Writing – Using our 5 Senses

Our morning messages on Friday always have a video of Presley.  On this Friday, she asked them to writing using the starter sentence.  They produced amazing stories!

We also added FEELING - in your HEART to our list.

Look at how LONG his story is!  WooOoOT!

This is a really fun way to write a story.   Your kids LOVED it.  They begged to do it again, so we did!  What amazing writing was produced!  After writing a prompt on the board (or in the morning message!), kids use their five senses (along with how your heart feels) to write their story.  When I first introduced it, they had 2 minutes to write about each sense.  Then they were given 15 minutes to continue writing.  Over half of the class shared their stories.  Several kids shared their writing for the first time!  Yay! 

The second time we tried this strategy, the BEGGED to have 5 minutes for each sense.  This is a big deal. Writing is hard!  They often stop writing after 10 minutes, so asking for LONGER time to write is music to my ears.  Again, SO many kids shared their stories!  I challenged them to notice how their favorite used their senses as they read.  It was so great to hear them noticing how important these details were in our reading groups for days after our first lesson. 

Ways to encourage your kids to write at home:

Write on sticky notes.  Leave them some place they can find the note, and have them write back to you.

Write letters!  People LOVE getting mail!  Postcards are a great thing for kids to send – they are short and kids can make them on their own, or send them from places they’ve visited. 

Write a story with your child (or they can do it with a friend).  One of you starts the story, and you keep going back and forth to write the story.

Write on the mirror with SOAP!  It’s fun and your mirrors will be super clean.

A few tips:

Don’t worry about spelling when they are writing.  They need to get their thoughts down on paper first.  During the editing process, they can start to work on spelling.  I have them circle words they don’t think are spelled correctly.  If it’s a word I think they can figure out, I ask them to try again.  If it’s a word they probably won’t get right, I spell it for them.  Help them notice patterns ( - tion, -ight, etc.).