Sticker Writing

I wanted to share a fun writing activity that works great for a quick writing lesson when you want to focus on conventions, an independent center, or a fun story writing idea. Stickers! It's so easy to do, but sometimes we forget the easy activities.

I usually stock up on stickers at the Dollar Store or wherever I see something fun and a little different.  During holidays, I like to have lots of different stickers out for the children to write about or to incorporate into their illustrations. This makes a great independent center or free choice center.   Sometimes just having something a little different makes writing SO much more fun.

This week's stickers were cats and dogs.  For our "Dog Day," we read lots of dog stories, shared stories about our own dogs if we had one, and talked about what dogs like to do.  Then, each child chose the dog sticker they wanted to write about. For this lesson, I told the children that they had to tell me three things about their dog:  what it looks like, where it is, and what it is doing or likes to do. They had specific things to tell me for this lesson. Having these guidelines helped the children know what they had to write, so they could focus on answering my questions in their best writing, and work on writing neatly, leaving spaces between their words, spelling their sight words correctly, and rereading as they wrote so they didn't leave out any words.


For  "Cat Day," I read lots of cat stories.  They especially loved Only the Cat Saw. This story has beautiful illustrations and lots of examples of fun settings to draw.

 After we read our stories, each child choose a favorite cat sticker to write about. This time, they could write any story they wanted about their cat sticker.  If they wanted to tell me about their cat like they did their dog, they could. Or, they could just write a story about this cat.  I think I loved this activity even more because EVERYONE wrote.  Even my little ones who are more stubborn writers came up with some precious writing. I was so proud of them.

This was an independent writing activity where I just let them write without conferencing, so I could see where they were.  I like to do this every so often.  I collect their writing and make notes for each child about what areas I want to focus on with each of them individually.  Sometimes during Writer's Workshop, there's so much going on, I might miss an area for a student that I really want to work on with them.

Here's some of their writing:

My cat's name is Aruba but I have to give her away.  She used to hide under the bed in the corner.  She is cute.  I miss her.  I (gave her) to Aunt Nicole.  I love her. 

I loved this story! He has come SUCH a long way! I love how the cat sticker is on a plate, so he make the plate sitting on the table.

My cat is on the table. My cat sneezes and a pumpkin goes at the TV and it breaks. 

Here are two examples of my little ones who have really not been writing much at all.  This was huge for them!

My kitten likes to climb trees.  He is in the tree. 

 My kitten likes to go give me kisses. 

(Not quite sure why the word "poop" is in there so perfectly spelled, although backward... hmmm)

Thank you for stopping by!  Have fun writing!