Ways to encourage writing for year 2 DS

[TheDoctrineOfSanta]

DS1 is in year 2 and is strong in maths but weak in writing. We want to help him at the weekends. Can anyone recommend any exercise books or ideas to help him? Have suggested he writes postcards to his cousins, that didn't excite him!

Would he enjoy writing his own comic strips?
www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/comic/

www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/

Thanks mrz will take a look.

Have a look at story cubes (have then on Amazon and elsewhere). Nine dice with different pictures on, throw the dice then write a story using all the pictures. You can start just by adding adjectives to each picture e.g. if a cat then describe the cat in a sentence "a big furry, purry friendly cat" etc. Make it a fun game with other family members to make it less of a chore - you could turn it into a type of written charades.
We play 'the vicars cat' to get the kids using better adjectives. And also do joint storytelling where e take it in turns to add a sentence, usually verbally to exercise their imagination, but you could write it too, our summarise it afterwards.

Thanks Bee!

Still struggle getting my DS to write and he's year 6 with entrance exams in three weeks' time. Best way I've found of encouraging him is to sit down and do it with him. For example, we're working at the moment on five-minute flash plans for a 30-minute essay. I find an essay title, and we both sit and write out an essay plan for the title and then tell each other our plans. Just asking him to do it while I sit and breathe over his shoulder doesn't appeal to him nearly as much. Works for us. Might be useless for you.

Read to him and listen to him read. Lots!!! Having lots of stories and scenarios in his head will eventually spill out into paper. That's what happened to my DS. His spelling/grammar is great, his creative writing is tops and he now produces quantity alongside quality. I'm really glad I didn't harangue him into writing when all that was needed was library visits.

Writing for a real purpose is key e.g. if he can write 3 things at the end of your shopping list he can get them. Sending postcards to his friends/teacher from holiday. Maybe a penpal? Entering a writing competition.

Ooh, more suggestions, thanks everyone, this is great!

Ds 3 (7) hates writing stories however he loves writing lists, letters, notices for his door, his brothers doors, his pretend shop etc.

What aspect of writing does he dislike? Ds2 was reluctant until his teacher started to focus on his handwriting. She gave him his handwriting book to do at home, and he finds it quite calming to sit and just write lines of letters.

Half a term later, with no further active encouragement, he is writing letters, notes, all his Christmas cards, gift tags, Santa's letter etc.

storybird.com/parents/

Storybird is brilliant! It has worked extremely well with my Yr2. He loves the illustrations and pictures and consequently has come up with some excellent work that both of us are very happy with and didn't know he was capable of. And amazingly he gets excited about getting his story down on paper now. Thanks for the link Mrz.

sitting, he dislikes having a blank sheet of paper and getting down to it - he's not 'inspired' - so suggestions like story cubes that will help to structure what he does are great. He also tends to write the minimum eg no describing words.

Back home from all our festive travels so I will look at all the new links and ideas, thanks everyone.

DD is the same with not liking a blank sheet of paper, but once she gets going she is very creative. What I love most is her creative spelling, she is not afraid to give any word a go, we had "vegedbals" the other day! I'm quite sad now her spelling is improving . Anyway we found a nice way to help her over Xmas that involved the whole family. We all took it in turns to suggest a character e.g. "Bobby the Duck", "Sam the Horse" and she wrote the cast at the top of her page. Then we all suggested a scenario e.g. "A bus ride", "A birthday party" which she also wrote down. Sometimes we added an event e.g. "fell in a pond". So we were doing something similar to the story cubes and it had the advantage of 'breaking' the blank page. As an added advantage it has also helped introduce her to spelling words she might have avoided like 'horse'. Having said that I think she is yet to finish one of these stories, but there are 4 or 5 works in progress lying around.

Hello Op.

I too agree with the comic strip idea, or cartoons and captions.
What about a journal, just a couple of lines each day to say what he's done.
My dd has a scribble book where she is practising spelling words. She does them in rainbow colours, bubble, stencil, alternate colours, in pictures etc. its all good practice and they don't think they are working

Watching this with interest as my ds is the same, he has never yet written a story although he does read avidly.
He is a Minecraft fan obsessive I have managed to get him to write some stuff about that. We have screen free Monday here so he has been known to spend the time he can't play on Minecraft writing about it instead (sigh)

My year 2 ds hates handwriting, a great reader but can't seem to write / spell much. He has just started writing his own joke book, just one joke a day, which he then reads out to everyone. He seems to enjoy doing this but it's still a struggle.