After recess, buddy writing become your students' favorite time of day. To get you started, here are some ideas for writers workshop to implement writing buddies in your classroom.

What are Writing Buddies?

Writing partners, writing buddies, writing partnerships. . . it's all the same, but buddy writing is the act of students working on writing with a partner.

How Do I Pair Students?

Good question! You can pair your students in several different ways. These are ideas to get you started.

1. Pair students by level
2. Partner up students with different strengths
3. Pair students that work well together

Writing Goals: An Easy to Follow Step-by-Step Guide shows you how to find students' strengths and how to find their needs.

Mini Lessons for Buddy Writing

If you pair students up with out any directions, there's bound to be chaos. That was a little dramatic. . . but kids probably won't know what to do other than talk or sit silently with their writing buddy. Mini lessons for writing workshop guide your young writers to successful buddy writing.

It's important to teach students how to work with a partner and what to do in their partnerships.

Writing Partners Work Well Together

Explicitly teach students how to choose a quiet spot.

Teach them how to find a spot that works best for them.

Demonstrate for students how to find a spot that gives other partners space. Students tend to have trouble with personal space so show them what to do if another pair sits too close that doesn't involve tattling.

Writing Buddies Share with Each Other

Building a community of writers includes students knowing and caring about their partner's writing. It also requires students to share with a partner. This is why it's important to choose partnerships carefully.

Writing can be quite personal and you'll want to pair student that you know will work well together.

Writing Partners Learn Together

As you add words to your word wall, students need to be held accountable for those words. Writing partners should give reminders to each other and that includes reminders to use the word wall.

Another way to get your students working with their writing partners is to have them look at books for ideas. Talking and pointing out writing craft that other authors use, inspires students to try new things.

11 Easy to Use Writing Resources for Primary Students provides ideas of other resources students can use as their writing.

Writing Buddies Give Feedback

It's in everyone's best interest to learn how to give positive feedback to others. Teach several positive comments your students can use to get started. For example, I really like your illustrations because they're so colorful.

Once they get the hang of it, they'll begin saying things like, I love your book! I would buy it at the store. True story.

Writing Buddies Listen and Ask Questions

Asking questions to others requires us to listen, which is probably why kids love being asked questions.

Demonstrate for students how you can ask questions about students' writing. Make a chart full of questions and let kids practice.

When students ask questions, they continue to build that writing community in your classroom.

Building a Community of Eager and Excited Young Writers sets you up with mini lessons for getting started with writing workshop.

And there you have it. Mini lesson ideas for writing buddies to work together with a purpose. Kids can learn a ton from each other, but it takes some guidance and practice. Looking for there posters? Find them here!

The post Writing Buddies Make Great Writing Partnerships first appeared on Literacy Please.

Writing Office

To get started, you'll want to assemble your writing offices. You can find your office here. These are great and come in handy for so many different reasons. Exhibit A: 6 activities for early finishers. Your students are able to use these offices for a variety of activities, and they include much of the information your students ask questions about. For example, how to spell high frequency words and the question, “Does the letter b go this way or this way?” Do you really teach elementary school if you haven't heard that question?

Writing Activity One: Rainbow Words

Rainbow words is a fun activity that kids really enjoy. It's a simple and allows kids to practice handwriting and the spelling of high frequency words. Your students will choose several colors to write one high frequency word. Just right the word in one color and trace over it with different colors.

Materials:

• Writing Office
• Paper
• Crayons or colored pencils

Writing Activity Two: Ghost Words

This activity is always a student favorite. It's like magic! First your students will choose a high frequency word from their writing office. Then they'll write the word with a white crayon on a sheet of white paper. Using a marker, color over the word. The word will appear and your students will be truly impressed. Eventually, your students will enjoy doing this so much, they'll want to write notes to friends. What's better than kids writing and having fun?

Materials:

• Writing Office
• White Crayon
• Markers
• Paper

Writing Activity Three: Color Words

In this activity, students practice writing their color words. On a sheet of paper, they draw pictures or a scene. Instead of labeling the objects, have your students label the colors of each object. For instance, a students can draw an apple and label it red, brown, and green. The perfect activity to practice spelling colors!

Materials:

• Writing Office
• Paper
• Crayons
• Pencil

Writing Activity Four: Transition Word Hunt

With this activity, your students will need a book, a sheet of paper, and a pencil. Many times kids don't pay attention to something in text unless it's the focus of the activity. So, have your kids focus on how often transition words are used in books. Have them write each transition word and tally up how many times they find it. This will give students the opportunity to practice reading and writing words that they'll use time and time again in their own writing.

Materials:

• Writing Office
• Book
• Paper
• Pencil

Activity Five: 3 Sentences

This writing activity gives students the chance to practice using different types punctuation–periods, question marks, and exclamation marks. They'll be able to practice capitalization, spaces, and handwriting too. Using the writing office, students can check their three sentences to make sure they have all parts of a sentence. And, if necessary, your students can use the other parts of the writing office to help them out.

Materials:

• Writing Office
• Paper
• Pencil

Activity Six: Building Words

Magnetic letters can be used for so many activities. They are perfect for young learner in that they are able to manipulate letters to build words. As an early finisher activity, your students can grab a set of magnetic letters and build their high frequency words. Have them build the words, read the words, and write the words. To extend the activity, ask your students to write a sentence with the words they build.

Materials:

• Writing Office
• Magnetic Letters

Having something prepared for your early finishers has so many benefits. Your students build independence and their confidence grows. These writing activities encourage kids to practice spelling high frequency words, colors, handwriting, punctuation, spacing, capitalization, and much more. If you don't have your writing office, be sure to get it! And if you're looking for ideas for writing centers, find it here.

The post 6 Writing Activities for Early Finishers first appeared on Literacy Please.