How to Encourage Children's Interest in Writing

Writing is important. Being able to write well, is an indisputably valuable skill that every person should have. Whether is it completing assignments throughout the course of education, writing letters/emails, putting together reports at work, or simply journaling, writing is essential.

Success at writing - AKA effective communicating - begins with early preparation. The earlier the better. The following article was originally published in November 2010.

Getting Kids Interested in Writing

The best way to get primary school kids interested in writing is to spark their interest in reading and storytelling.  The earlier this can be done, the better their interest will be. Children are naturally curious and enjoy being given the opportunity to be creative and exercise their imaginations. Writing is a natural outlet for expressing their inventive thoughts.

Children who are readers are more likely to become good writers, but even those who are just learning to read enjoy having stories told to them and making up stories of their own. When given the opportunity to share these stories and entertain other students, kids can then experience a sense of pride in what they have accomplished. Though some kids are shy about sharing, most are excited to show off what they have done and the self-esteem boost they get from doing so is what will help them feel confident about writing and sharing more stories.

It is important, particularly with creative writing, that more emphasis be placed on story creation than on spelling, grammar and punctuation. Those things can be addressed at a later time after the stories have been completed. (Think of it as reverse engineering.) If students can get excited about writing early on they will be more likely to maintain an interest in it throughout their school careers.

Children as young as Kindergarten students can be introduced to writing at the very basic level by creating their own alphabet books. As they learn simple words they can be encouraged to create more books. They can also orally make up stories collectively as a class that the teacher can write down. These stories can be bound in simple books that the students can take home and read with their families.

Second grade students can work as a class or in teams and take turns adding parts to round-robin stories. Most children love to draw and will want to create illustrations for their stories. As their writing skills improve they can be encouraged to create stories individually. Stories can be a single paragraph or take up an entire page. The important thing is that the students learn how to give their stories a beginning, middle and end, and that they at least answer the who, what, and how questions of storytelling.

Making up their own stories is only one way to get students excited about writing. Exercises that allow students to write reflectively, particularly with students who may be having behavior issues, allow them to see how writing can be a useful tool that helps them to put the things that happen to them in perspective and even to feel better.

Third and fourth grade students should be able to interview each other and write short journalistic style stories that allow them to get to know each other better. As their skills improve they can interview family members or neighbors and learn about oral history.

As primary school students begin to think of writing as something that is useful and has value to them it will become increasingly easy to foster their interest in it.

Halloween Craft Ideas For Teachers

Author's Note: The following piece was originally published you-know-where without any images because the platform wasn't set up for them at the time. Looking through the articles I salvaged just now I realized the timing was good to re-publish this one right now. Perhaps an update with pictures will appear in the future...

Originally published September 2009

Halloween Craft Ideas for Teachers

Crafting at Halloween can be a fun time for teachers who are particularly creative, but for those who don't see themselves in quite that light coming up with crafty ideas in the classroom can sometimes present a ghoulish challenge, particularly with little hands. Whether it is crafts for decorating the classroom, or projects for students to do, Halloween crafts need not be daunting.

Everything from templates to coloring sheets can be found online with a quick Google search of Halloween printables. Crafting with young children need not be complicated to be engaging. All you need is a simple project that can be completed in ten to twenty minutes in between your academic lessons.

When creating Halloween crafts with kindergarteners, you will want to keep things simple without too many steps. Keeping things simple also means you will have an easy time of cleanup as well. You may want to reserve activities that require the use of paint for days when you have extra time for setup and cleanup.

One fun and easy classroom craft for little hands requires only a pumpkin coloring sheet, squares of orange craft tissue and glue. Cut the tissue into 2 inch squares and have the students wad the individual sheets into balls and glue them onto the pumpkin. Alternatively, black tissue or even yarn can be used to create facial features and other details before adding the crumpled orange tissue. This tactile craft is great for improving hand-eye coordination.

Another quick and simple craft for small hands is to have students color their pumpkins with orange markers and then put green glitter around the edges. Minimize the mess by drawing a line of glue around the edge of the pumpkins and giving students small amounts of glitter to sprinkle over it. Older kids can cut their pumpkins out and paste them onto black construction paper with glue sticks. Alternatively students can make collage pumpkins by tearing or cutting colored tissue or other paper and gluing it onto a pumpkin printout.

First graders can make cute Halloween crafts by pressing their thumbprints on paper and then using a pencil to create legs or wings for spiders or bats. The pencil lines can then be traced over with fine tipped black markers. Older students with more drawing ability can turn their thumbprints into black cats. The students' thumbprint creatures can adorn greeting cards or be placed in a mat for framing. To add a language arts component to your Halloween crafting have students create their own comic strips by placing words above their thumbprint critters.

For second and third grade students who are able to skillfully cut out shapes with scissors try making paper doll style chains of Halloween themed figures. Make a sample first by accordion folding white paper wide enough to accommodate the chosen figure and then trace the desired shape on top so that the side edges of the figure are up against the folds of the paper. Carefully cut out the shapes leaving a bit of the sides intact against the paper folds so that when you open up the paper the figures will be linked together as if holding hands.

Printable coloring sheets can also be used to create puppets, garland, mobiles or even custom Halloween trick or treat bags. Simply print out the coloring sheet or other printable and enlarge or reduce the designs on a copy machine as needed to create your desired project. Crafts from paper supplies are not only inexpensive, they are easy to organize and execute.

For older children, Halloween crafting doesn't have to mean ghosts and goblins. Friendship bracelets in orange and black or beading projects made with those colors is more than sufficient. Kids love wearable art projects and they provide the added benefit of helping to develop self esteem. To allow for more individuality, provide students with additional white or gold beads and floss for more color variety.

In keeping with the idea of non-traditional Halloween crafts, students can create their own one-of-a-kind pair of socks using tie dye techniques and seasonal colors. For an even quicker simple, wearable craft, give students orange and black sharpies and let them create their own shoe laces. Be sure to protect desks or work surfaces before beginning to protect them from becoming stained by the sharpies.

Halloween crafting in the classroom can be smooth and easy with a little planning. Always create a sample project ahead of time to be sure of the difficulty level and the amount of time it will take to complete. Plan on it taking almost twice as much time for some students and less for others. Have a supply of coloring sheets, puzzles or other printables on hand for early finishers.

Teacher Tips: How to use Simon Says in the Classroom

Classroom management is a living entity of sorts that evolves with both the teacher and their students as the term progresses. Class rules, seating charts, character development programs, etc., are good starting points, but in the absence of established teacher-student relationships, engagement is key in maintaining a safe, healthy, and productive learning environment.

Using games such as Simon Says in the early education classroom is a simple method for re-focusing students, keeping things light, and bringing an element of fun into the learning environment. The following article was previously published in the education channel on the Helium publishing web site in November of 2009.

How to Play Simon Says

Primary school aged children love to play Simon Says and the game is a great way to hold their attention and keep them from being restless during periods where they have to sit still and wait for several minutes. But the game is useful to teachers in many other ways as well.

Almost everyone understands how to play Simon Says. The leader says "Simon says touch your nose," and the group does it. After a couple of other tasks the leader says "clap your hands." Because he or she didn't say "Simon says clap your hands" any child who clapped is now out of the game.

Simon Says in the classroom teaches children to pay attention and follow directions while having fun. They see remaining in the game as not getting tricked by the teacher into doing something. This means that the teacher leading the game has to be quick on the draw with the "Simon says do this" tasks. If there is any lag in the game it allows children to think about what you have said before they respond.

A rapid fire of Simon Says commands that are repetitive followed by one that doesn't include the words "Simon says..." is the key to keeping the game moving and tricking up crafty students who think they won't make a mistake and respond to the wrong task.

Here is an example:

Simon Says touch your nose.

Simon Says put both hands on your hips.

Simon Says put your hands on your head.

Simon Says put your hands or your hips.

Simon Says put your hands on your head

Put your hands on your hips.

When dealing with hyper kids Simon Says is an opportunity to move around a bit and get rid of some of their nervous energy before getting back to the academic lesson. The game is also a good idea for days when the weather prevents children from enjoying recess outdoors. Because the game allows children to move around you can use Simon Says as a means to low scale physical education.

Here is an example:

Simon Says reach for the sky

Simon Says touch your toes.

Simon Says stand up.

Now touch your nose.

Simon Says look to the right.

Simon Says look to the left

Simon Says point to the sky

Point to the floor.

The idea is to use Simon Says to allow your students to get a little exercise without knowing that is what they are doing. When they burn up a little energy playing the game over five or ten minutes they are more likely to sit calmly, pay attention and stay on task.

Simon Says can also be used to get children to transition from one activity to another or from working to lining up. In this instance, you are not trying to "trick" them or catch them off guard. You are getting them to respond positively to being asked to do what you want them to such as standing, pushing in their chairs and walking to the door to lineup. Of course, you can always spend a minute or two just playing the game for fun first.

Using games with active play like Simon Says with your students helps keep coming to school interesting and fun when mixed in between periods of academic learning. Kids have a hard time sitting still in their seats for long periods of time so the game also gives them an opportunity to move around a little and get the fidgets out of their system.