Monday, December 3, 2012

Creative Writing for Monday Made It

It's my favorite Monday of the month...Monday Made It that is!  Oh, I just love Tara's crafty linky party!  Her blog, 4th Grade Frolics, is where I found the inspiration for my first project.

I've been looking high and low to find creative and fun ideas to motivate my 4th graders to write this year.  I'm hoping to inspire their creativity and help them to develop their inner author.

In order to motivate students to write at home I decided to make 2 creative writing take home journals.  To kick off these journals I introduced our 2 new class pets!


Aren't they cute?  They are FurReal Friends and move when you push their backs.  Their little tail wiggles and their head pops up and down.  Adorable!


During writing, I have been passing out good behavior tickets to students who have been working hard and putting their best effort into their writing.  Students simply write their name on the ticket and it goes into our weekly drawing.  On Friday, I draw 2 names and these students win the opportunity to bring one of our class pets, and journal, home for the weekend.



Their task is to write about our class pet's Hip Hoppin' Adventures while they are home.

I created a journal cover, direction page, and good behavior tickets that you can snag at my Teachers Pay Teachers store for free.

I've also been busy creating a lot of writing prompts for students to use if they finish their work early throughout the day.  To start out with, I created Gingerbread on a Stick prompts as part of my Gingerbread Writing Centers pack.


They are quick and easy to put together.  Students just grab one during their free time and start writing!


I also created some Christmas Cookie Writing Prompts.  You can download them for free!  I picked up a cheap plate from Dollar Tree and Glued on this sign.


I printed, laminated, and cut out the Christmas Cookie Writing Prompts, and placed them on the plate.  When students finish their work early they can grab a cookie from the plate.


How do you motivate students to write?


For more fun December ideas check out Monday Made it!

6 comments:

Maribel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Learning in Wonderland said...

I love all your ideas! You asked if cake pops were easy to make, the answer is yes:) They are pretty simple but they take a bit of practice and patience. Once you get the hang of it, it's super simple!
Maribel

Tara said...

Such a cute spin on the writing:) I like the bunnies. When my next stuffed animal gets eaten by another dog I may switch to bunnies:) Cute, glad you were inspired by something you saw on my blog:)) Your writing prompts look awesome! Thanks for linking up:)

4th Grade Frolics

The Colorful Apple said...

Love the cookie writing prompts on the plate!

Sara :)
Smiling In Second Grade

Jessica said...

Those cookie writing prompts look good enough to eat! Yum.

What i have learned

Fourth Grade Flipper said...

I love all your creative writing ideas! My students have a traveling class "pet" (Lilly the frog) and she has been going strong five years now. The students get a kick out of reading entries from years past too:) LOVE the cookie on a plate idea!
~Holly
Fourth Grade Flipper