Review: Squiggles and Giggles on Teachers Pay Teachers
The Squiggles and Giggles creative writing program is a free download available on Teachers Pay Teachers. The program is a creative writing activity that draws on creativity to promote higher-level thinking and writing skills. The packet contains three activity sheets as well as an instruction page and more information about the activity.
Students are presented one page with a “squiggle” on it, simply a portion of a line drawing. The piece of the illustration is so small that it becomes non-specific and services as an ideal starting point for the student to build his or her own drawing from it. The drawing can depict a scene, a person, or anything else the student desires (or the teacher assigns). When the student completes the drawing, the assignment then moves to a creative writing portion, having the student write a story about the drawing.
One real benefit to this activity is that it prompts the student to use different facets of their creativity to develop their writing skills. By beginning the assignment with creating their own drawing, students are already thinking creatively when it’s time to begin writing, possibly making the assignment easier and more enjoyable – a boon for any teacher wanting to foster a love of creative writing. The open-endedness of the assignment makes it appealing to students at any writing level in the target grade range.
This packet presents a fun writing activity on its own, but the concept also has a lot of potential for teachers who wish to expand the activity’s parameters (perhaps by developing the writing assignment or guiding the context in some way) or come up with their own designs to share with their classes. There are also additional sets available for purchase.
You can download your own copy of Squiggles and Giggles here.
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Written by Bryan Cohen
Bryan Cohen is the author of more than 30 books, many of which focus on creative writing and blasting through that pesky writer's block. His books have sold more than 20,000 copies. You can find him on Google+ and Facebook.
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