Invitation to Write Centre

Being a Middle Years ELA teacher I started my homeschooling career pretty "gung ho" about writing instruction. So "gung ho" that I maybe contributed to them not loving writing so much. It was a humbling experience to realize that what I thought would be the easiest part of homeschooling for me became the thing I had to research, constantly flex, experiment with and tweak the most. Kids will do that to you won't they?
Each year we submit our broad range goals to the school division, for two years one of my ELA goals was verbatim "That we find a way or method that will allow my son to tolerate writing."
I had high hopes didn't I?! Not love writing, not excel or be proficient at writing, just tolerate it. I just didn't want the tears, the anguish and the gnashing of teeth whenever we worked on writing. 
We've explored and tried many things (that will require their own blog post) but today I just want to introduce a fun and simple way to give children opportunities to write. The Writing Basket!

In this cute carry all (from Target) I put an assortment of items that invite writing. The kids are allowed to use these absolutely free reign. I do not govern what they write or the amount of paper or stickers used. They just get to "play" with writing. Let's take a look at some of what's included in the centre!

Old holiday cards, address stickers and "secret files". I'll include pretty cards that we've received but have also picked up HUGE bundles at thrift stores for like $1. The address on those labels isn't even ours lol. 

More greeting cards, sealing stickers, blank card sets, cute note pads and dry erase labels. 

The dollar store is my friend when making these centres. I also include cute tapes, washi tape, mini cards, sticky notes of all shapes and sizes, a magnifying glass and scissors. 

Remember in Kindergarten when we had to spend a week colouring a page completely in a rainbow of colours with crayons and then coloured over it all with a black crayon so that we could scratch out pictures? (It's one of my favourite kindergarten memories so I hope you did it too!) Well now they make these little magic notes ready for scratching! Further evidence that kids nowadays have it way too easy but you can bet your bottom dollar I'm going to snatch those up for our writing centre. 

 I love including real life forms of writing and these receipt books are awesome. They are simple, foster realistic role play and also make great tickets ;)

Cute stationary and school supplies are literally one of my favourite things in the world. They make me so happy so I love stocking this centre and refilling it when they use it all up. I love these little alphabet stickers and we even had personalized labels made with coupons from cereal boxes. Those grey ones say "Willms Grove Elementary".

This writing centre stays out at all times and they can use it during their free times and then I also will just schedule time for it and tell them "For at least the next 15 minutes I'd like you to utilize the writing centre." It's been a great addition to our homeschool. Do you have any tips for fun writing activities?