Writer/Storyteller
Many traditional ways of teaching and learning are typically easily accessed by the Writer/Storyteller child. Still, you can extend what your child is doing at school, and support your child to branch into less favored areas, with these activities & resources:
- Writer/Storytellers enjoy projects and activities that involve the printed word. A simple but fun project is to get a ceramic dish or mug from the store or a garage sale. Using Sharpie(R) markers, compose a poem or well-wishes for the recipient. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees and the marker will become permanent.
- Sixth-eighth grade is a great time for interested students to discover more public speaking opportunities. For example, Writer/Storytellers might enjoy becoming part of a school debate team.
- Why not invite your child to write the family holiday card this year? Or have her make a scrapbook narrative of your family’s most recent vacation? Another option is to have her write up a family tree history book. Giving your young writer purpose and voice will extend and expand her skills!
- Take a piece of your child’s writing, or have her write a new story about a fun subject such as Heroes or a favorite character, etc. Have your child go through and delete a noun, adjective, verb, or adverb in a number of the sentences (to make the piece now look like a Mad Libs® piece). Have fun playing Mad Libs® together with your child’s writings!
- Make it meaningful! There are so many real world writing options for interested students! Giving your child a forum where her work can be seen and responded to can highly motivate young writers. For ideas, take a look at http://figment.com/ or write books/create collections online at sites like http://storybird.com/ or http://www.mixbook.com/.
- To help solidify your child’s learning, have her talk through operations or formulas.
- Some online resources:
- Advanced Ad libs: Fill in the blanks of select NY Times articles and see how close you are to the real thing: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/category/fill-in/
- Have your child learn more about worldwide hunger from Oxfam with this choose your own adventure, where they become the “actor” in the story: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/multimedia/flash/a-seat-at-the-table
- To support your child’s more abstract use of language, such as with proverbs and sarcasm, take a look at http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/games/riddles/proverbs.htm.
- For work with analogies, see http://www.sadlier-oxford.com/phonics/analogies/analogiesx.htm
- For vocabulary, check out Word Dynamo (http://dynamo.dictionary.com/), a fantastic site for creating word lists, but also for playing fun vocabulary enhancing games. You can also check out the games at http://www.wordia.com/.
- If your child loves word games, here are some more fun ones: http://www.jogtheweb.com/run/F5Wb9HBgdv0S/Word-Games#1 or http://www.merriam-webster.com/game/index.htm
