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Creating a writer’s notebook for your child
This year we are getting serious about our homeschool writing lessons. We got Cover Story for the kids to work through, and now that we are generating more papers, I needed a writer’s notebook for my kids to keep their papers in.
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Supplies for our Writer’s Notebook
3 ring binder (ours are left over from my teaching days bought at a back-to-school sale for 25 cents), dividers (also bought at back-to-school sales), Ultimate Language Arts Cheat Sheet
I might also print off some of these Compound Complex Sentence Examples, because having good examples of writing is helpful.
What I’m going to be adding in: pencil bag with highlighters, pens (I need to find the brand I like again, so I’m not linking to any), and post-it notes (in all honesty I think this is the only item I didn’t buy at back to school sales because we go through so many of them)
What’s inside our Writer’s Notebooks
The first section has the Cheat Sheets*, I printed off the particular pages I wanted to work on, which with my kids was about half of the book. They’ve now got cheat sheets for words to use instead of said, types of sentences and how to use punctuation, and a whole slew more.
I know I probably could have found all of this information elsewhere for free, but there is a value in not having to spend hours putting it all together, and so I happily printed it out, AND I even printed it in color.
That’s a big deal there.
Next come the dividers, rough drafts, editing, final drafts, and this year I added in graded, since I’m keeping more formal grades (and a grade book over in Homeschool Planet*, which I’ll have to write about soon).
Of course, the kids now type all of their projects, so I’m pretty sure, we’ll be seeing a lot less in the earlier tabs because I know I’ve sent some papers up to be put away, and from looking at Princess’ notebook, I can tell you they haven’t been put away properly….
I’ll admit my Writer’s Notebook feels incomplete, what would you add to yours?
And here are a few more writing lessons to try out and add to your Writer’s Notebook.
Comments
4 responses to “Creating a writer’s notebook for your child”
A’s notebook is similar. A lot of lists with synonyms as well as specific pages on various styles, plus rubrics from teachers on their expectations for each project. Since she is the one maintaining it, it’s, of course, a frightful mess.
My example I’d taken photos of was in a similar shape before I neatened it up a bit for pictures. There’s been a dramatic uptick in what they’re producing for writing in the last few weeks, so we’ll see what they look like in a few more weeks. I’m pretty sure it won’t be that neat.
We used Cover Story with our oldest and I am really looking forward to using it with my younger ones. Your notebook looks very useful 🙂
Thanks! It’s really helping me to know what we’ve already done and I’ve graded. Only problem is when kids don’t put theirs in the notebook.
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