Sunday, December 5, 2010

Ways to Make Writing Fun!

Why are we boring our kids with BORING writing activities?  Here's some helpful, fun activities that just might prevent you from being stabbed with a pencil by one of your students for giving them yet, another boring writing assignment:
  • RAFTS - Rafts give the kids choices in what they will write about.  You can have them choose the Role, audience, format of the writing and the topic.  To make a RAFT easier for younger children, you can have them choose what row they would like to write about.  For older children, you can have them pick and choose from the various rows.  Giving children choices helps them to feel like they had a decision in their writing and lets them take ownership for it - instead of just being given another boring assignment to write about.
Fairy Tale Raft

Role
Audience
Format
Topic
Big Bad Wolf
Red Riding Hood
Apology letter
Apology for trying to eat her grandma
3 Little Pigs
Their father
postcard
Let us come home!
Cinderella
the kingdom
wanted poster
to bring her stepmother and stepsisters to justice for her treatment
The 3 bears
the police
report
reasons to throw Goldilocks in jail
Frog Prince
the king
persuasive letter
convince the princess to kiss my slimy frog lips


  • Tic-Tac-Toes - this is another choice activity.  The children choose what row they would like to work on, or if you choose, you can have them choose any 3, 4 or 5 activities depending on the age or skill level of the child.
Fairy & Folk Tale Tic-Tac-Toe Board


1.  Story Scrambles:
After you’ve read the applicable story, work on a story scramble.  Read the story strips carefully & cut and paste in the right order on the story template sheet.
2.  Scripts:
Choose a play & a group to help you act it out.  Practice it & perform it for the class.
3. Partner Reading:
Choose a story to read with a partner.  Read the story carefully & work on the comprehension questions in your writing scribbler.  Answer in complete sentences.
4.  Cube It’s:
Use the cubes to roll for an activity to work on.  There are 2 versions of the Cube It’s to work on.  Do the activity in your writing scribbler unless otherwise called for.

5.  Guided Reading:
You and a group of students will be reading a story with an adult.  You will complete some pre-reading, during reading & reading response activities during this time.
6.  Listening Center:
Use the books and cassettes provided to listen to a folk or fairy tale.  Listen carefully so you can retell the story in a flip book or orally to your teacher.
7.  Story Folders:
Choose a story folder that looks interesting.  Read the story carefully & answer the ‘Questions About’ sheet that goes with the story.  Write complete sentences in your writing scribbler.  There are other activities that go with the story as well. You can do these orally or on a separate sheet of paper.
8.  Fairy Tale Raft:
Using a Fairy Tale Raft that has been provided, choose a row with a role, audience, format & topic that you would like to write about.  I can’t wait to see your work!
9.  Storybooks:
Read, read, read to your hearts content.  You can also use the big paper to write your own storybook either by re-writing the important sentences you have read (only choose the most important ones) or by summarizing and retelling the story in your own words.


  •  Cube It's - yet another choice activity - here the kids roll a cube with the activities on it & they can choose their favorite activity out of as many rolls as you, the teacher, choose - give them a choice of 2 or 3 rolls.  You can even have a huge class size poster made up with the activities and let them roll die instead - less work for you.
Fairy Tale Cube Its

1 – Choose your favourite fairy tale character & design a wanted poster for the character.  Be sure to give a good description of physical & personality characteristics.  Tell why they are wanted & what reward will be offered.
2 – Read a fairy tale very carefully.  Then create a filmstrip of pictures that will tell the story.  Use a roll of paper that will fit into our filmstrip box.  Tell the story as your film is playing for a group of friends.

3 – Create a game that goes with your favourite fairy tale.  Determine what equipment you will need, what rules the game will have & what will happen if people don’t follow the rules.
4 – Choose at least 3-4 fairy tales & create a cause & effect chart to show the differences or similarities between causes/effects in each story.
5 – Create a song or poem to retell a fairy tale you have read.  Practice carefully & ask to present it to the class.
6 – Choose your favourite fairy tale character & evaluate whether or not they could survive in the present day.  What would become of them in today’s world?  What changes would they have to make or what new things would they have to learn to survive in today’s world?


  • Online Writing - give these a try: www.storybird.com, www.kerpoof.com, http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/make-your-own/story-maker, ... There are many great online writing activity sites for your kids to try out - you just have to check them out yourself!
  • Story Writing Programs - one that I enjoy is called Books By You from Scholastic.
  • CopyCat Books - have the kids read a book & write their own similar tale - great books to use are the Black Lagoon books by Mike Thaller, My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems, any of the books by Helen Lester or Keiko Kasza ...  There are so many quality picture books that you can use for this activity.  Choose fun books that make the children laugh and have great story ideas they can springboard off of.
  • Use photos from their lives - do they have an interesting pictures at home that they'd like to write a story or descriptive paragraph about?  You can also use pictures from the internet that they would like to write about.  www.bluebison.net has some interesting pictures that you can use as prompts for the children to choose from.
  • Pick a Prompt - have 3 baskets, bags or whatever you choose to organize your prompts in the following categories:  Setting, Characters & Problem.  Write various, interesting settings, characters & story problems on cards that they can choose to create an interesting story.
  • Role Play - have the children act out their story with puppets or role play it with partners & then write.
  • Draw it - kids love to draw - have them draw their story ideas out first & then write.
  • Publishing their own books - make mini books, flap books with their writing & illustrations.  Here's a website that shows you how to make some of these fun books with kids:  http://www.vickiblackwell.com/makingbooks.html
  • Contest Writing - writing for a contest that could win a child a prize may be fun!
What activities are fun for your kids at home or school???

Some of My Favorite Books to Springboard into Writing Activities:

Here are some of my favorite books to springboard into writing activities for children:

Product Details
This book is about a tricky little pig that has a very lucky day.  The kids love that the pig has his way with the nasty fox that is trying to have him for dinner.  After I read the book to my kids, I have them brainstorm story ideas of other ways that animals could trick each other & other animals that they could use instead of a pig & fox. 
Product Details
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, written  by Chris Van Allsburg, has amazing pictures and story starters to begin some amazing stories.  Love it!
Product Details
I used this book recently to have the kids write a story titled "Mrs. McWilkinbloom Clean Up Your Classroom".  I read up to the part that talks about the kids coming up with ideas for cleaning up Mrs. McBloom's classroom & then gave them index cards to come up with thier own ideas and then they did some sharing with partners & the whole class.  After that, they partnered up and wrote thier own story about our classroom.
Product Details
This is a great book about a crocodile that was raised as a 'duck' who becomes a hero for his 'family'.  This book can be heard on http://www.storylineonline.net/.  I like to get my kids to come up with other creatures that are usually considered scary to other animals that can be a hero to a family that adopts them into thier family.
Product Details
After we read & discuss this story I have the kids write using thier own title "The 3 Little _____ and the Big Bad _______".
Product Details
This is a great book for story ideas!  The kids love how Big Bad Bruce gets what's coming to him for being bad.  It's an awesome book for brainstorming ideas for other ideas & characters that kids can write about.
Product Details
What about Amazing ________ - a great book for any child to write about what amazing things that they could accomplish.
Product Details
A cute story about how three characters, who have amazing talents all on their own, come together to defeat the monsters.  What would you do?
Product Details
Princess Penelope missed out on her opportunity the first time due to her dreadful behavior.  Write the next chapter to her story...
Product Details
The _________'s ____________ Stew...
Product Details
A hillarious story to have the kids write about themselves being bad, bad, bad & turning a new leaf.  What would their 3 wishes be when they met the magical gnome?
Product Details
Come up with your own ideas for a title.  _____________'s Fancy _____________  (clothes, car, shoes, house).
Product Details
An awesome story that I like to start the year off with - are you listening?  Can you think of other animals that are famous for certain traits?  Write a story about an animal that isn't using their God given talents or skills to the best of their abilities.  What lesson are they going to learn?
Product Details
Me First, written by Helen Lester, is a laugh-out-loud book about a pig named Pinkerton who always has to be first.  He learns his lesson when he meets the Sand Witch!  What lesson will you learn?  What awful chores will the Sand Witch make you do?
Product Details
How about The _________ who Came For ________________?
Product Details
Wolf learns to read in this story.  What else could Wolf do if he set his mind to it?
Product Details
How about "The Cat Who Cried Jaguar", "The Donkey Who Cried Stallion", "The Hedgehog Who Cried Porcupine",......
Product Details
How about "The Last ____________lope"?



This is a great book for story ideas.  I had my kids come up with a plan for thier own Zoomer story with different ideas than Zoomer.  What crazy things would you do on a Saturday or some kind of holiday???

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Safari Lessons - Journaling For Kids

This is a video I made up for my kids at school to introduce our 3 'Safari Animals' that will be taking turns going home with them for the weekends.  On the weekend they will journal about their adventures using their 5 senses to guide thier writing.  What did Dexter, Gerald & Rover see, hear, smell, touch and taste while they were on safari at your house?
Each animal has a journal with photos, an introduction page and a modelled writing passage of what thier writing could look like or sound like.
The kids were super excited to have Safari Animals to adventure with on the weekends!

http://animoto.com/play/LGJgUrnifuQuZeCTF9LX6w?autostart=true

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Books that Tug on the Heart Strings for Children of All Ages...

These are just a few of the books that tug on my heart strings.  I have a very hard time reading them aloud to my kids at home & school:
  • Product Details
  • Product Details
  • Product Details
  • Product Details
  • Product Details
  • Product Details
  • Product Details
  • Product Details
  • Product Details
  • Old Yeller (Perennial Classics)
  • Product Details
Is there a book that moves you emotionally?

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Fun Letter Writing from a Cat's Point of View

I had my kids at school write a letter to my daughter pretending they were my daughter's cat, Muffassa.  I showed them the video she made about her cat, some pictures of him dressed up in her baby clothes & told them a few stories about Muffassa.  I call him Maximus because he's so huge! 
We also read a bunch of picture books that had letter writing included & discussed how letters could be used to tell a story.  These are some of the books we read:
I Wanna Iguana
Product Details
Yours Truly Goldilocks
Product Details
Dear Mr. Blueberry
Product Details
Dear Mrs. LaRue:  Letters from Obedience School
Product Details
Dear Juno
Product Details
and With Love, Little Red Hen
Product Details
Dear Peter Rabbit
Product Details
They loved pretending that they were such a bad kitty & loved making demands on my daughter to do this & to do that for them.  It was a great introduction to letter writing for them.  They used wonderful 'show me sentences' and let my daughter really know how they felt about her not cleaning their litterboxes on time & what they thought about her food choices and the like.
It was a great lesson & I just thought I'd share.
What was your favorite lesson of all time - either by you or from a favorite teacher you had?

Here's the youtube link that I showed my kids of Muffassa:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0yVBaF6eC0&feature=related

My Favorite Book of All Time

I love the Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, but not just any version of it - it's got to be the 1977 illustrated version that my grade 6 teacher, Mr. Jayceko, read to us with great expression and fluency.  It brought you right there with the goblins, dwarves & Smaug oh my...  I loved this book so much that it lead me to a quest - to search for this book high and low until I found it - on Ebay - at a price I'd rather not discuss.  Anyway, I have it and I love it.  I brings me back to far & away & I keep it close by to peruse whenever I feel the need.