My little man (Year 3) is an excellent reader and Maths is his forte, no doubt about that. One thing he needs to focus on is his writing. This half term, I set him a challenge he was more than happy to take on: writing between 200 and 250 words about a topic of his choice and structure his work into paragraphs.
He decided to write why he loves LEGO. Earlier this week, as he was playing LEGO, we selected ten adjectives together (with his grandad’s help), five of which would need to be used in his final text. He learnt what they all meant and practised spelling them every day. Our 10 adjectives are: eager, creative, versatile, delighted, complicated, intricate, enjoyable, absorbing, mind-expanding and flexible.
Here is a short poem he wrote on his own, with no prompting (I found it as a note on my phone):
Be happy and have fun
Play games and be active
Don’t spend your time on the computer
Or your eyes will hurt !
Or your eyes will hurt…
Why not play Lego instead?
The aim of this activity is to improve his spelling and also to structure paragraphs in a clear, logical way, using a good range of vocabulary. Over to you, Crevette!
Crevette’s first draft (119 words):
He needs Nothink Is You I love Lego so mutch I could buy a pice for 100£. 99
as good as LEGO!
Do amazing things with it
It is so amasing!
envented the best thing ever your fab fab fab fab
Hi my names crevette when I was only 3 years old I was eager to create a home for myself first I made a house made out off doplo for my babbysister bene . I like Lego because: You can do what ever you like with it it is as enjoyable as watching wriggly she is 1 and half years old
pulling funny faces.
I can make the Eifel tower,a complicated tedy, most things you can think of!
My feedback (Oh dear… where shall I start? In his defence, his sisters were distracting him when he was working on his text):
On a positive note, you have quite a lot of good points here and I like the fact you introduced yourself. You are certainly showing lots of enthusiasm towards Lego and you managed to use three of the adjectives from our list.
Things to improve:
- Organise your work into logical paragraphs. Here are ideas for your paragraphs, looking at what you have written already: Me / What I like about Lego / What you can make with Lego.
- You can right-click on the words underlined for a quick spell-check.
- Make sure you develop your ideas, write full sentences and add some good description (and adjectives).
- Read your work aloud when finished to check it makes sense. Check spellings as well as punctuation are good.
New version (211 words):
Me
Hi, my names Crevette and I am 7 and a half. When I was only 3 years old I was eager to create a home for myself. First I created a house made out of Duplo for my baby sister Beanie.
Now I can make more intricate things like a Lego police station.
What I like about Lego
I like Lego because you can do whatever you like with it. it is as enjoyable as watching Wriggly pulling funny faces. She is 1 and half years old.
I love Lego so much I could buy a big box for £100.99 but I wold need to save up for that! I could do amazing things with it and I would be delighted.
It is so amazing!
Lego, you invented the best thing ever. You are fab!
What you can make with Lego.
I can make the Eifel tower, a complicated teddy… most things you can think of!
As well as that you can play with Lego people.
Feedback for the Final Piece:
Well done Crevette! You’ve followed all instructions to improve your work and what a difference an hour of focused work has made! There are still a few spelling mistakes and you could have included a bit more detail but overall, it is a lovely piece to read.
What strategies do you use to help your children improve their writing skills?
This is such a great idea to focus on something he loves and has a passion for – my little boy is two and a half and loves Duplo… He’s yet to move onto Lego. xx
My toddler loves Duplo too… and so do I: it’s so quick to build a house with the big blocks!
This is great!! What an amazing improvement the second version is! He clearly took it all on board! P.s love the picture of Beanie in the house!
He did… and I sat with him to make sure he was focusing, he he!
What an interesting read. I love lego.
Thanks lovely!
I’m not at this stage yet (my eldest is only 2) but I’m looking forward to it.
Crevette did a really great job with his essay.
Thanks Tori!
We aren’t at that stage yet as Jack is only in pre-school and Phoebs is 20 months, but this is a great idea to help him with his writing ability.
I bet Jac loves Duplo though 🙂
I bet Jack loves Duplo though 🙂
Love this, what a creative way to get him to improve on writing! Perhaps I should write 500 words on why I love chocolate… 😉
500 words wouldn’t be enough! xxx
Really like this idea of a focus time and a way to show them how to improve by writing about something they love!
The fact he chose the topic meant he wasn’t dragging his feet (during the holidays!) to work on his writing. The first version was an unsupervised piece and I guess he was watching TV with his sisters whilst writing it. Sitting down with him later on and making sure he was focused made so much difference!
We’re not at the Lego age yet but the kids love playing with megabloks. I bet when Amelia starts using lego she’ll love it too and will enjoy using it to create little scenarios and stuff. I think its great that you use it to improve writing skills.
Toys like LEGO or Playmobil are great to help the little ones develop their imagination. I love spying on my 4 creating stories together. Although they are all at different stages (ages between 1 and 7), each has a place in the games and stories they are making up. xx
What a great idea! O is quite good at pulling together sentences for his age. His teacher and I would like him to work on his actual writing skills – correctly forming the letter shapes with his pencil. I find it difficult to help him improve his pencil grip as he’s left-handed and neither his Dad nor I are…
Do you have anyone in the family who’s left-handed? Maybe they could help show him how to improve the way he holds his pencil.
What a great way of helping children improve their writing skills and I really enjoyed reading about why Crevette loves Lego. That police station looks like a lot of fun and I love the Duplo house for Beanie 🙂
All four of mine love LEGO, although at the moment, Wriggly is more of a destroyer than a maker, ha ha!
Gosh reading this makes me feel like a very bad mum…I don’t do anything like this with my kids, I wouldn’t know where to start and I wouldn’t be able to get it done. Amazing idea though 🙂
Sorry sweetie! To be honest, I wouldn’t bother if I didn’t think he really needed it. It seems that he learns about 4 times less in his school than all my other friends’ children who are also in Year 3. I’m not being pushy, but rather worried he might fall behind academically without us realising…
Wow, that’s really interesting writing activities for kids. I am one hundred percent sure that many parents your advice will help instill in their child a love of writing. I hope that you will continue to make this type of educational content.
Thanks 🙂