Beanie Baby Descriptive Writing Freebie

This may have been the longest Monday ever.  I must have kept myself super busy this weekend because I am pooped.  I have been getting pretty burnt out on the Treasures Reading Series lately and I am not a huge fan of the writing prompts either.  If you use the series I am sure you know what I am talking about.  “Write a story about what you do at night or during the day”…...Really???? 
Anyway...I decided to make my writing a little more entertaining last week.  The focus was descriptive writing, which is one of my favorites to teach.  When trying to come up with a cute and creative idea  I came across an old basket of Beanie Babies…..yes you heard it right Beanie Babies.  How old are those things???  I am pretty sure I own around 50 of those things.  I decided to let the kids secretly pick their favorite Beanie Baby and place it in a brown paper sack.  This way no one would see the animal they chose.  They were so excited about keeping it a surprise!!!   The kiddos worked so hard and quietly (sooo quiet) to describe their animal and write about it.  At the end of the week we shared our writing and tried to guess which animal they had.  It was a lot of fun and it really helped the kids realize how important details are. 
Here is an example of the graphic organizer I made to go with the writing.  After their organizer was filled out they had to cut out their picture they drew.  That was later used in their final draft and shared writing.  See the picture below to see the finished writing.
They placed the picture under the flap labeled, What is my animal?  When they lifted the flap the picture was under it.

My kids really loved this writing activity and I got some of the best writing out of them.  It’s amazing how creative kids can be with their writing when you let them choose what to write about.  You can snag your freebies below.  I hope you enjoy.









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8 comments

  1. What a great idea! We also use Treasures but we've never had to use the writing portion. We were able to create our own units but we just adopted Being a Writer this year. I agree, their writing prompts are AWFUL! But I adore this Beanie Baby writing so much! :)
    Lisa
    Stories From Second

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  2. I'm your newest follower! Love this idea with beanie babies. I use beanie babies to teach reading strategies to my 1st graders, but I love the idea of using them in writing. I have a HUGE bag of them in my basement. Looks like I'll be putting them to use. Thank you!

    Erin
    Projects & Polkadots

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  3. I have a ton of Beanie Babies too. This is a great writing idea. I know what I'm going to do next week. Thanks for sharing!


    Petersons-Pad

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  4. what a great idea to use all those beanie babies in my basement!

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  5. I agree with everyone else- great idea for using all those beanie babies! Mine are in storage tubs in the garage:-) Thanks for sharing!!

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  6. This is so adorable! I already "pinned" it for next week! Thanks for sharing such a fun and creative idea :) Have a great weekend :)

    Lisa :) (new follower)
    Made In The Shade In Second Grade

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  7. You have been tagged! You're it!
    www.joyofkindergarten.blogspot.com
    Holly

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