Preschoolers may be novices in the area of writing but, as this article highlights, they are indeed writers. In a year-long ethnography of preschoolers during structured writing time the teacher/researcher explored how students adapted to a writing workshop format. Students participated in daily journal writing and sharing, and weekly conference time. This article shows how students used the classroom structure to demonstrate their growing understanding about what it means to be a writer; and how the teacher observed student behavior in order to adapt writing time to best meet the needs of her students.