| Copyright 2006 Julie Shepherd Knapp |
| Copyright 2006 Julie Shepherd Knapp. All rights reserved. |
| about the book |
| The Homeschool Diner's Guide to Homeschooling Special Situations Language Arts for Homeschoolers Writing Resources Creative Ideas and Free Online Resources for Writing by Julie Knapp, copyright 2005 Writing assignments don't have to be boring. If you’d like to provide fun, inspiring writing ideas for your child, the Internet is a great place to start. You can find free tutorials, clever ideas, fun writing prompts, enrichment activities, and creative inspiration. Check out a few of these fun and educational websites… Wacky Random Headline Generator -- click to make a weird headline, then write your own news story to match it ;-) Fortune Cookie Story Prompts -- use the fortune to inspire a story, news article, song, or poem (from Bruce Van Patter) Shape-Book Patterns -- dozens of boldly outlined printable shapes, choose with or without guide lines, great for descriptions, listing nouns or other parts of speech, or poems, free Postcard Creator -- from Read Write and Think, a free online activity that allows students to type addresses and messages onto a blank postcard format, then print it out, color or decorate, for older kids, you could use the postcard to generate story ideas Grow Your own Story from the BBC -- Pre-K and up, a free online activity, "grow" a story by choosing from several plot options as a plant grows, student must print out and finish story on their own, reading skills not really needed because story is read to you as it develops Writing Fix: Right-Brained Writing Prompts -- fun activities and creative ideas for right-brained writers Writing Fix: Left-Brained Writing Prompts -- fun activities and creative ideas for left-brained writers PIZZAZ !... People Interested in Zippy and ZAny Zcribbling -- creative writing and storytelling ideas Let's Get Creative! -- free online web activities from author Bruce Van Patter, many ideas and prompts to spark imaginative writing and thinking Wordle -- enter text that you've written or copied and generate a "cloud" of words, with more frequently used words larger that the others (fun way to show a preponderance of "nice" or "really" or "cool" ;-) All You Need to Know About Cartooning -- cartoons are a great way to express humor, tell stories, or work thru issues -- also take a look at Make Beliefs Comix! -- free online comic-maker, choose from several pre-made characters, choose the mood of the character (happy, sad, mad, surprised), and type words into "bubbles" to make a comic/story Create a Comic Strip -- from Hasbro MonkeyBar, scroll down to Comics KaBoom! -- a dictionary of comic book words as sound effects ... and now, a little comic book humor Write a Travel Brochure -- a great option to writing a factual report on a place... but also think of creative alternatives, such as a brochure for a different time or historic event, for space travel, or from the point of view of an animal, bug, or germ ;-) Book Report on Peter Rabbit by the Charlie Brown Gang The Book Report Sandwich Maker from Scholastic -- an interactive, fun way to write a tasty report, free Thirty-Four Alternatives to Traditional Book Reports -- fun and creative ideas for all ages Traci's Lists of Ten -- great ides for writing projects (more creative than plain old reports) National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) -- an international writing challenge to write an entire novel in just 30 days, starting November 1st :-) Here are some printable workbooks to get your elementary to highschool students psyched up for writing a novel -- Young Novelist Workbooks (they take a few minutes to open up) . Cure NanoWriMo's writer's block! by Language is a Virus -- writing games and gizmos to inspire creativity Script Frenzy is an international writing event, like NaNoWriMo, but participants write a script during the month of April ReadWriteThink Printing Press -- an free, onlne, guided interactive tool for creating and printing out a brochure, newspaper, booklet, and flyer, several other writing activities available, too Writing With Writers Workshops from Scholastic -- free online tutorials on different kinds of writing, includes news, folktales, book reviews, biography, science writing, etc., messages and tips from professional writers provide inspiration Favorite Poem Project -- 50 videos documenting and encouraging poetry’s role in Americans’ lives. Science Writing -- what is it and how is it different from other writing? includes several fun ways to incorporate science writing projects Neuroscience for Kids Writing Projects -- lots of clever ideas for writing about brains and the nervous system Better Fonts -- over 10,000 free fonts, great for poetry and prose! Online Slang Translator -- convert English to IM text language, see if you can write a story using only IM ;-) 25 Funniest Analogies from Student Writers RIF Reading Planet Game Station -- free online spelling and writing games, sign up then it is free Storytelling Activities from Story Arts -- can be used as pre-writing exercises and to generate ideas for written stories 5-Card Nancy -- create picture stories from cut-up Nancy cartoons Hula as a Literary Experience... by Vanessa Maañao The Five Paragraph Essay Slide Show -- amusing show and tell for the 5 paragraph essay Five Paragraph Essay Model -- and example essay and outline, with each element in a different color SAT Essay Prep Course-- very helpful free online course SAT Essay Writing Part 1 -- free video on YouTube explains strategy and walks thru writing an essay Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric by Brigham Young University -- examines the art of effective writing and speaking, "...a discipline for training students 1) to perceive how language is at work orally and in writing, and 2) to become proficient in applying the resources of language..." Get Writing! -- free online mini-courses, tips, contests, inspiration for young writiers of all genres, from the BBC The Slam by Cricket/Cicada Magazines -- a place for teens over 14 to submit creative writing for general peer review **parents should pre-read entries on this website for appropriateness** WordSmiths -- an anthology of teen writing on the web, from the NY Public Library, accepted submissions are featured for 1 month **parents should pre-read entries on this website for appropriateness** FanFiction -- fiction written about characters or settings from published works by someone other than the original author, usually not authorized by the author and not sold for profit, considered an outlet for the storytelling tradition "... in a system where contemporary myths are owned by corporations instead of owned by folk..." A popular one for those 14 and up is MuggleNet Fan Fiction a Harry Potter FanFic site, **parents should pre-read all fan fiction for appropriateness** there can be mature content -- which is supposed to be flagged with *Warnings* -- but I advise pre-reading and printing out those that you find appropriate for your particular child Language Construction Kit -- for creating your own artificial language (for fantasy novels, games, etc) Starship Dimensions by Jeff Russell -- compares relative sizes of fictional starcraft to each other, The Hindenburg, Eiffel Tower, Apollo craft, etc., inspiration for sci-fi writing Lesson plans on Code Writing and Code Breaking Related Issues The Code of the Debater: Introduction to the Way of Reason by Alfred C. Snider, University of Vermont -- a free online text that covers basic debating skills from Debate Central, What Are the Progymnasmata?--preliminary rhetorical exercises that introduce students to basic rhetorical concepts and strategies. For more writing prompts and other writing resources check out Writing Programs, Curriculum, and Creative Alternatives Need some help with a reluctant writer? Check out Homeschooling Reluctant Writers and Children Who Hate to Write For more language arts resources, go to Language Arts for Homeschoolers |
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| "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author and aviator |