Writing: Family Writing Fun

Homemade Mad Libs

 

Today's Snack:  You complete a Mad Lib by filling in the blanks. So let's make Mad Lib Tortillas! Simply "fill in" your empty tortilla with shredded cheese, taco meat, chopped chicken, tuna, chopped lettuce, sliced onion . . . whatever sounds good! Wrap it up, and wash it down with a nice glass of milk.

 

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Supplies:

Pencil | Print out these pages: http://www.pta.org/madlibs.pdf

or an old coloring book or storybook that you can write in

 

 

            Here's a kooky family writing idea that also teaches kids the parts of speech. Everybody loves "Mad Libs," where a little story has some missing words, and you get to think up what might go in each blank.

 

            In the link above are some Mad Libs from the national Parent-Teacher Association. You can print them out. Then one family member reads the name of the part of speech that the blank requires, and the others can say what word would fit in the blanks. This is a good opportunity to explain to kids what a noun is, what an adjective is, and so forth. It's also a good vocabulary stretcher.

 

You don't want them to have any idea what the story is about, and usually, their answers are hilarious. Write in the words they suggest, and then when it's all complete, read it aloud. It should be very funny!

 

If you'd like to keep going, whole booklets of empty Mad Libs are available in most bookstores and dimestores. But you can do the same thing with an old coloring book that has a storyline.

 

This is a job for an adult or older teen - perhaps a babysitter? - who is familiar with the parts of speech. Go through the coloring book, first, and underline the words that you want to replace. Write down what part of speech each word is.

 

Then go through the Mad Libs process as before. This is a great way to recycle coloring books that are already completed, or, if there's more coloring left to do in it, give it to the student to finish coloring afterwards.