When I was in fourth grade, I wrote an outlandish tale about chatty china. I remember the story first and foremost because my teacher absolutely loved it! I also remember the event on which I based the story: a tedious afternoon of shopping with my mom. She was in search of the perfect wedding gift. I was doing everything I could to stay out of trouble, which included imagining the dinnerware items were talking among themselves!
Thinking back over the past school year, which writing tasks have your students eagerly embraced? Or, to ask the question in another way, which student writing assignments have received the greatest praise from you?
Happy teaching!
Diane
OUOr preschoolers loved the story about the Three Billy Goats Gruff. They painted/drew pictures of the troll under the bridge and then dictated descriptions of their pictures. It took awhile to get everyone’s dictations written down and attached to their pictures but they kept asking “do mine today?” and “when are you doing mine?”
I like to read fairy tales with a twist such as the True Story of the Three Little Pigs and The Paper Bag Princess. After hearing these funny tales, my students are excited to try to write on of their own.
I love to read classic stories to my prek class and then I ask them a question.
For example I read The Gingerbread Man to them and ask them how would you catch the gingerbread man. They draw a picture and dictate their answer and I then staple the pages together and read their book to them. The kids love this and each and every one of them will say that’s what I wrote.
Another favorite is at Mother’s Day to ask them to draw a picture of their Mom doing something funny she does and they dictate a answer. I titled the books Our Mom’s and then I read to the Parents and have them guess which Mommy is this one.
I read “Go, Dog. Go!” Then the kids think of an animal and write their own book from papers I print out for them. They make pages for their books using positional and opposites words. Cover: Go, Cheetah. Go! by Student
Inside pages: The _____ is up. The ____ is down. The ___ is above. The ___ is below. The ___ is ___.
My students loved different versions of The Gingerbread Man. They especially liked how different The Jalapeno Man was from the usual “gingerbread” stories. It encouraged to write & draw. 🙂