Rocket Writes a Story in Any Language

Have you had a chance to read Tad Hills' sequel to How Rocket Learned to Read? Rocket Writes a Story is an adorable picture book suggested for children 4-8 years old. I would recommend it to all teachers and parents who would like to introduce creative writing to their students and children of all ages.

Rocket and his teacher, the little yellow bird, come back in this second book ready to start the process of writing. The little yellow bird encourages Rocket to gather new words to help him come up with ideas for a story. Rocket agrees and creates a word tree, later he goes on long walks for inspiration and when he is ready, he writes every day. He comes up with a wonderful little story that will captivate young readers.

My soon to be first-grader and I started the process of creating his own book after reading Rocket Writes a Story. Diego seemed very interested in trying Rocket's creative and organized writing approach. My wheels were spinning to make it more challenging for him, so I encouraged him to make a Spanish word wall!

After we read Rocket Writes a Story the first time, I found leaf printables, made copies, and had Diego help me cut them out. We later read the book for the second time, discussed it a bit more and had him start thinking of words he knew in Spanish or words he wanted to learn. He went around the house looking for the names of objects he would write on his leaves, and like Rocket, he quickly drew the picture as well (perfect for those learning a new language!). Diego was most intrigued with translating articles, conjunctions and prepositions (little bird calls them "little words")! I love how he understood that they were an essential part of writing.

We set the leaves aside and will continue to build our tree in the next few days. Thank goodness for the long summer days. I am also helping him bind paper for his Spanish story book. I can't wait to share the final project with you.

Remember to have fun with projects like this. Reading, writing, math and science should be explored in a fun way during the summer months to keep kids' skills sharp! I sighed with relief that Diego loved the idea of writing in Spanish (his grandmother is visiting and perhaps her Spanish-only conversations motivated him).  Of course, this writing activity would have been great in English too!

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Betty Galvan, is helping her readers "find the positive and seek the benefits" over at her blog, MyFriendBettySays.com.

She is the mother of three beautiful little boys and a teacher.