Spanish Word Wall and First Book Tips

We hope you caught last week's post on introducing creative writing to kids in any language! As promised, here is the final project that the book, Rocket Writes a Story, by Tad Hills, inspired my six year-old to write his own-in Spanish!

Just like the main character in the book, my son Diego searched for inspiration for his Spanish word "tree". Although his tree was up and done for a few days, once he was ready to start his story, he realized his word tree had to grow some more. I was happy to help him express his thoughts in Spanish, help him add words to the wall and let his imagination go!

The lines on his paper had to be perfectly straight! Hmmm, reminds me of someone I know. ja! 

Because Diego understands Spanish a lot more than he speaks it, he had a little trouble translating on to paper what he wanted his story to say. His traditional classroom has many word walls and I knew he was already in the habit of looking around the room for help in spelling or coming up with "juicy" words. 

As you can see, we added more Spanish words to the tree. It was so rewarding to see his eyes light up when he realized everything he thought in English, could be written in Spanish! 

Diego wrote his first Spanish book (two chapters and six pages long) and boy, was he proud! He read it to his grandmother and to his father as soon as he walked in the door. He also kept saying that he had enough, "subjects" on his tree to write another story soon. This Spanish word tree isn't going anywhere for a while!

A few tips:

Creative writing can be frustrating (I know it, first hand!) so make time to be available if kids need to process their thoughts with you.

Writing in the child's minority language will be hard but not impossible. They should be encouraged to write simple sentences at any age and any language.

Take small steps. Notice we did this project by reading a book first, then writing single words, reading the book again, creating an "art project" and then finally writing a story.

Once the book is in development, encourage your child to look back at their story to see if they have used a word they need again. Not only do they have the word wall as a reference point, but now a new source as well.

Writing is just as important as reading for academic success. An early start is so beneficial. Keep your summer occupied by asking your child to tell you a really good story-on paper.

Enjoy!

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Betty Galvan, is helping her readers "find the positive and seek the benefits" over at her blog, MyFriendBettySays.com.

She is the mother of three beautiful little boys and a teacher.

Rocket Writes a Story in Any Language

Have you had a chance to read Tad Hills' sequel to How Rocket Learned to Read? Rocket Writes a Story is an adorable picture book suggested for children 4-8 years old. I would recommend it to all teachers and parents who would like to introduce creative writing to their students and children of all ages.

Rocket and his teacher, the little yellow bird, come back in this second book ready to start the process of writing. The little yellow bird encourages Rocket to gather new words to help him come up with ideas for a story. Rocket agrees and creates a word tree, later he goes on long walks for inspiration and when he is ready, he writes every day. He comes up with a wonderful little story that will captivate young readers.

My soon to be first-grader and I started the process of creating his own book after reading Rocket Writes a Story. Diego seemed very interested in trying Rocket's creative and organized writing approach. My wheels were spinning to make it more challenging for him, so I encouraged him to make a Spanish word wall!

After we read Rocket Writes a Story the first time, I found leaf printables, made copies, and had Diego help me cut them out. We later read the book for the second time, discussed it a bit more and had him start thinking of words he knew in Spanish or words he wanted to learn. He went around the house looking for the names of objects he would write on his leaves, and like Rocket, he quickly drew the picture as well (perfect for those learning a new language!). Diego was most intrigued with translating articles, conjunctions and prepositions (little bird calls them "little words")! I love how he understood that they were an essential part of writing.

We set the leaves aside and will continue to build our tree in the next few days. Thank goodness for the long summer days. I am also helping him bind paper for his Spanish story book. I can't wait to share the final project with you.

Remember to have fun with projects like this. Reading, writing, math and science should be explored in a fun way during the summer months to keep kids' skills sharp! I sighed with relief that Diego loved the idea of writing in Spanish (his grandmother is visiting and perhaps her Spanish-only conversations motivated him).  Of course, this writing activity would have been great in English too!

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Betty Galvan, is helping her readers "find the positive and seek the benefits" over at her blog, MyFriendBettySays.com.

She is the mother of three beautiful little boys and a teacher.