I have a reluctant writer in my brood. He has the most amazing imagination, stories are bursting to be told, but put pen and paper in front of him, and he immediately starts the bum-seat jump and shuffle. To see his reluctance, and so early in his writing journey, makes me a nervous Nellie.

As we take baby steps in his writing activities, I am conscious to think a little outside the box. I want to encourage my reluctant writer and will share some strategies as we continue working things out.

Writing activities, especially in a classroom setting, is usually a teacher-focused, solitary event, usually done in silence. This makes the task of writing a story overwhelming for my reluctant writer.

So, we changed our writing approach to one that stressed the social practices of literacy and writing. To encourage my reluctant writer, we:

• Do not work in isolation
• Provide opportunities for verbal interaction and communication with an audience
• Emphasise social sharing and presentation of written work.

How Writing Buddies Works:

Younger writers will talk with their writing buddy about possible characters, plot and setting for a story, and the more experienced writer will then write out the story.

The Benefits of Writing Buddies:

Writing buddies shifts the task of writing from an independent task, to a shared experience.

By letting younger writers tell the story before writing it, they are given time, and encouraged to think of the details of their story. It gives them a chance to express themselves and to be in control of the material that they are conveying.

Writing buddies also takes the pressure of writing off the reluctant writer. They are however, still given an opportunity to be actively and happily engaged in a literacy activity. 

These social practices of literacy and writing don’t just benefit reluctant writers. When younger writers get to tell their stories, and have their stories recorded, they feel that the ideas that they offer are valued; essential baby steps in growing their confidence and joy as writers.

What are your tips for encouraging reluctant writers? 

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I still remember those school exercise writing books with those pale blue lines, the cover adorned with a drawing of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. I remember spelling tests and dictation every Friday morning. I remember handwriting books with those extra lines to let us know where the tops and bottoms of letters should be. I remember creative writing. Oh, what I would give to still have some of my old school books. To see my written work when I was a child, learning to write.

I love collecting written work. I have collected odd bits and pieces of my children’s work but I really have to get my act together and get them all together in one place in some organised manner. I think I just came up with my Christmas/New Year project (yay!). My kids on the whole like writing, and I enjoy their written work. It’s a happy partnership.

Here are 10 fabulous kids writing activities. Happy playing, because #playmatters.

	← Journal Recount Planner via Lessons Learnt Journal → Helping Kids Write: 10 Tips for Parents via Lessons Learnt Journal
	← Literacy: 5 Ways to Help Boys via Lessons Learnt Journal → Recommended Sequence for Introducing Letters via Lessons Learnt Journal
	← Supporting Literacy Through Listening via Childhood101 → DIY Simple Alphabet Learning Activities via Little Bins for Little Hands
	← Name Writing via For the Children via Ms Barbaras Blog → Writing Lesson: Ask Questions via The Measured Mom
	← 5 Pre- Writing Activities for the Light Table via Under Gods Mighty Hand → Kids and Journaling via Picklebums

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Most of these ideas are from our Kids’ Co-Op. If you have a child focused post to share, be sure to come back and visit the Kids’ Co-Op link up here at Lessons Learnt Journal, (published and live here every Wednesday at 10PM CST or Thursday 2PM AEST).

More Activities for Preschoolers

Three to Five: Playful Preschool is stuffed to the brim with tried, tested and loved playful learning ideas for preschoolers. There are 25+ ideas for preschoolers, ten printable resources and additional links to over 50 more activities. A great resource for parents. Download your copy here.

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To help kids learn to write, I have found using planners in writing activities to be invaluable. For starters, it helps kids overcome that blank page because there’s something on the page; a framework to help them make a start. The planner also helps by making more explicit, the various language structures and patterns, in different types of writing. Eg. the way a recipe is written is different to the way a journal entry is written.

For older children, these planners would be typically followed by the other stages of the writing process: drafting, revising, editing and publishing. As N&M are just starting to learn to write, in our writing activities, we’ve worked on only the planning stage of writing.

To help kids write, it is helpful to keep a family journal; add something at least once a week – write about special days, achievements, activities, jokes, etc, and read the journal regularly.

In our writing activities, as part of our family journal, this is how we’ve used our journal recount planners:

1. Model writing the journal recount. We would talk about an event or activity that we would like to write about in our family journal. I would go through the planner: what is this journal entry / recount about; what happened first; what happened next; lastly, what happened; what would we like to say about the whole event? As we talk, I would put together sentences for each part of the planner. I would pause when I write key words and sound out the intial or end sounds of those words and let the have the opportunity to figure out what those letters may be; or I would pause for common sight words and let them have the opportunity to spell out those words.
2. Let them have a go at writing. The boys would then have their own planners and attempt writing certain words or sentences. E.g. I may write part of the sentence and leave out certain sight words or key words that they would like to write, and they would then write those words.
3. Illustrate the various events their journal recounts (optional). At this stage of N&M’s development where they can’t write very much yet, allowing them to draw the different events is helpful, as it reinforces the concept that sequencing the events in the right order is important in journal recounts.
4.  Allow children space to creatively extend upon their work. Listen to them and follow their lead. In this particular recount about our morning activities at a park where they collected rocks, N&M were very keen to draw some of the rocks they collected. They did so by tracing around the rocks.
5. Lastly, and importantly, re-read the journal recount, share it with others. You may choose to display it or place it in a folder or book that is easily accessible to them so that they can easily share their journal recounts with others.

 If you would like to use our journal recount planner as part of your writing activities, click HERE.

Remember, with any writing activity, try and focus on the good things rather than the mistakes. When children are encouraged and feel successful in their writing, they are willing to take risks and extend themselves.

After this particular journal recount writing activity, M (5) wrote this label; I helped him segment the sounds, but I didn’t model the word for him. 

Writing for authentic purposes using play. I love my job. #playmatters #mummy

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This week, we’re learning about the letter [a]. We started off rainbow writing the letter [a].

We used Texta Silk Crayons. They’re really fun. They are of similar consistency as window crayons – think rich oil pastels but washable.

These silk crayons could be also be changed to water colours with a wet brush. Going over the letter shape of [a] with a wet brush provided more chances for N & M to practise the shape of the letter [a].

 We then made some chocolate fairy apples as part of our introduction to the sound [a].

We used delicious fuji apples.

N & M placed chocolate melts into a microwaveable bowl. They practised counting orally to ten and learnt about matching each number word to one, and only one object when counting – (a most tricky lesson to master).

A quick minute or two in the microwave and we had yummy melted chocolate. I placed a skewer in the middle of the apple to help them move the apple around more easily. Using a teaspoon, they spread the melted chocolate over the apples. So far, the mess was very manageable.

Enter the hundreds and thousands. They poured it over the melted chocolate and those little things bounce everywhere!

Do the pretty colours of the hundreds and thousands make the mess worth while? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. N&M are convinced that the sugary goodness of the hundreds and thousands are worth while.

Presenting our chocolate fairy apples.

We sliced them up (most of the chocolate bits fell off the apple at this stage), and N&M gobbled them up.

Simple ideas for introducing [a]

Show children a written lower case [a]

• Model the mouth movement and sound[a]
• Visually connect the picture/word “apple” with the letter sound [a].
• Kinaesthetically simulate biting an apple. Open mouth and place open hand close to mouth as if biting an apple.

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