Creative Writing Adventures Series: Storytelling and Imagination Inspired by Dream Homes for Young Explorers and Writers has students incorporate their own ideas and creativity as they draw, write, and invent. So far, there’s only one book in this series, and it’s available in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle formats. (The Kindle version is available free to those with Kindle Unlimited.) A free, PDF teacher’s guide is available through the publisher’s website.
This 79-page workbook about dream houses has five sections: Cabin House, Apartment House, Tiny House, Mansion, and Skyscraper. Each section has several writing prompts designed to spark creative writing. The book does not teach writing skills, such as how to write a paragraph, so it’s a supplement to be used for composition practice and creativity. The course should take about five weeks to complete, covering one type of home each week.
While the author recommends the book be used for grades four through eight, I think the age range should be limited to up through sixth grade, unless older students have little or no prior experience with creative writing. (Interestingly, the teacher’s guide differentiates activities for grades three through seven.) The page design looks like the book should be for younger students with large print, writing assignments appropriate for those relatively new to creative writing, and two featured cartoon characters that look like children but are described as Desi, a realtor, and Hugh, a potential home renter or buyer. While I’m limiting the potential audience, I think the book is excellent for grades four through six, and maybe even advanced third graders.
The five types of housing are used to jump off in many directions in response to writing prompts. For instance, the Cabin House section begins with this assignment: “Using your senses, what is it like to wake up in a cabin house? (You may wish to describe the environment around you – the sounds you hear, the things you see and feel.)” (p. 8).
Each assignment is followed by lines on which students write. Among other writing prompts in this section are ones about favorite things to do in a cabin house, nature treasures found outside, vermin that might be a problem, creating a checklist for belongings to bring to the new cabin home, an imaginary conversation with an animal that greets their new neighbor, a story about animals that invaded the house at night, and a follow-up story about how to prevent such invasions. Students also have creative drawing and writing assignments, such as drawing a home decoration they could create from natural materials and then writing about how they could make it and where it will be displayed in the cabin. One of the last drawing assignments in the book is to design their own dream house.
Some writing and drawing prompts stretch beyond topics one might expect, such as writing about:
- an apartment building safety drill, including safety tips
- a hidden tunnel from the apartment clubhouse to another world
- what happens when you discover all the furniture in a room in your mansion floating in midair
- a book you would include in a personal library
- a superhero who flies by your skyscraper
As you can see, there’s plenty of scope for the imagination, but a few topics, such as safety drills and eco-friendly features of the tiny house, might require discussion and research.
In addition to writing and drawing assignments, the book includes a word search puzzle, two mazes, and a matching-columns exercise. Students don’t have to complete every assignment.
Near the front of the book, a QR code leads to the free Creative Adventures Kids YouTube channel with several short, animated videos to accompany lessons in the book. The videos are optional, and while the book doesn’t tell when to use them, the Teacher’s Guide sometimes does. Parents can preview them and decide if and when to use them. I would encourage you to check them out, since they might inspire more writing and drawing ideas in children, and they also do some of the teaching for parents.
Free Teacher’s Guide
The free, 60-page, PDF Teacher’s Guide explains the philosophy of the course, the objectives, differentiation strategies, how to use the videos, and assessment guidelines and rubrics. After these pages, the bulk of the book consists of lesson plans. Each of the five chapters begins with an overview and suggestions for introducing the chapter. For each activity or prompt, a half- or full-page lesson plan presents the learning focus, brief teaching notes, optional extensions, differentiation suggestions, and a quick assessment strategy. Lessons occasionally suggest using one of the videos, but the videos aren’t linked. (That would be a helpful improvement.) Instructions for students to create a writing portfolio are at the end of the book.
The Teacher’s Guide should be most useful for those teaching class groups, but homeschoolers should download it and determine for themselves how much they might use it.
More Creativity and Coloring
Children who enjoy coloring might want to add the 87-page Dream Homes Bold and Easy Coloring Book. Those more inclined to designing, might want to use Dream Homes Sticker Painting Book: A Sticker- Style Home Building Activity Book with Cut-Out Pieces. This 57-page book is used to create five 3-D paper houses. The pages include 10 scene pages (two for each of the five types of homes in the main book) and more than 300 numbered pieces to cut and glue to create five dream houses. (There are no stickers.)
Summary
The Dream Homes book from the Creative Writing Adventures Series is a fun, supplemental resource that should ignite enthusiasm for creative writing.
