Shaking Up The Classroom With Shake-a-Phrase
A 3rd Grade teacher at the Patricia A. DiChiaro School in Westchester, NY, used Shake-a-Phrase for a creative writing exercise in her classroom this Halloween. Mrs. Colacicco, shook up a bunch of Monster-themed Story Starters, printed the individual Starter screens, and engaged her class of 31 students in a collaborative writer’s workshop. Using the story prompts, the students worked together in groups of 2-3, to imagine and write their own creepy and silly story endings.
Activity goals:
- Get kids thinking creatively
- Get kids writing and/or drawing
- Reinforce writing process and habits
- Reinforce vocabulary as they work on their stories
The activity stirred up the students creative juices and got the kids exercising their storytelling skills – with a spooky dash of holiday fun. One group had a hobgoblin locked in a cellar, so they hatched a plan to break him out, but not before Mrs. Colacicco reinforced the importance of writing drafts, listening to ideas from others, and using proper writing standards!
The result: a fun, themed activity to engage kids and nurture their natural creative writing instincts.
Recipe to launch your own Shake-a-Phrase creative writing project in your class or at home:
- Shake up your favorite Shake-a-Phrase theme with Story Starter and get the creative juices flowing.
- Save your favorites using the Fave feature.
- Share on your class whiteboard or print out story starters for the class to choose from.
- Arm the kids with pens, keyboards, paint, paper and other instruments of creativity.
- Turn them loose.
- Add structure to taste.
Read some of the kids' stories
Halloween Hobgoblin
Once there was an ugly hobgoblin and he was drinking soda and watching cartoons and eating popcorn. The next day the hobgoblin woke up in the cellar. He was locked in and bit his tongue. He was crying but he still was eating popcorn.
more...Muddy Fairy
Once upon a time there was a muddy fairy and a nervous Phantom. The phantom bought a big torch. The fairy had magic powers and flew up to see everything. That fairy told the Phantom what she saw and then the fairy and Phantom made up a plan to escape the fog.
more...Hobgoblins
Would it be cool if there was a hobgoblin in the cellar? It would be because he was a mean, ugly, and pink hobgoblin. People were scared to go in the cellar to do laundry. One day when the Mom and Dad were sleeping, the hobgoblin scared the Mom and Dad and they fell off the bed!
more...