Classroom Tour pt 3- Special Paper

I still remember the first day of student teaching, when my glorious mentor showed her students a special part of her classroom- the special paper binder.

Admittedly, at the time I thought it was sort of an odd thing to address on the first day amongst learning names, organizing supplies, and touring the school.  But it captiavted the students!  She had a binder of 100+ different types of special stationary and she offered it up for publishing special pieces of writing.  Right away students went to work creating pieces that would be worthy.  She even covered her door with a "Writing Hall of Fame" all published on this special paper.

And I stole the idea and ran with it!  Over the years I have collected over 125 different types of stationary.  These came from the dollar store or were donated by parents.  Whenever we get towards the end of a writing unit, the special paper binder becomes a very popular attraction in my classroom.

 

 

For the ease of management, I have one of each type in a binder with a post-it number.  In my file cabinet, I have numbered folders the correspond to the binder.

 

The students look through the binder to chose which design they'd like then leave a post-it with the number they'd like on the piece they want copied.  When I get a stack of several, I take them to the copy machine and voila!  Here are a few tips to help organize:

Give it a try and see what it does to encourage your writers.  Don't be afraid to start small.