Writing in Elementary School

This blog has been created for a class I'm taking as part of my Masters of Education degree and to obtain a Reading Endorsement to my teaching certificate. I don't have my own classroom yet, but I substitute teach in some very interesting classrooms. I must admit, blogging is a little scary for me!

In my writing class we've talked about how difficult it can be to help students come up with ideas for their writing. Today I was a guest teacher in a third grade classroom. I was so excited about a writing activity the regular teacher left for us to do that I made templates for myself and I want to share it here.

Each student was provided a template to make an open roof "house". They cut, folded and pasted the house onto their yard (a green piece of construction paper) after they had added details and color to their house. They were also given generic "people" cut-outs to customize to their families. Their initial writing assignment was to tell about their homes and the people they live with. During writing workshop time they were asked to make little drawings to represent a variety of things important to themselves. These drawings could be colored and cut out and placed in the house to represent things the student could later write about.

Today they were to come up with two things. The first object was to represent a family tradition important to them. I saw drawings of special holiday celebrations, special foods, and favorite vacation spots. The second object was to be a free choice, whatever they wanted. I saw sports objects, bicycles, family pets, presents and birthday cakes.

I thought this was an excellent way to stimulate the creative juices of these students. They put a lot of thought into the objects they chose. The final product is a visual reminder of something they could later write about. At the beginning of each workshop time, students can take the objects out and be inspired to write!

Since I didn't get to actually talk with the teacher about this project I don't have the full scope of the project/lesson, but I was inspired by the little piece I saw. I will get pictures of the students houses and some objects up soon. I hope you enjoy this idea as much as I did!