed on and the word on the card, then the player records it. The person that was able to build the most words at the end of the game wins. Week 1 - Day 2 - Homophones Alien Letter - Students read the letter to the alien and choose the correct homophones throughout. Week 1 - Day 3 - Draw then Write activity - Students will draw a particular animal using step by step instructions. Then they write a short paragraph about the animal.
Week 2 - Day 1 - Synonyms activity - match words on flower petals to the correct synonym Week 2 - Days 2 & 3 - The Best and Worst writing activity - choose a best and worst topic then write a paragraph for each.
Week 3 - Days 1, 2, and 3 - How to Make Hot Chocolate - The students will write four steps for making hot chocolate on the planning page. Then they will get a cover page and four inside pages in the shape of a mug in order to make a mug shaped booklet. The student will write their name on the cover and color it. Then they will write each step on a separate page and draw a picture for that step. Each step should have its own page. The students will then assemble the booklet by stapling it together.
Week 4 - Day 1 - Quoting Dr. King - The students will read quotes by Dr. Martin Luther King. They will choose their favorite and write it. Then they will glue elbow macaroni around the quote to form quotation marks. The students will then explain what that quote means to the them. Week 4 - Day 2 - Contraction Concentration - The students will play concentration in order to match the contraction card with the card that has the two words that forms the contraction. Week 4 - Day 3 - Compound Words - The students will create a t-chart on construction paper. The t-chart will be labeled "Compound Words" and "Not Compound Words." Then they read and cut out each word on the worksheet. If the word is a compound word, it is glued in the "compound word" column. If it is not a compound word, it is glued in the "not compound word" column.
Work on Writing Organization
I organize my work on writing activities using a long, vertical file folder pocket chart. It holds 12 file folders. This means that it has mulitple pockets for each of the three days that I schedule work on writing activities, as well as pockets at the bottom to store my word work (spelling) activity cards, copies of the regular weekly spelling list, and copies of the challenge weekly spelling lists.
Work on Writing Resources
Pinterest - Pinterest is one of the greatest places to find amazing activities for students. Simply do a search for the skill that you need an activity for.
I also use the two books below almost weekly to create enjoyable writing activities for my students.