Although writing is involved in all of the following activities, by trying activities other than stories and essays, kids may see that there is more to the written word. These activities can be done by one child or a small group, and so both homeschooled and schooled children can use these assignments.
Try story starters, word games, and group storytelling to help warm up kids to the different tasks. Use “rewards” such as recording the performance of a completed song or script that the children can then view.
What’s Going On?
Cover the words of a comic strip by gluing on strips of white paper. Set the comic aside for a few days to forget the topic of the strip or trade comic strips with someone else. Look at what the characters seem to be doing and write in new words for the characters to say.
Write an Original Song
Take a familiar tune and change the words to it. Use a common melody like, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” or “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” which can help people to remember the words to the new song.
Newspaper Notes for Kids
Go through a newspaper, cutting out headlines. Kids then decide whom they will send a letter that they’ve “written” using the words from the headlines. Write out the note onto scrap paper first – it will take a while to cut and glue the words to the letter, and therefore easy to lose one’s train of thought if things haven’t been written on paper. Keep the letter to a few sentences.
Cut apart the headlines for the words needed to write the letter. If necessary, it is okay to cut off letters from words to create new words. Use a glue stick to attach the words to a new sheet of paper, referring to the original letter for what needs to be said.
Write a Movie Script
Start by writing a short story or selecting a familiar tale (fairy tales are good choices). Divide the story into scenes. A scene includes the actions that occur in one place without a break in time. Split the story into scenes. If there are too many scenes (basically, anything that sounds overwhelming to work with), eliminate scenes that don’t move the story forward.
On each page, use a red pen to write the names of characters in the scene; write the location in blue pen and any special equipment needed in that scene in green. Kids can then go back and write what each person will say and what they will do in the scenes. Watch a movie that the kids have seen before so they can look for scene breaks.
Create a Commercial
Have kids watch commercials for things like length, the number of people in a commercial, and the location used for different products. Kids select a favorite product and write a commercial that could last twenty-to-thirty seconds (including the time for actions). The writer, along with friends (if necessary) can act out the commercial.
Record the song, commercial, or at least one scene of the movie that the writer and her friends act out as a reward for writing out the script. Another writing activity kids can try is designing their own line of greeting cards that include short poems for the card’s recipient. Kids get a chance to go beyond writing-as-an-assignment to see the practical applications of putting words on the page.
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