Writer's Inspiration

Last year during the first week of Writers Workshop, I had my kiddos fill out a "Heart Map."  I taught a lesson about how writers get their inspiration from the things that they love.  Then each kiddo drew pictures of the things they loved inside their heart, so they could refer to it whenever they needed an idea for a new story.

This year our first grade team debated the merits of the "Heart Map."  On the one hand, it served it's purpose, but on the other hand, it didn't quite seem complete.  My incredible teammate came up with the idea of using a person outline instead, and having each part of the person represent a different source of inspiration.  We decided to give it a try and they turned out great!  The kiddos thought of so many ways to fill in their "people."

Writer's Insipiration
Head: Writers get ideas from things they know a lot about
Arms: Writers get ideas from what they do
Heart: Writers get ideas from people/things they love
Feet: Writers get ideas from places they go

This was also a fun lesson for me because it was the first time that I got to model writing using my Elmo document camera. This is the first year our school has provided us with classroom document cameras and -- wow!  I don't know how I lived without one all these years. It was so convenient to take the exact same paper that the kiddos would see, and show them exactly how to use it.  Plus, the kiddos think it's pretty cool that I can write something on paper and it shows up on the computer screen and SMART board.  I can't wait to write many more stories under the document camera!