Teaching Ideas

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Toy Writing Idea

Submitted by Donna for Mrs K (10-10-2012)

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One writing activity I do is descriptive writing. Early in the season, I start collecting sale catalogs for Christmas that are only toys. Toys R Us will give you them if you ask. Each student gets their own. They look, read and talk with their classmates about everything they see. (They love it!) Then they must choose one.

They write all about it without naming it. They use adjectives & adverbs to describe it. They tell why it's their choice (2-3 reasons). Then they tell what subject it will benefit them most (science, math, social studies, etc) and give reasons why.

Then after the class listens, the reader gives the page number and the others try to use the information they heard to guess the toy! This is a 4th grade activity, but I also did it in 2nd grade (not as detailed).

They absolutely love this activity. It keeps them motivated in December.

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What others are saying...

Leanne (10-10-2012)

This sounds great. You could extend it to other types of items like sports(especially with the Olympics just around the corner) books and CD catalogues. I'm going to give it a try. Thanks.
:)


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