This is the first of my new series that I will be sharing weekly throughout the summer. Please be sure to tell your friends and share!

The following is a writing activity you can perform with your first or second grade child. {You can also easily adapt it for children that are older}. My son, who is entering second grade, has some great writing skills but he needs to work on expressing details. He can come up with a good idea for a story but he has trouble really expanding on his ideas. He needs to write more fluid sentences and his writing needs to be more descriptive. By reviewing the basic elements of a story with him, I am able to get him really thinking creatively and writing.

First, you need to supply your child with a writing pad or journal. I bought this writing tablet at Big Lots for $1. You can go to any dollar store or Five Below and pick up something similar – you want something that has thick lines and a large enough space for your child to also create a picture once they are finished writing.

Then, take three paper bags and label them with the elements of a story: Character, Setting and Problem.

Next, take several pieces of paper and cut the paper into small squares. On each small piece of paper, write down at least 10 different characters, settings and problems and then throw the small papers into the corresponding bag.

Shake the bag and have your child pull one piece of paper from each of the three bags. This is where your child will be forced to be creative – the character, setting and problem will most likely have nothing to do with one another! For example, my son chose a King (character), in a Log Cabin (Setting), and cannot his surfboard (Problem). Now, my son must write a story using all three of these story elements!

A way to add in a simple Writing Workshop activity would be to first have your child brainstorm various ideas for the story. You can create a simple worksheet that has areas for your child to brainstorm each of the three story elements. Upon brainstorming, your child would begin writing the story from this brainstorming worksheet. When he/she is finished, sit with your child and underwrite him/her and go through the entire piece of writing line by line. There are so many small “mini-lessons” that can be derived from this kind of editing session. You can even encourage your child to go a step further and publish the writing either by typing the revisions on a computer or handwriting a final copy. Finally, your child can create a picture that correlates to the story.

Writing a fictional piece (based on random and unrelated story elements) is a wonderful way to give your child an opportunity to get creative and write about something other than the daily traditional journal reflections. Adding in some Writing Workshop time is also always useful and productive.

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