I’m always excited to find picture books that would work well as writing prompts for elementary school kids, so I was extra excited to find Ten-Word Tiny Tales: To Inspire and Unsettle by Joseph Coelho (Candlewick, 2023). This new volume has stories that are each, as the title suggests, just ten-words long. With a variety of illustrators
A fantastic 60-page picture book geared for middle school students (The One Thing You’d Save) can mentor your students in in the writing concepts of ideas, voice, a new type of poetry, and even more. Just like in the book, an open discussion can help students recognize the impact of these good writing traits. Further,
The students in my co-op writing class (who are in first to fourth grade) really struggle with starting a story. For the most part, every story starts with “Once there was….” and goes from there. “Once upon a time…” is a close second. It is a challenge to get them to think outside of the
With Thanksgiving coming, it’s time to reflect on what it means to us personally, as well as the context in which we traditional celebrate the holiday. For my older students in my homeschool writing co-op, I found writing about history is a nice way to approach it. Why Read and Write about Thanksgiving?When it’s time
To encourage my children to write more often, I’ve tried to make sure I have a writing center easily accessible to them in our school room (which is also our playroom). As we make writing a fun part of our days, my children get handwriting practice as well as practice writing from their own creativity
We created our own mail center in our schoolroom and play room because my kids love getting the mail. They love to send letters to friends, teachers, and grandparents. They love to send and receive mail. I made some monster post cards to help us practice writing, addressing, and sending mail. Of course, these aren’t
I’ve been creating units for kindergarten using picture books to introduce the poetic concepts of rhythm, rhyme, and metaphor. Today I thought I’d write about another picture book that would help in teaching older children about metaphors in poetry: Red Sings from Treetops by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski.
We compare the perspective of the two characters in A TALE OF TWO BEASTS, beginning with a Venn diagram to brainstorm. A Tale of Two Beasts by Fiona Roberton is an amusing tale about a girl who finds a strange beast in the woods and brings him home to take care of him. It is
I had a lot of fun considering favorite picture books as I considered the variety of ways one could organize a story. So many times in elementary school kids are given a prescription for writing and they must follow that. Writing is more fun when students are free to organize their thoughts or ideas creatively.
When I thought about a persuasive mentor text, my first thought was to go with The Pigeon, Mo Willems’ crabby bird who demands things. I almost dismissed this Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus writing idea because I thought my kids will probably think it is childish, but I went with it anyway. I’m
I don’t always believe that writing prompts that come out of nowhere can always help our kids gain stronger writing skills. But, I do believe that high interest books can prompt kids to want to write! I’ve frequently written about books and the writing prompts I’ve given as a homeschool mom and co-op teacher. Here
Reading Hey, Little Ant with kids is a great way to practice writing to persuade. I also believe that it is important to be informed when we make decisions. Research can strengthen a persuasive argument. This lesson, based on the story Hey, Little Ant, helps students learn the strength of persuading through research.
