WriteShop Primary

You may remember that a few month's ago I reviewed StoryBuilders from WriteShop. They recently sent me a new writing book from the WriteShop Primary series to try out with our kids. ~ and again I am loving their products!

WriteShop Primary is a writing curriculum for K-3rd graders that uses various activities, crafts and books to teach writing skills. Your child doesn't need any previous experience with writing and is eased into the process of writing a little at a time. Simple words and phrases are turned into stories and crafts and eventually projects to share. Book A is the first in the series and is currently the only one available, but books B and C will be released soon!

The Teacher's Guide

The Teacher's Guide for the Primary Book A is available in either print format ($26.95 plus s/h) or as an ebook ($24.25 for immediate download and no s/h). The guide provides:

• planning schedules to use with your children to complete the book in one year or less (your choice)
  
• help for teaching children at different levels
• ideas/suggestions for creating a writing center
• thorough explanations on teaching each lesson (Book A has 10 lessons), including the purpose behind the various sections in the lessons. Lessons include: lesson focus, theme, objective, materials needed, any prep required, and all activities for the lessons (view a sample lesson here)
  
• step-by-step instruction (including sample dialogue) for using the lesson with your child(ren)

The Primary Activity Worksheets

The Primary Activity Worksheet Packs are reproducible worksheets that go hand-in-hand with the lessons in the teacher's guide. The worksheet packs are also available in print format ($4.95 plus s/h) or as an ebook download ($4.50 for immediate download and no s/h). The activity worksheets:

• are fun and appealing to children ~ the graphics are very engaging (view sample pages here)
• correspond to the lessons in the teacher's activity guide and are an important part of the program
• contain evaluation charts to track your child's progress ~ not to grade, but record your child's growth

Our Time with WriteShop

We used Book A for a few weeks with the girls and had so much fun with it! The girls enjoyed the writing prompts and I was excited to see them gain a 'fresh' desire to write. After our morning time writing about our day, both girls sat down and wrote some short stories and McKenna even wrote a letter to her Daddy about her bad reaction to some medication. We skipped to the latter part of the book and worked on a writing activity about watermelons. The girls had to write seven steps on growing watermelons, so we researched a bit on the internet and then put together some mini file folders explaining the process. They even had a little art fun decorating their books.

Laurianna illustrating her step-by-step directions.

Starting Your Child

If you are unsure where to start your child in the program, WriteShop has created a chart for determining where to place your child. Each lesson does include extra challenge activities if your child is more advanced. You can also view the full scope and sequence of all three WriteShop Primary books as well as a chart of writing and other activities that are included in the lessons.

WriteShop offers writing programs for children from kindergarten through high school, so if these books don't apply to your children, be sure to check out the numerous resources that they provide for children of all ages! Don't forget that they will have more books coming in this series soon ~ I can't wait to get my hands on them.

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other reviews about WriteShop Primary.

Think It Ink It Publishing Giveaway!!

Think It Ink It Publishing provides story kits for children to write their own stories to professionally illustrated pictures. Their books provide only pictures that give a 'framework' for children to get their creative juices flowing and create a story that only they can tell using their imaginations. Each story is unique!

Our girls were thrilled beyond belief to get a creative story kit in the mail from Think It Ink It Publishing. Thrilled! After the package was ripped open (literally) we had to sit down immediately to look through the books and write their stories.

We received two creative writing story kits that each included 13 pages of wonderful illustrations for the girls to use as a launching pad for writing their own stories. Each kit also included:

• a pencil
• sticky note pad for rough drafts
• creative writing tips
• suggested vocabulary

Both of our girls jumped right into creating their own personal story. Words were flying so fast I had to pull out the laptop so I could type and keep up with all that they were saying. The illustrations gave them so many different options and choices on how to write their stories. They couldn't wait for me to copy what they wrote into their books. I was amazed at how much they wrote ~ and trust me, I have the hand cramps to prove how much they had to say!

Each story kit ($9.95) from Think It Ink It provides ample lines and room for your child (or you) to copy their story. They can first write it on the sticky notes provided with the kit and then write their final work onto the actual pages of the book. If you fall in love your child's masterpiece, you have the option of having the book made into a custom hardcover book ($29.95). It includes your child's name as the author, the story title, his/her photo, and a biography. You can also create a hardcover book online instead of using the initial story kit.

I am amazed at what these story kits brought out in our girls. They noticed details in the illustrations and weaved them into their stories. Several times they had to re-work their story lines because they realized things 'didn't make sense'. The story kits were almost as much for me as they were for them ~ watching the creativity flow was great! Most importantly though, they are so PROUD of what they created. They have been reading their stories over and over ~ and if you are interested in hearing them, there are several clips below of the girls reading their stories.

Think It Ink It has been generous in offering a FREE Creative Writing Story Kit for one lucky reader! All you need to do is check out their story kits and leave a comment here about which one you would choose for your child. The giveaway is open until Friday, March 13th at 8pm and I will announce the winner on Sunday the 15th. Please be sure to leave a way for me to contact you, otherwise I will draw another winner. If over 50 people enter, I will add an extra winner and two kits will be given away!

Their site also has some other great resources too: grade-level writing guidelines, links to favorite websites, writing tips for kids, and real stories that other children have written. Be sure to check out their great products ~ you won't be disappointed!

Here's a clip (about 5 minutes) of McKenna reading her book.



Here's a clip (about 4 minutes) of Laurianna reading the story she wrote.



Just wanted to pass along a little something that is Working for Me!

Write Shop: Storybuilders

Until recently I had not heard of WriteShop, a company that has writing programs for children from PreK through high school. They sent me two Ebooks Story Builders: World of Animals and StoryBuilders: World of Sports to use with our girls and review - and both of my girls have loved them!

Laurianna enjoys writing stories on her own, but when it comes times for a specific writing assignment, both she and McKenna start whining and complaining when they have to write more than one sentence. Needless to say, assigned writing is not always a joy during our school time.

We started using the StoryBuilders as a fun activity/creative writing assignment and McKenna alone began writing unbelievable amounts! Primarily we've used StoryBuilders: World of Animals ($7.95). First we printed off word cards and sorted them into piles. The word cards can either be printed onto different colors of paper and sorted accordingly, or you can print them off using colored ink and sort them that way. Each card deck/color represents a different part of a story: character, character trait, plot and setting.



Once a card is picked from each pile, the kids put their story together using the "pieces" of the story they were given. To give you an idea of how it works, here are the words that McKenna had for her story: bat, confused, amusement park, and caught in a trap. The story she put together was:

Once there was a little boy who went in an amusement park. He found his bat. He said, "Why is it in here?" He was very confused. He saw a trap hanging from the ceiling. He was not fast enough, so he got caught in the trap!

While I realize not all of the story makes complete sense, this story was a huge step for McKenna! And she was so proud of the story and even drew pictures to go along with it.

There are several other StoryBuilder books available: World of People ($7.95) and Christmas Mini-Builder ($3.95). Each of the StoryBuilder Ebooks is available for immediate download and comes with the following:

• 192 Story Builder cards in black print (to print on colored paper)
• 192 Story Builder cards in colored print (to print on plain paper)
• 48 blank cards
• Ideas and instructions for use
  

While the StoryBuilders are not an entire curriculum for writing, they are a great activity to use once a week for getting the creative juices going. WriteShop does offer full writing programs for children Kindergarten through high school.

And as a bonus, The Old Schoolhouse Store is offering a FREE download this week for the StoryBuilders: World of Animals - a $7.95 value! Be sure to head there to take advantage of their great offer!

If you would like to read more on Write Shop, check out the Homeschool Crew blog and see what others are saying.