Writing is Fun!

How often do you hear your child talking about writing being fun? Probably not often, if we're being honest. Writing is one of the hardest things kids have to do in school. It's hard enough coming up with cohesive thoughts and ideas, but having to write them down?? It seems almost impossible!

To help students feel inspired and confident in writing, I found some great books to read to them. Now that we're halfway through the year, we have started doing a lot more writing. It can feel overwhelming and frustrating, but I try to emphasize that writing doesn't have to be perfect! Ideas and creativity matter more. So here are the books that my class and I found very inspiring:

Abdul's Story written by Jamlah Thompkins-Bigelow & illustrated by Tiffany Rose

Abdul's Story was the perfect book to start with on our writing inspiration journey. Abdul is a student who "loved to tell stories" and had an amazing imagination. But when it came to writing down his stories? He struggled. He constantly made mistakes and couldn't seem to spell anything correctly.

One day, an author named Mr. Muhammad visited his class. Abdul was immediately intrigued. This author looked like him and had a messy notebook, too! Abdul realized that it's okay to have messy ideas because he can always rewrite his stories. Like Mr. Muhammad said, "Writers make mistakes. We'll work on them." Now when my students are writing, they are kinder to themselves and aren't afraid of making mistakes. No matter how much English we know or how good we are at spelling, we can all be writers!

A Squiggly Story written by Andrew Larsen & illustrated by Mike Lowery

A Squiggly Story is another book that empowers children to write what they can; the story matters more than the technique! Andrew Larsen wrote about a young boy who has a sister who loves to read and write. He wants to read and write, too, but he only knows letters, not words. His sister encourages him and says, "Every story starts with a single word, and every word starts with a single letter. Why don't you start there, with a letter?"

And so the boy's story begins! His sister guides him through creating a beginning and a middle, but her brother still doesn't have an ending when he takes his story to school. His classmates listen attentively and share their own creative ideas for the end. He arrives back home with so many ideas swirling in his head. What should he choose? But as his sister reminds him, "Remember, you're the author... You can do whatever you want." Soon, the boy has his ending and even an idea for his next story! The kids thought this book was so fun, and it made them not feel so bad for not knowing how to spell every word they wanted.

How to Write a Story written by Kate Messner & illustrated by Mark Siegel

The class has started having more fun coming up with ideas for their stories. But what should they do with their ideas? How can they organize them? How to Write a Story walks children through how to do exactly that!

Kate Messner and Mark Siegel a great job at teaching the elements of a story in an engaging, colorful way. For a good story, students will need a setting, main character, problem, and a solution. Once they've organized their ideas into those categories, they can begin to put the pieces together on paper! And don't worry if the writing isn't perfect because a good writer will always read through their story again and again. The class practiced this by reading their stories out loud to themselves and then to a friend. Each time, they noticed things they needed to fix or wanted to add. By the end of revising and editing, every student felt confident in their stories and were eager to share them with others!

The Case of the Incapacitated Capitals written by Robin Pulver & illustrated by Lynn Rowe Reed

Nouns and Verbs Have a Field Day written by Robin Pulver & illustrated by Lynn Rowe Reed

When revising and editing, we have been focusing on capitals, nouns, and verbs. Robin Pulver wrote these hilarious books on what happens when these are forgotten! Nouns can't do anything without verbs, and verbs will be left stranded if they don't have nouns. And how can you forget capital letters? They tell readers when a new sentence is starting or when there's an important person or holiday. The class and I laughed a lot while reading these books, and the kids immediately wanted to check their writing to make sure they didn't forget these grammar essentials.

The Thank You Letter written & illustrated by Jane Cabrera

Many times kids ask, What's the point of all this writing? Jane Cabrera gives a great answer in The Thank You Letter. Writing letters to others is a great way to show gratitude and bring others joy! Throughout this story, Grace writes thank you letters for those who made her birthday special. She had so much fun writing letters, she began writing them for people all throughout her community. Grace doesn't seem to worry about her writing being perfect; she just wants to make people happy!

The best part of the book book is that after writing so many thank you letters, Grace received lots of gratitude notes in return. Showing kindness will always circle back to you! I hope this holiday season you and your family are filled with gratitude and maybe even take time to write some thank you letters together.