Tag: Creative Writing With Kids

Mad Libs: A Fun and Useful Tool for Writing with Children

Posted on by Katie Coughran

At the beginning of the summer this year, we went on a quick trip to celebrate the season and while on said getaway, we happened to eat at a restaurant. While I can’t remember which restaurant it was, I do remember the children’s place mat/menu, which had various activities to keep the kiddos busy while we waited for our food.

On this menu was one of our favorite things we’ve ever seen on a busy mat—a MAD LIB!! It was fun to play the word game and I thoroughly enjoyed observing my children finding the hilarity of it all, but as I sat there, I realized what an amazing teaching tool the Mad Lib was.

 

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So, I headed over to Amazon (yes, I love Amazon!) later that evening, found a book that was on sale and we’ve been enjoying them ever since! You can find Goofy Mad Libs here, but look around HERE for others that are on sale.

 

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Not only are they fun to do as a family, but we’ve enjoyed them with friends, singly, and with our extended family. Hours were spent on these when some of our friends came to see us this summer, and this one was done by all of our children, without our supervision. They laughed SO HARD! My favorite: Cats with Mustaches! What were they thinking???

It is often forgotten that whether writing for elementary, high school, college, journaling, letter-writing or business proposals, all forms can and likely should be composed creatively, with the most polished language we can summon. Helping our children to write imaginatively now will develop into a skill to be used in whatever capacity they find useful and necessary as the years go by.

Why Mad Libs? Firstly, they require the players to know or learn grammatical terms (an up side for the parent/teacher). While they are genuinely hilarious for the players (an up side for the child/student), the students don’t even know they are learning, which is another up side for everyone!

Secondly, for a Mad Lib to be over-the-top funny, you must really think about your word choices. When we first got our book, my kids kept trying to use the same nouns/verbs, etc., and I finally had to guide them a little bit, giving them license and a push to be silly. Maybe they took it too far . . .

 

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While the books are great, you can find some Free Printables Here or you can find some Online Form Mad Libs Here that create your story after you fill in some blanks. If you love apps, the official Mad Libs has one of those that you can learn about Here.

They would also be perfect for a long road trip! Some of my beautiful sisters-in-law get creative with keeping their kiddos busy while driving long distances–usually, they have a little surprise for each hour of driving. Pulling out a Mad Lib book or printable would be a perfect treat.

Whether you are working on your writing as an adult or teaching grammar terms to children this year, I highly recommend Mad Libs—it’s easy and entertaining at the same time!

 

*All links in this post are non-affiliated!

National Talk Like a Pirate Day Plan and Writing and Homeschool Tips

Posted on by Katie Coughran
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Did you know that it’s National Talk Like a Pirate Day? Ay, matey! It ‘tis! Excited to take a fun learning approach on this seriously drab day, I ordered my children to get their pirate gear on while I looked around for all of our piratey books. Suddenly, I had a Pirate Homeschool Day prepped!

  1. Listen to the pirate-speak educational song, Talk Like a Pirate from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Also, note their attire! It will help with the next step.

2. Next, tell your mateys to head to their rooms or the scrap pile to grab some pirate pants, a hat, or a scarf to tie around their heads. Don said attire while speaking pirate.

3. Here’s an article on what pirates likely ate from National Geographic (The Plate) that’s very interesting, especially the bit about William Dampier! This is a good opportunity to pull out your purse, leather jacket, or any other leather—synthetic or otherwise—that you might have in your house to show them what some pirates ate in desperation. Ugh! Leather satchels cut into strips and fried? Nasty!

4. Do you have Treasure Island (Stevenson)–Free Kindle Version, Or how about Pirates Past Noon (The Magic Tree House #4 by Osborne)? We have the Fact Tracker Pirates Magic Tree House book, which has some great info about the scallywags. Or HERE is an article that’s kid friendly on Black Beard, the crazy pirate that lit braided-into-his-hair ropes on fire to terrify those he attacked.

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5. Perhaps have a go at a Pirate Craft! My kiddos decided to make scull and crossbones pirate flags, but I’ll probably help them with some of the crafts in the above link later. You may want to hand them a glue stick before they grab the tape and start making flags on their own! Lots of tape–yikes!

6. Finally, take all of this Pirate knowledge and go write a story. Questions that will help children (or yourself) to get the story going would be:

What would your ship be named if you had one?

What would your pirate name be?

Would you have a parrot if you were a pirate?

What would you do to terrify those you attacked?

What kinds of food would you want to eat if you were a pirate?

Where would you travel as a pirate?

Where would you hide your treasure?

While it may be too late to fully use all of these ideas, you can celebrate your own Talk Like a Pirate Day on a different day. Or, take the gathered list of ideas to create a lesson plan to learn about pirates. Though they made some pretty horrific choices, there’s so much history to be learned!

Now, take to the sea, matey’s! And please let me know if you try any of these ideas! I’d love to hear about it.