3 Reasons to Write the Room

Why Write the Room??

It might just seem like a fun and easy way to insert your theme into centers, but it is SO much more!
Underneath those cute cards taped up around the room, and that clipboard in tow are the makings of
a powerful punch of academics and fine motor skills wrapped up into one neat little package!
Here's why:

1. Writing/Reading

For obvious reasons...

Writing: practicing writing letters and words in orders that don't happen in everyday class work

(cvc etc.) name writing, numbers etc.

Reading: Looking around the room for the cards, then visually discriminating the letters they see

is more challenging for a little learner than you might think! Imagine yourself doing the same thing,

looking around the room for a card so that you can write the word, only your characters are in 

Chinese (Mandarin).... would you have to look hard? Would you have to study the characters to 

see how to make them? I would presume it's much like that for many of our littles! 

2. Oral Language

Not an obvious one, but important nonetheless. As they are walking around working to find cards

and then set to work writing... they are talking! Magical academic language at it's best! I LOVE to sneak up behind and eavesdrop a bit on the conversations! So good! Asking questions, taking turns

speaking and listening. Ya, I like it.

3. Fine motor skills/dexterity/hand and wrist strength

Whoa!! The power of what happens during Write the Room in the area of motor skills is mind-blowing! Think of all they are doing by holding a clipboard at a slant and holding a pencil to

write at a slant....

hand and wrist strength
dexterity
strong control of finger muscles (fine motor)

Play has changed a LOT in the last few years. Kids are tableting more and writing less, dexterity has

suffered! They need LOTS of opportunities to practice fine motor skills in productive ways that

can provide academic perks as well! 

I have always loved providing write the room opportunities and I include write the room in nearly all of my resources, even my close reading resources have write the room included for each passage! I have had lots of requests to make more stand alone write the rooms, so I've been adding a few here and there! If you've never tried it with your class, I hope you will! Let me know how it goes!

If you need help getting started, here are some simple resources to get you going!
Click on the pictures for the links!