family writing project - off the chain!

Today I held my first of six sessions of Family Writing Project!

I learned all about this after-school activity from my friend, Tracey. We worked in the same district when I lived in Arizona and since I've moved, I've been stalking following her on Twitter and Facebook. She does such great work and shared all her resources to start my very own FWP! Thank you, Tracey!

So FWP is just a Writer's Workshop for students and their families held after school. As the Parent Engagement Liaison for Emerson, it's my job to increase family involvement in our school, and FWP, along with Academic Parent Teacher Teams and our Remind accounts are a few ways I'm doing so!

Today the parents met their kiddos at school at 3:00. We started by decorating folders for each participant to keep all their work. In this Writer's Workshop, both students and parents are writers! (Teacher, too!)

We had some snacks right away too, which were so graciously donated by our amazing PTA!

After everyone arrived, we then did introductions briefly. Then it was time for the good stuff - a read aloud, of course! (Such an easy strategy for Writer's Workshop: Writing from Literature!)

We read In My Family / En Mi Familia:

This is a bilingual book that tells little vignettes of the author's life, each with a painting that was done for the story. Before we started today, I asked one of the parents to read the Spanish portions, and it was no problem, so everyone heard the story in both languages.

After, students, parents, and teacher were encourage to draw and write about anything they'd like. Most wrote about family traditions!

So exciting to see conferring between the two!

We wrapped up, in good fashion, with the share. We started by sharing in small groups:

And then some of the kids wanted to share with the whole group:

And we had a few brave parents share on session one with the whole group, too!

Best part of the day, overhearing one of the kiddos tell his mom, "This is really fun," just like that. Just matter-of-factly. To which she replied, "I know," with a loving smile.

Have you ever held a FWP? Stay tuned each week for more on our FWP! And, check out more of our pictures here.

Happy Wednesday!