When we write, I encourage the kids to give me more than they think they can give. I want them to get away from those safe old "kindee-garten" sentences. I tell the kids to give their little sentences some muscle. In the past, I've also said things like "stretch that sentence" or "let's super-size that". Basically, I'm preparing them for what they'll be expected to do in the second grade and beyond. They'll need to start using adjectives (beautiful words that describe). They'll need to start using different beginning words for their sentences (not...I this...I that...I this...I that...). Here's an activity you can do at home to start encouraging your child to use more "super-sized " sentences in their writing.
Ask them to write you a sentence. You can even help them. It'll likely be one of those safe old kindee-garten ones. Maybe you can write "The dog likes to play". Now, you need to upgrade your small sentence to a medium sentence by using adjectives. How about, "The spotted dog loves to play". A little better, huh? Now let's large size our sentence by adding some more detail. Let's say, "The spotted dog loves to play fetch". Much better! Could we still add some detail? Sure. Let's "SUPER-SIZE" our sentence! I'll say, "The black and white spotted dalmation loves to play fetch with his squeaky toy". Now, that's a good sentence.
You get the idea? And first graders can do this! It's not above them. They have great "speaking" abilities. Trust me...they can talk the lights out. Our job now is to teach them to take that awesome speaking language and get it on paper. As you practice, be careful with run on sentences. Some will get carried away and just want to add a thousand details. They might say, "The dog and he lived in the woods and he liked the stick to play catch with and he ran really fast with the other dog who was brown but he was white too and he liked to bark and he...." You don't wan that! Tell them you're proud of all of those details, but we need to keep them a little organized so the story doesn't get too confusing. A good super-sized sentence will have two or three details at the most. Good luck!
