March 25, 2015

Elementary Easter Egg Writing Activity

This game is perfect for motivating reluctant writers and encouraging creativity!

Great writing game for kids who need extra motivation! Can be used any time of the year!





Christopher hates writing. His fine motor skills are not great, spelling does not come naturally to him, and rules for capitalizing and punctuating keep slipping his mind. So whenever it's time for writing there are lots of tears.

Except when we play this simple game.

To play, you will need some easter eggs which have been prepared with numbers inside them. You will also need paper and a couple of pencils. Players take turns picking eggs then adding that many words to the collaborative story.

I went first. I drew the number 8. I wrote "Once upon a time, in a dark forest, ". Now it was Christopher's turn. He opened up the number 4. He added the words "a dragon slept in". (I knew it would be a dragon. He always writes about dragons.) I opened up an egg and found the number 8. (How come I keep getting big numbers?) I wrote "a pile of dirty laundry. Suddenly a loud "

"Mom!" he yelled. "That was supposed to be a cave! Not a pile of laundry!"

And that's one of the reasons this game is so fun for him. He loves when I add silly things or when he has the chance to add silly things.

While we are writing, I am helping him remember when to capitalize, where to add punctuation, and how to spell. It is great practice for him, but he doesn't see it as writing practice. He sees it as playing a fun game with his mom, making this the perfect way for him to learn.

Tips for using this game with your children or in your classroom:

1. Play for a set number of turns or a set number of minutes so there's a clear stopping point. You can always come back and finish the story the next day.

2. Use mostly small numbers for beginning writers so they don't get overwhelmed trying to think of 12 words to write. Bigger numbers work well for older kids.

3. Play with more than 2 people, making the story even more fun. Use smaller numbers so everyone gets plenty of turns to add to the story.

4. Use different colored pencils for each person so it's easy to see at a glance who added what parts of the story.

5. If you don't have plastic Easter eggs lying around, instead roll dice (affiliate link) to determine the number of words written.

6. Have the children draw pictures of their favorite part when done writing to further develop fine motor skills.


I hope you have fun writing your own silly stories!!

2 comments:

  1. Love this idea! My son struggles with writing. We are going to give this a try this week. (He also loves dragons.)

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