Posted on February 5th, 2010 by
tutor1235
Clear communication is a must-have skill in today’s job market. A person needs to speak AND write clearly and in ways appropriate to the setting. That translates into flexible, creative communicators. Help your child gain those skills through daily practice! Writing assignments and discussions are just a few tools, though. Try these day-brighteners when you need a creative new idea to boost communication skills. You can play verbally or in writing; just make sure you have fun!
Put players into teams of two. Give each person two pieces of paper and pencils or markers. Have each player secretly draw a design (make it as complicated as you like!), and then get out the blank paper. Players take turns giving verbal directions to their partner to duplicate the secret design they’ve drawn.
You’ll need a large chart paper, white board or even chalk board for this one. Colored markers are also a plus. Gather the group and have the students give directions to draw a monster. The most specific and descriptive their instructions, the closer your drawing will come to their mental picture! For example, the kids might tell you the monster needs long, curly hair. As you work on your creation, point out all of the adjectives flying around, and maybe even keep a running list beside the picture.
Pair players up. One player can pretend to be a robot that is controlled completely by verbal instructions. The other player gets to give the directions. Set some tasks for the teams to accomplish, like picking up a piece of paper, but remind everyone that the robots can do NOTHING that is not in the directions. For example, if the controller says to bend down, the robot must bend down in place even if the paper is out of reach. No fair taking unrequested steps!!
These are just a few diversions that rely on clear communications. What other creative activities can you share? Please leave your favorites in the comment box below.
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Filed under: Writing
Posted on January 19th, 2010 by
tutor1235
It’s January, so that means that most of us are getting new calendars. The old ones can be a great source of reading, writing and math fun, so don’t toss them. This is the ultimate in recycling!!
- Cut the numbers apart and have your child build math equations
- Cut the days of the week apart and put them in order
- Cut the month names out and put them in order
- Tell or write stories about the pictures
- Put the numbers in order
- Find the numbers you need to count by 2′s (or 3′s or 4′s…) to 30
- Do some calendar calculations-how many days between Christmas and Easter? How many weeks is that? How many months?
- Which month has the highest numbered Tuesday?
You get the picture. Now it’s your turn-what creative educational idea can you share with us that uses an old calendar??
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Filed under: Math Corner, Reading Corner, Writing
Posted on February 2nd, 2009 by
tutor1235
Kids around the world question the importance of spelling. They wonder why they need to learn “this stuff” and they balk at studying week after week. Here’s a simple technique you can use to stress the importance of spelling with your child or student.
Write a set of directions laden with misspellings, to the point that it is difficult to decipher what is wanted of the reader. Make sure to type it up so that your child doesn’t know where the directions came from. Give it to your student and ask him or her to follow the directions to receive a reward or treat. Undoubtedly, the child will complain loudly when they can’t figure out the correct responses! Listen to his or her complaints and discuss what they think of the person who wrote the text. What opinion of the writer can they form? Have them make judgments about the writer’s skill, intelligence, attention to detail and so forth. Most people get quite frustrated and will berate the writer for ignorance or carelessness.
You now have ample ammunition to convince your child of the importance of his or her own spelling-in his or her own words!
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Filed under: Writing
Posted on November 16th, 2008 by
tutor1235
Thanksgiving is the perfect season for this activity, but you can try it any time at all. Teach your children to cherish the good gifts that their lives bring by teaching them to write down the blessings. Get a notebook and just start a journal. This one, though, is not for venting sour feelings or writing secret thoughts. This journal is just for the good stuff. Encourage your kids to write a sentence or two each day about something wonderous that happened, or a beautiful sight or a funny moment. Even on days when it seems like nothing went right, we can still turn our thoughts to something positive and write down a happy memory or a pleasant hope.
Writing down blessings will help kids learn to intentionally turn their thoughts onto happier paths. Not only will you be building writing and expression skills, but you will also be developing important mental health habits. We all need to learn to push our thoughts along positive paths when needed.
So start today. Grab that notebook and set an example to your kids. Get them notebooks and get them writing. Create your very own Blessings Books that you can treasure for a lifetime.
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© 2008 Sandra Fleming
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Filed under: Parenting Corner, Writing
Posted on November 15th, 2008 by
tutor1235
Give your student extra practice using quotation marks with this homework helper: Give the child the comic page and have him or her write the words of the characters out as conversations. Proper quote marks will be needed, as well as indentations to mark new paragraphs where new speakers are talking and correct punctuation at the ends of sentences.
Using quotations is one of the tougher aspects of learning to write English, so you’ll want to practice the skill early and often. Comics provide the perfect motivational framework-they are short and sweet, clear about who’s actually talking, and usually funny to boot. Most children enjoy reading comics long before they start to read other parts of the newspaper, so put that motivational power to work for you!
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Filed under: Writing
Posted on November 9th, 2008 by
tutor1235
Got a young writer who needs a bit of a boost in the motivation department? Try this fabulous writing prompt! Have your student choose a character from a book or television show that he or she enjoyed as a young child. Next, choose a book or television show that seems great right now. Write a story or an episode where the favorite character from long ago gets dropped into the current favorite story. What happens? How does everyone react? There’s lots of room for creativity here.
I’ve given this assignment to students many times over the years and always get some really great responses. Perhaps the best I can recall came from a fifth grade boy. He took Barney the Dinosaur and landed him in an Artemis Foul story. He kept all characters’ usual traits and personalities intact, and really nailed the lead characters’ reactions to the situations he put them into. It was great reading, and tough to remember that this was a fifth grade remedial writing student!
So give it a try! Have your favorite student or students mix up characters from favorites of long ago and today and just stand back to watch what happens. Have fun!
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Filed under: Writing
Posted on November 3rd, 2008 by
tutor1235
Good morning and happy Monday! Each Monday morning, you can look for new weekly writing exercises for your favorite children. There are two sets of five writing prompts: one for young or middle elementary aged children, and one for older students. These are posted weekly at Children’s Writing Exercises over on Squidoo. I hope you’ll take a peek this week, and remember that I love feedback. Tell me what you think and how things go when you try the exercises.
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Filed under: Writing
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