Celebration is the fuel for writers. Sadly, I used to think celebration meant party and party meant fluff. This was an unfortunate misconception.
Celebration is an essential component to a writer’s life. Without it we cease to exist. Writing is difficult and unless we take some time to relish in the little accomplishments, we fizzle out and stop writing. If you’ve not had a writing celebration in the past six weeks will you make a plan for one now?
It doesn’t have to be elaborate, just set aside some time to celebrate the joy that comes from being a writer. Consider including the following components to your celebration:
- Reflect: Students spend some time talking about their growth as writers, as well as a goal they have as a writer.
- Share: Students either read their writing to another person (or group of people) or students read each other’s writing silently and leave comments.
- Celebrate: Take some time to have a special treat and relish living a writing life.
Will you leave a comment and let us know the date of your next writing celebration? Or leave a comment about your latest writing celebration — what did you do to celebrate being writers?
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We will wrap up our punctuation study on Friday…maybe we’ll have punctuation pumpkin cookies…they can decorate the tops with punctuation marks they’ve learned and share which one they enjoy using the most…cheesy…but definitely my style!
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We just had a celebration last Thursday (October 28.) My group of six and seven year-olds had completed a Unit of Study on Where Writers Get Ideas (inspired by Katie Wood Ray and Lisa Cleaveland’s About the Authors.) Students shared books they had published during this study and told why they wrote them. We toasted our efforts with apple slices.
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Today, during our Halloween party, my students will read their Haunted House stories. These second graders found great voice and spooktacular word choice. We’re filming it, so parents who are unable to attend the party can watch it at another time.
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We are celebrating tomorrow! My students are so excited to share the memoirs they have been working on. Sharing and celebration is very key to their attitudes about their writing.
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We celebrated at the beginning of the month. Since it was our first celebration, we went all out. I brought in Sprite and we had a toast to the writers, to congratulate them on all of the hard work they had done. Then the writers sat in the author’s chair and read their stories to the class. When they were finished, their classmates were able to offer compliments or ask questions.
My students are already looking forward to the next celebration!
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Celebration is the reason for writing! Quantity begets quality, and the more projects we finish, the more pages we fill, the more we feel like writers, engage readers, and begin thinking about “the next project”. With today’s technology, there are so many new possibilities: short poetry videos, burned CDs, blogs from the classroom… Writers seek one thing: engaged and kind readers. Celebration and publication offer us these and fuel the next go-round! My blog-life has changed my views on this more than I had ever imagined. The more celebration the better…Let us always ask, “Hmmm…who do you want to read this when you are finished?” After all, one kind of celebration is simply tucking that poem into an envelope and placing it in Grandpa’s hands.
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Writing Celebration days are all about sharing and basking in the glory of all the work it took to arrive at a published piece. We celebrate at the end of every genre cycle – my sixth graders love the whole enterprise…and so do I!
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In just a few weeks we will be having our first celebration too! Its a coffee house minus the coffee. My kiddos will be reading the newspapers they published while drinking hot chocolate complete with marshmellows while listening to jazz music in our room with tons of table lamps. I did this last year with my kids and they LOVED it!
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We had our poetry popcorn celebration today! It would have been better if Mrs. Overman didn’t have the flu, but we managed to salvage it…it went well!!! They were SOOOOO proud.
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We will be celebrating our spooky stories tomorrow by reading them in small groups in the dark with flashlights. Each student will also get a little candy treat as well. The kids are so excited!
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My class will have their first writing celebration November 3rd. They are finishing up their first publish pieces and very excited to celebrate their accomplishments.
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We celebrated mid-October!! It was great to see how happy my writers were. Then when we met and discussed the things We’ve learned from our peers. THe kids amazed me!! They were so complimentary and one little girl said it perfectly! “We are all Writers, Ms. Snow! We did it!!”
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I just finished working with 4th grade. They wrote memoirs and will be celebrating at the end of the month with “A Trip Down Memory Lane” Writing Cafe. They have invited someone special to come in (during the evening) to listen to them read their memoirs. Cookies and punch will be served as well. We do one of these in each grade level during the year. Parents say it’s one of the best nights of the year!
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Thanks for the reminder! I also believe we forget how important celebrations are, and it’s been a while in my room.
We will be celebrating next week–hopefully Wednesday!
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