Writing Project / Creative Writing ideas

[moonlight]

Can you share any great ideas you have done BraveWriter style for 8-11 year olds?

 

Some ideas that I have so far:

 

-Lego Illustrated Story: Write a story with Lego creations to illustrate the story

 

-Create your Wild Self (online) and write about an adventure your character goes on.

 

-Fractured Fairy Tales (lots of help on readwritethink.org)

 

-CREATE-AN-ANIMAL: This is where the child is a zoologist and he/she discovers a new animal species and describes it.

 

​Please add your ideas. Thanks!!

[Critterfixer]

One thing my boys enjoyed last year or the year before was taking something that happened to them (a fun trip, an adventure, something like that) and telling it as if it had happened to their favorite make-believe characters. They had a ball with that assignment.

[RebeccaMary]

I love these ideas!

 

Here are a few writing projects that my kids have come up with:

 

1. Create an alien planet (describe the landscape, composition, gravity, atmosphere, surrounding planets and moons, etc...) then invent animals to populate the planet. This was inspired by David Aguilar's "Alien Worlds" book and morphed into a fairly elaborate weeks-long writing/drawing project.

 

2. Invent a country. This one started out as a game of make-believe and has spilled over into a series of writing projects. So far, they've created maps, flags, constitutions, trade agreements - and are currently inventing their own languages. 

 

3. Adapt a Greek myth into a play, then corral some friends to help stage the play (there's a free online scriptwriting program we use: celtx.com).

[Farrar]

We did thumbprint biographies last year and that was fun:

https://farrarwilliams.wordpress.com/2015/03/09/writing-projects-thumbprint-biographies/

 

BalletBoy likes to enter contests. And write fantiction. Those are two good motivators for projects. 

 

Of the projects in Partnership Writing, I think the create a catalog one was the best for my kids. They were so creative with it. One made a catalog for underwater animals called "Fishy Business" and the other made a catalog of things for people on the eve of the expansion of the Sun. It was all products for fleeing Earth for other planets.

[Minerva]

We did thumbprint biographies last year and that was fun:

https://farrarwilliams.wordpress.com/2015/03/09/writing-projects-thumbprint-biographies/

 

BalletBoy likes to enter contests. And write fantiction. Those are two good motivators for projects. 

 

Of the projects in Partnership Writing, I think the create a catalog one was the best for my kids. They were so creative with it. One made a catalog for underwater animals called "Fishy Business" and the other made a catalog of things for people on the eve of the expansion of the Sun. It was all products for fleeing Earth for other planets.

 

I totally need this catalog.

[Minerva]

We did thumbprint biographies last year and that was fun:

https://farrarwilliams.wordpress.com/2015/03/09/writing-projects-thumbprint-biographies/

 

BalletBoy likes to enter contests. And write fantiction. Those are two good motivators for projects. 

 

Of the projects in Partnership Writing, I think the create a catalog one was the best for my kids. They were so creative with it. One made a catalog for underwater animals called "Fishy Business" and the other made a catalog of things for people on the eve of the expansion of the Sun. It was all products for fleeing Earth for other planets.

 

I totally need this catalog. 

[RebeccaMary]

BalletBoy likes to enter contests. And write fantiction. Those are two good motivators for projects. 

 

A writing contest sounds like a great motivator. Are there any particular national contests that you participate in or would recommend?

[Farrar]

A writing contest sounds like a great motivator. Are there any particular national contests that you participate in or would recommend?

 

Honestly, ds finds them himself so I don't know. I remember there was one that was for exactly 1,000 words. And another that had to have a happy ending. And he entered a couple on Newsomatic, which is a news app for kids. He won one of those awhile ago - a super creepy Halloween story he wrote where a kid may or may not be about to have some sort of horrifying operation. I still actually shudder when I think about it. We've only found essay contests locally, though the library.