Writing Opportunities for Early Finishers and Enrichment!

I am always looking for new ways to engage my students in meaningful early-finisher activities, because, let's face it, kids are not robots.  They are going to work at different paces, and that means that there will always be kids who finish first, even when you differentiate and provide sufficiently challenging work.  It's one of those unspoken truths of the classroom.  As much as I encourage my students to read, work on task cards,  or complete independent projects, I like to have some creative writing opportunities for them as well.  Over summer, I expanded my proverbial bag of tricks, and I'm excited to share them with my kiddos this fall.  I know they are going to LOVE the new options!

One of the centers I created is called Creativity Cards.  Basically I created cards with various picture prompts on them.  Then I created seven different direction cards to go along with it in two different sizes.  So, if we are working on narratives, I could put out directions that instruct them to write a narrative.  If we are working on opinion-based texts, I can put out that prompt. You get the idea! I even created a WILD CARD option to let my students tap into their own creativity while writing.  I love the simplicity of this, and I can't wait to see the texts that come out of this center!

Another center I created is called Picture This.  Essentially this is a pack of task cards with photo prompts to inspire interesting stories.  I intentionally chose colorful, whimsical, kid-friendly photos that I thought would be intriguing to my students.  I also intentionally included full-sized versions just in case I decide to use them as morning work and project them on the SMARTboard.  This center will undoubtedly capture the attention of my kiddos and get those gears turning!

I've recently started working on Writing Workshop units to complement my We Are Authors: Launching Writer's Workshop pack.  I've already wrapped up a Personal Narrative unit and a Fictional Narrative unit that I'm excited to blog about soon, so I created a set of 100 Narrative Early Finisher Prompts to use as an early finisher activity.  It's going to be a great way to extend the learning, especially since my units encourage students to brainstorm their own topics and choose what to write about.  This will offer the other side of the coin, because prompt-writing is so important in the world of testing, and I want my students to be able to write exceptionally both ways.

The writing prompt task cards can be used just as they are... and stored in a baggie or box...or you could attach a few prompts to composition notebooks.  I like using prompts in this manner because students write their stories within the notebooks AND they also read the stories by their peers.  This is a great way to give your students an authentic audience, and it also can provide models for your students.  I purchased a basket from Michael's last summer that says "Inspire", and I keep composition notebooks in it for this purpose.  It was a HUGE hit with my students last year... so much so that the basket was almost always empty because the notebooks were always in rotation!  I should have snapped a few photos of their stories, but #newmommybrain.  The bottom line?!  This is a fun twist on the traditional way to use task cards for writing. 

The next idea was a random one that hit last summer.  I found really neat school-themed scrapbook embellishments, and I thought it might make a neat creative writing center.  I  plan on tying it into one of my author studies this year as an early-finisher activity.  I'm sharing it because literally ANYTHING can become a fun prop to unlock your students' creativity and write fabulous stories!  Just be prepared to think about objects in new ways, because that's exactly what we want our students to do!  And...we want them doing this organically in Writer's Workshop too!  Writers often use their own lives and experiences as jumping-off-points.  This is a nice way to foster that flexible thinking and help them see how everything is a story waiting to happen!

You know those wooden shapes in the kid section of nearly every craft store?!  The cute ones that are painted to look like animals, flowers, and celestial bodies?!  Well, they can also be great tools for creative writing!  If students are stuck and looking for ideas, they can dig through the box to see if anything piques their interest and gives them an idea! It's simple, tangible, and fun for kids!

So, there you have it!  A few ideas for writing early finishers and enrichment that can easily be incorporated into your classroom with very minimal prep, but will yield great rewards for your kiddos! Creativity is everything!  Writing skills are SO important and SO critical in an information-based society like the one we are living in! Tackle it all with pizzazz and help your students make the most of their "free" time!