Materials: jumbo craft sticks (Here I go again with those sticks! No, I don’t have stock in the company!)
pictures of people, places, events
glue, tape
jumbo craft sticks
green, yellow, and orange construction paper
magazines, newspapers
Directions: Cut 3” circles out of each color of construction paper. Let the children cut out pictures of people, places, and events from the magazines and newspapers. You will need 5-10 of each. Glue the pictures of people to the orange circles, the pictures of places to the green circles, and the pictures of events to the yellow circles. Tape the circles to jumbo craft sticks and place them in a cup or can.
Invite the children to choose a stick of each color to help them write a story. The orange will be the WHO/the main character. The green stick will be WHERE/the place. The yellow stick will be the WHAT/the plot.
*Use photos of classmates, the teacher, famous people, animals, etc. for the WHO sticks.
*To encourage informative writing, tie in the story sticks to units of study or current events. For example, you could use pictures of Presidents, habitats, or environmental issues.
*Let two children work together to write a story.
*Place the sticks in the writing center for independent work.
Hint! For younger children use the story sticks to encourage oral language. Make sticks with interesting characters or objects and let them choose one or two and create a story using them.
CHEW and WRITE
I’ve shared this idea before, but if you’ve never done it you might want to give it a try. Give children sugarless gum and explain that they can open it and start chewing when they get their name on their paper and an idea in their head. As long as they are writing they get to chew the gum. When they stop writing they have to throw their gum away. Sure cure for writer’s block!!!!
