Writing Ideas

I just wanted to remind everyone about some writing ideas we learned in our classes at BYU. I tried (am trying) these with my 2nd graders and they loved them.

Last night I had the strangest dream..
1. Show students a picture of some famous artwork (I choose "The Scream").
2. Give the prompt- "last night I had the strangest dream..."
3. Give students a certain amount of time (I chose 7 minutes for the first round) to write the first part of the story. After they have written that, have the students switch with a neighbor.
4. Students will read their neighbor's story and then add on to it (6 minutes for just writing- don't include reading).
5. Switch papers one last time, read and write (5 minutes).

My students loved adding on to someone else's work and finding out how their stories ended.
I'm going to continue the writing and askt he students to revise and edit their own paper. I also had to ban certain words after each writing session because I saw the same things over and over again.

::Food Coloring in the Water::

This one is so simple. You just drop some food coloring in water and then see how descriptive you can be in describing how the color looks as it dissipates. I haven't taught this one yet, but I plan on modeling quite a bit before we begin. I think this is a great activity to help the students be more descriptive in their writing. I plan on saving the students' work and redoing the activity a few times to see if they become more descriptive with time.

Have fun!

Rachel Taylor