This lesson is excerpted from Read, Write, & Spell. Click here to download the lesson PDF.
Try this nifty exercise to enliven the day’s writing assignment. Don’t worry about misspelled words; for this lesson you want your child to express himself without being inhibited by thoughts of “making a mistake.”
What You Need:
A cloth or paper bag, assortment of varied-textured items (button, feather, pencil, walnut, small toy, etc), lined writing paper, pencil
To Prepare:
Place an item into the bag. To preserve the mystery, make sure your child doesn’t see you do this.
Activity:
Tell your child that you have placed a mystery object in the bag and that he will feel the item and write down his impressions. Explain that he must stay silent and communicate only in writing.
Have him begin by simply touching the object, withdrawing his hand, and then recording his first impressions.
Ask him to feel it a second time and jot down what comes to mind. Continue this several more times.
Finally, have him write down his guess of what the item is, then open the bag and look.
Variation:
Conclude the above activity by asking your child to rewrite his impressions into a descriptive paragraph. Have him draw the object at the top of a sheet of paper and attach the paragraph below, as shown.
