Writing Activities with Kids
Keep writing activities in front of the kids in your lives to reinforce the skills over the summer break just the same as you do with reading and math. These three skills cross subject matter regardless of the grade they are stepping into in the fall.
Here are a few fun, imaginative ideas to pout into your bag of tricks.
- Design a cereal box complete with cover art, list of ingredients, a game or activity section and a recipe that includes the invented cereal.
- Provide a journal (any size that will interest ‘your student’). Add a fancy pen and send the writer off to interview a neighbor, write a story, write a commercial for a product kids their age might buy, observe people in a park, evaluate a site they visited, etc. The subject matter means less than the fact that writing is happening.
- Write an opinion letter and mail it to the newspaper, magazine or group that is part of the topic/subject. Request a reply. OR, write a review for a book being read and post it to the author’s site on Goodreads, Amazon, etc. Share the strengths as well as any concerns/questions you have after reading the book.
- Locate quotations you appreciate (lots of topics online to choose from). Design note cards with the quotations as part of the cover or part of a message inside. Bundle them into 4-packs with envelopes and give them to a friend or relative to use as thank you notes, birthday cards, etc. they might send to others.
Looking ahead:
Win a $20 VISA card. Write a review of Tasman – An Innocent Convict’s Struggle for Freedom. Post it on Amazon, Goodreads, and Facebook and be entered for a random drawing held quarterly in 2018. Next drawing is September 30th. Details on the Tasman door hangers and on www.tasman/paddyeger.com
My ten-year-old grandson will be here for a week in August. My daughter has already organized a book club for the family. We’re reading Grump and The Giver. I’ll suggest that my grandson write a review or a letter to one of the authors. Thanks for the ideas.