Monday, June 3, 2013

POST IT!: FIGHTING THE BLANK PAGE

by Mary Amato

Young reluctant writers are often turned off or afraid of the blank page. I made up an imagination game involving Post-it notes that gets kids excited. Give each child ten blank sticky notes. Tell your class that you are all going to create a new language by labeling ordinary things in the room with sticky notes. Each child has to choose ten objects in the room and invent new words for those things. Emphasize that you should be able to pronounce the new language. Let's use the clock as an example. In my new language I might label the clock, "hitzer." Kids will realize the importance of vowels!  Set a time limit for the labeling and when kids are done writing the labels let them put the labels on the objects. Take a group tour of the room, practicing how to say each new word. I created this game as a teacher after remembering the fun I had as a child trying to invent my own language. The new words gave rise to lots of stories about my newly invented culture. Have fun!

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