Creative Writing with "Fortunately"

Hailey and I have been using the WriteShop Curriculum this year. It is a good step-by-step writing curriculum that is very detailed for those who are not so comfortable teaching writing to a middle schooler, but flexible enough to be reasonable for someone who knows what they are doing. I feel like I am right in between those...I feel comfortable with teaching writing, but like having a guideline to make sure that I don't miss anything!

At her age, she is doing a lot of descriptive paragraph writing, getting used to using adjectives and adverbs, organizing her writing, and making sure she uses language that conveys meaning, not just a bunch of fluffy filler words, like "that was the best ever" or "everyone should have these; they're awesome!"

I could tell that she was beginning to burn out a little bit on the paragraph writing. November and December get pretty hectic with family and holidays and such, so I decided to make these months "FUN Creative Writing" months. I think writing should be fun anyway...I don't want it to become drudgery or the subject that she saves for last and hurries through. I have a difficult time staying on task and following the book sometimes, too, because who wants to do (or should have to do, in my opinion) boring work?

I have a book called If You're Trying to Teach Kids How to Write: You've Gotta Have This Book! It is an excellent resource for teaching writing to kids of all ages and has some really fun ideas. We have been using several of them, and having a really good time.

One of my favorite activities we have done is based on the book  Fortunately by Remy Charlip. This book is so funny. We checked it out at the public library and all of us enjoyed it. Hailey's assignment was to write her own story in the fashion of Remy Charlip. Her illustrations really make the story. She did an awesome job.

Fortunately, by Hailey...

I hope you love it as much as I do!