National Writing Day: My Pet Monster

National Writing Day annually falls within the third week of October.  We chose yet another spooky theme for our celebration.  The kids were tasked with creating their own pet monster.  The emphasis was on adjectives!  We love powerful, descriptive words.  The kids did such a phenomenal job on their rough drafts that I wasn't sure they'd be able to surpass their efforts for the final, polished essays.

Shame on me for being a skeptic.  These folks are word sleuths.  They are not satisfied with bare bones or status quo.  When asked to add even more colorful, powerful, strange, interesting, descriptive adjectives, they went for it.  Their pet monsters almost seemed to come alive through their writing.

This project is great for any classroom because it's an assignment that I like to call a Pencil Tip Symphony.

You've never heard one?  A Pencil Tip Symphony is better than anything that Beethoven ever penned (sorry, sir).  This is a phenomenon that occurs when students are really excited about the topic at hand.  The only thing that you can hear throughout the classroom is an honest symphony of pencil points almost frantically moving across sheets of paper.

It's glorious.  When you hear one Pencil Tip Symphony, you want to hear them every day.

Another reason I like the pet monster writing project is the craft that comes at the end.  The kids have to use serious auditory skills to listen as I go through the complicated folding process.  Once those little creatures are folded, it's time to decorate!  It's a well deserved craft after a lot of thoughtful writing.

These little monsters actually make fantastic bookmarks.  If you want to try it for yourself, here are the directions!

• We started with a 6x6 square
• Fold into a triangle
• Fold the left corner to the center point
• Fold the right corner to the center point
• Open up to a triangle again and fold one flap of the center point to the bottom
• Re-fold the left corner towards the center point and tuck it into the "pocket"
• Re-fold the right corner toward the center point and tuck it into the "pocket"

• Cut a contrasting square slightly smaller than the 3x3 pocket
• Apply glue and press inside
• Cut embellishments- teeth, eyes, nose, tongue, etc.
• Apply glue and press in place
• Slide them onto the page corner of your favorite book

Pet monsters just begging to be written about.

Trevor's pet monster up close...

Awesome writing, Trevor!