Ideas

Writing...singing...picture books

What do these things have in common?? Well, the past couple of weeks I have been introducing the Ideas writing trait to my students. We started with figuring out what ideas meant and then we sang a song about. You may have even heard the song at home:

The Ideas Song
(sung to the tune, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat")

Write, write, write your thoughts
Make your ideas clear
Tell the reader what you know
And what you hold most dear.

Finally, I've been reading the kids LOTS of books. What does this have to do with writing?? Well, when I'm finished we discuss the author's purpose and decide how that could be a writing idea for them as well. We have come up with a really big list of writing ideas that they could write about it in here. They don't have to be fancy ideas as long as they are important to the writer. They must be an "expect" about their writing idea.

So, in order to get started with our writer's workshop in here, I have sent home homework with your child tonight. Please help him/her think of 9 different ideas they could write about in the classroom. Once again, they don't have to be fancy ideas as long as it's important to your child.

I think they are finally getting excited about writing and realizing it won't be so bad after all :)