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Stay in the line, it’s writing time!

School:: Indian River Elementary School
Subject:: Language Arts
Teacher:: Hayley Barlow
Students Impacted:: 120
Grade:: K
Date:: September 14, 2023

Investors

Thank you to the following investors for funding this grant.

FUTURES Foundation - $400.00

Laurie Barlow - $25.70

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 110

We started our writing journals in October after we received the grant and purchased the journals. When I introduced the journals, I explained to my students that these journals will show our progress of writing over the course of Kindergarten. We will be able to make words, sentences, and even paragraphs by the end of the year. I told the students they will be their own author when they write and be their own illustrator when they create pictures to go along with their writing. The students were excited to get started!

We use our journals every Monday morning writing about our weekend and illustrating a picture to go along with it. I also practice using our journals at random times to share something significant we may have learned or did at school. The students start by writing their name and date at the top of the page every time we make an entry. They use independent thinking strategies to think of what they did over the weekend and draw a picture with details. Then they may color their illustration. At the beginning of the year, the students were writing one word to go along with their picture. Then a few more. Now they write one full sentence if not more.

The students get excited each week when they show me their progress as they notice the same things I notice! Students use capital and lower case letters when appropriate, finger spaces, end punctuation and sound out words when needed. It brightens my morning when the students can share something memorable over the week and use their creativity to illustrate it. It has shown a positive impact on their reading and writing skills. I can’t wait to start even earlier with writing journals next year!

Original Grant Overview

Goal

As a new Kindergarten teacher, I am seeing how important handwriting skills really are at an early age. In the classroom, we are always working on our handwriting as well as proper letter formations. These journals will provide a visual with lines (top line, bottom line, and dotted line in between) to show the students where to start their sentence, guide them to make uppercase letters and make lowercase letters the correct sizes. I feel it is important to give kindergarten students a guideline or visual of where to write the words and what size, otherwise they are writing as big as they can, as small as they can, and/or all over the page. My goal is for us teachers to have the students become independent as far as learning how to use their primary journal and add pictures that correlate with their writing. This grant will provide 24 Primary writing journals for each Kindergarten teacher at Indian River Elementary.

What will be done with my students

ELA.K.F.1.1 Demonstrate knowledge of the basic concepts of print.
ELA.K.F.1.1a Locate a printed word on a page
ELA.K.F.1.1b Distinguish letters from words within sentences
ELA.K.F.1.1b Distinguish letters from words within sentences
ELA.K.F.1.1c Match print to speech to demonstrate that language is
represented by print.
ELA.K.F.1.1g Recognize that print conveys specific meaning and pictures
may support meaning
ELA.K.F.1.3d Encode consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.
ELA.K.C.1.1 Print many upper- and lowercase letters.
ELA.K.C.1.3 Using a combination of drawing, dictating, and/or writing,
express opinions about a topic or text with at least one
supporting reason.
ELA.K.C.1.4 Using a combination of drawing, dictating, and/or writing,
provide factual information about a topic
ELA.K.C.1.5 With guidance and support from adults, improve drawing
and writing, as needed, by planning, revising, and editing
ELA.K.C.3.1 Follow the rules of standard English grammar, punctuation,
capitalization, and spelling appropriate to grade level.

Benefits to my students

In the classroom, students use copy paper, construction paper, or printed worksheets which don’t usually have an guideline of where to write. All students would benefit from these journals because we are working on handwriting skills. The journals have lines to allow students to visually see where the uppercase and lowercase letters start and end. The lines are also important so students can adjust their letter size, so they do not go outside of the given lines or write smaller than the given lines. The journals also provide a space to draw a picture with their sentence writing. This benefits the students by drawing a picture to match their sentence. Even if a student struggles to sound out and write their words and sentences, they have their picture they can then communicate what they have drawn. These journals will benefit all subject areas throughout the school day: Writing, Reading, Math, Science, and Social Studies where their work will stay in one place and be kept organized.

Budget Narrative

I have requested a total of 120 Primary writing journals and each Kindergarten teacher will receive 24 journals. These journals will provide students with a line to see where the letters should start and end as well as the difference between upper case and lower-case letters. Students will use these journals for all subject areas; reading, writing, math, science and social studies.

Amazon:
Primary Writing Journals $39.97 (12 quantity)
x 10
Sub Total $399.70
Tax $26.00

Total $425.70