Walking by the Way

Aug 19 2009

A Little Bit of Magic

Elijah has been struggling with writing more than a few sentences each day, and I really want to boost his endurance and confidence. I posted a plea to Facebook yesterday and got some ideas & encouragement. I also remembered that I had Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye sitting on my shelf (for the past 5 years!) and had never really looked through it. So, I pulled the book down. All I have to say…Peggy Kaye is a genius!

Elijah and I tried one of the games today (in his second workbox).

You need some titles (I am sharing mine in case you need some on the fly), two pencils, a piece of paper, and a die. That’s it!

You can randomly select a title (draw one out of a bowl) if you want, but I let Elijah choose one. He chose "Chocolate for Lunch" (of course!). I started the game by rolling the die and writing the corresponding number of words on the paper. Then it was Elijah’s turn to roll and continue the story. I did not let him write more (or less) than what the die said. It took us about 45 minutes to write our story.

This was SO GREAT. I can not tell you what a good time we had. Elijah didn’t complain about writing (not ONE time). We laughed a lot. He’s funny! I also had a chance to explain when and why to add end punctuation. I didn’t correct his upper case letters. He has a bad habit of writing in ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME. It drives me crazy, but I wanted this to be fun. And it was. It is a memory I will always have. (The day my son enjoyed writing!)

Here is our story…

Chocolate for Lunch
One day I thought I should have chocolate for lunch. I started out with a fat Hershey bar. Next, I ate a chocolate bunny. I also gobbled brownies with chocolate ice cream and delicious hot fudge sauce. For dessert I had chocolate covered pretzels. The next day I was feeling icky. I went to the dentist. He was not happy with me! The End :)

Tags: games, writing
Posted under workboxes, working through writing | 15 Comments »

15 Responses to “A Little Bit of Magic”

By Candace on Aug 19, 2009 | Reply
Oh my goodness, what a fun game! Hannah would LOVE this!! Gotta try it!! THANKS!!
By Tristan on Aug 19, 2009 | Reply
Great idea Ami! We made a file folder game that has sentence parts. Inside are 5 pockets:
- who or what? (nouns)
- when?
- where?
- did what? (verbs)
- describing words (adjectives/adverbs)

In each pocket are word or phrase strips like your titles. (I color coded each pocket and set of strips so it can all get jumbled and sorted easily). Draw one slip from each pocket and make it into a sentence. I would have my DD make 5 sentences and write them down.
By MichelleL on Aug 19, 2009 | Reply
Love it! I am gonna try that tomorrow!
By Rachel NC on Aug 19, 2009 | Reply
That is a neat idea! My dd6 will love it, actually I think both dd will! Thanks for sharing
By Jocelyne on Aug 20, 2009 | Reply
Parker would love this. And, I too have this book on my shelf (though not for the past five years given that Parker is only five!).

And thanks for the tip about e-mailing Mark Shasha – on our to-list for tomorrow
By Jimmie on Aug 20, 2009 | Reply
You are a great mom. You made something otherwise a chore (to E) FUN through the game element. Plus it was silly. Also YOU did it with him, engaging alongside rather than giving an assignment to do solo.
AND it’s very controlled and bite sized — no more than six words at a time. Super easy, but it’s writing! So your plan worked!
By Lynsey on Aug 20, 2009 | Reply
Just wanted to thank you. You are so inspring and have such great ideas. Love your blog.
By Kylie on Aug 20, 2009 | Reply
What a great idea! I have a reluctant writer, I’m definitely giving this a go. Actually I eventhink I have that book, off to check my shelves now. Thanks for the reminder.
By MichelleL on Aug 21, 2009 | Reply
We just tried it! He did great! I blogged about it!
By LisaM on Aug 22, 2009 | Reply
Ami, I love this idea! Thanks for sharing it!
By Honey on Sep 19, 2009 | Reply
I love your ideas. Thank you for sharing about Peggy Kaye, her books look amazing.
By SchoolinRhome on Sep 22, 2009 | Reply
This is a great idea. At first I thought it was copywork from the book that is chosen but they are self-written stories, just so many words at once. I really like this idea and plan to use it as well.
Thanks for sharing!
Carol of SchoolinR’Home
By fran waters on Oct 29, 2009 | Reply
thesese are really adorable ideas. In reference to working through writing i was unable to access the fonts you used for your lists. when i clicked all that came up was a blank page with the word done at the bottom. Do you know why? thanks fran in nc
By admin on Nov 4, 2009 | Reply
Hi Fran,

I’m not sure what the problem might be. The pdf is opening for me. Do you have Adobe Acrobat Reader?

Thanks Ami