Something that is vital to the success of this writing curriculum is keeping the children intrigued. In order to do this, you have to make sure you are changing out the centers each week. Even though the baskets will each contain the same basic items each week, they need to be new and fresh, or the students will get bored. If you are looking for center tags for your baskets, they are available for free here.

Each week you should take the time to go through the baskets and make sure they are clean and neat and ready for the next week. Pull out any broken crayons, or any old play-doh that has gotten stuck in them. In order for your kindergarten students to feel like they are doing something new each week, the baskets need to have a new ‘feel’ to them.

On the first day of each week you need to model the tabletop baskets for the students. You will show the entire class how to use the items in each basket, and most importantly, you need to show them what it looks like when it is clean. When you are finished modeling the baskets clean the basket up, and then show it to all the students saying something to the effect of, “This is what this basket looks like cleaned up.” It is very important to show the students what it looks like clean. If they are doing most of the cleaning, then as a teacher, you aren’t having to spend your precious free time cleaning up after them. When I first started using this curriculum I didn’t do this step, but just by showing them what a basket should look like when they are finished with it, I hardly ever had to clean up their messes!

Teachable Method has handouts available for each week and they can be purchased here.

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