D. is now fully comfortable with putting his ideas on paper. However, sometimes it's hard to find something to write about. I usually ask him to write 3-5 sentences per day. I ask that sentences are connected to each other. We correct grammar and syntax mistakes after he is done. Now that his handwriting is much improved, I emphasize the importance of respecting the reader, be it his teacher, his little sister or even just himself. Mistakes are fine, sloppiness is not.
Format of his writing doesn't matter -it can be a list (his favorite one is to write a silly recipe for a cake), a letter, a story or a journal entry.
There are a few games that we use when there is a writing block problem .
First game is the simplest of all. It is called
Silly Sentences and is made by one of my favorite publishing houses-
DK Publishing.
This is a very fun game and D. enjoys it very much. The puzzle that completes the sentence is self-correcting so this game is very useful for building grammar skills. The cards have to punched out before the first game which leaves us with a template frame to create own adjectives, nouns and so forth.
I was able to find this game for around $5 in my local TJ maxx, however there is a no-cost alternative (found
here) that is great and can make a fun party game too.
Rory's story cubes I can never praise enough.
It is a fun game with endless possibilities. D. loves to roll the dice and connect pieces of the story one by one. There are 9 cubes and usually we roll 3 or 4 for one sentence. D.'s stories became rich with adjectives because adjective means rolling an extra dice :) Once again it is a great family game.
I am planning to make a no-cost addition to this game by gluing some images onto regular playing dice.
Bananagrams
Not so much for creative writing,but a great game that makes spelling exercises fun. We just build one giant crossword puzzle. It is also a great motivator to look new words up in the dictionary. Sometimes we pick a certain theme and create a crossword using words on this topic (for example farm animals or seasons etc.)
The no-cost option can be created out of card-board tiles, wooden squares or craft foam squares stamped with letters and protected with contact paper.
And last is the newest addition to our game chest -
Dixit.
How to play: One player describes a card (beautiful illustrations), other players find a card that can be described with the same sentence and secretly pass it to the active player. Cards are shuffled and everybody has to guess which card was original.
This game really makes you think. First time we played it was quite hard, but after we got a hang of it everyone started to come up with most interesting descriptions.
How we use it for our writing lessons: D. pick a card an composes a story about the illustration. Again the more exciting his story is, the higher the praise from grateful readers (aka his little sister, grandma):)
This game is quite pricey, but it can make a great birthday or Christmas gift.
Before we got it we used
art postcards such as those I got from my postcrossing exchange and those that were brought by grandma from abroad. Any (not well known) illustration found online will do too. (I saved some in
my folder on Pinterest). For us I noticed that the less context the image has- the more interesting D.'s story is.
As I said before these games make fantastic holiday gifts that can be enjoyed by whole family for years to come :)
