Calling all parents, summer is the time for fun and relaxation for everyone, esp the kids. However, you don’t want them to lose some of the writing skills that they learned during the school year. Here are some fun things to do to keep their creative juices flowing.
When I was a kid I remember having a pen pal in France that I kept in contact
with for many years, I so enjoyed getting her letters, she understood English. Little did
I know that communicating to her in this manner would help to improve my writing skills.
One year my students had pen pals from all over the world and they loved
hearing from them. They told me that they kept in contact with them throughout
the summer.
Here are some penpal links:
http://www.linguistic-funland.com/addapal.html
http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/
https://www.reference.com/family/can-pen-pals-
kids-b5170517e3e3ff73?qo=cdpArticles
In this age of technology, your children are probably on the computer or their tablet
all thtime. If this is the case, you can encourage them to write a summer blog
about anything that they are interested in. You can help by giving them ideas
and proofreading with them.
There are many free blog sites that you can use.
www.blogger.com
http://kidblog.org/home/
http://kidsblogclub.com/
Looking for some interesting topics, here are a few:
Going to camp.
A family camping trip.
Sports
How to do something
The family pet
How to play computer games.
Cooking
How to make a video game/Discuss your favorite game/Explain how to play.
Have the kids get together with friends or siblings to write a play about anything that interests them. After the play is written, they will need to spend some time rehearsing and learning their lines, as well as making costumes, props and scenery. When they’re ready, they can present the play to the family. You can even turn this into a neighborhood event by making signs, posting them, and sending out invitations.
Great playwriting link for all ages.
http://www.teachkidshow.com/teach-your-child-how-to-write-and-produce-a-play/
We all love a good laugh. How about having your children write jokes and make their
own joke book. They will need to decide what type of jokes to write. It could be
about current events, games, your pet, themselves. Then you can have comedy night
with family and or friends.
Here is more information about joke writing.
http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Good-Joke
For those kids who are interested in journalism, a summer newspaper about things
happening in the neighborhood would be a great activity. If there are a few children
who would like to do this it would work very well. You might have reporters
asking questions of neighbors you can trust. Decide what types of articles you’d
like, they could be about sports, a trip, a movie or tv show, crafts, comics, pets, etc.
Check out these links about newspaper writing:
http://www.timeforkids.com/homework-helper/a-plus-papers/news-story
http://www.layers-of-learning.com/newspaper-article-template/
That’s it for now. These should be enough ideas to get you started. Have a great summer.
Deann
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This is part of our July Teacher Talk, so had on over to the other posts to see the tips/ideas from all of our educators.
