The Writing Bin – Early Skills two CD collection contains one hundred and seventy finished writing activities and seven new easy-to-use templates that will allow you to create additional self-selected writing activities for your students.

The templates include a continuum of writing opportunities. The templates first include a Content Lead-In (i.e. book template) where you can create a small book about the subject the students will then be asked to write simple sentences about. Within the finished activity folders you will find multiple examples of how this template can be used.

In addition to the Content Lead-In template, the CDs include six writing templates which follow a writing continuum from errorless writing to writing a sentence from a toolbar of five to six words with a model sentence as an example.
 

• Choose a Picture – A student simply chooses or clicks on a picture within a toolbar and the picture is inserted on the page and a sentence describing that picture is automatically written into a textbox and read aloud to the student with highlighting. (i.e. Errorless Writing).
• Match Picture to Picture – A student chooses or clicks on a picture within a toolbar and the picture is inserted onto the page. The student is also at that time presented with another toolbar which contains the same pictures as the original toolbar. The student is then instructed to click on the matching picture. When a picture is chosen, the sentence describing that picture is inserted into the textbox and read aloud to the student. The student must listen to see if the sentence they created matches the picture.
• Match Picture to Picture and Label – This template and resulting activities is identical to the Match Picture to Picture activity except that the second toolbar now includes both a Matching Picture and a name or label of the picture.
• Match Picture to Word – This template and resulting activities is identical in operation to the Match Picture to Picture and Match Picture to Picture & Label template. The only difference is that the second toolbar contains only a name or phrase. The student is asked to first insert a picture on the page from the first toolbar. They then are asked to choose a matching word or phrase that describes that picture. When they click on the matching button, the sentence corresponding to that word or phrase will be automatically written into the textbox below the picture that they originally chose.
• Forced Order - In this template and resulting activities, the student is asked to choose a picture from a toolbar. When they choose a picture it is automatically inserted onto the page. The student is then presented with a button which contains the sentence starter that describes that picture. When the student clicks on the sentence starter button, the sentence starter text is written into the textbox and read aloud. Then the student is presented with a second button which contains the sentence ending text. When the student clicks on that button the sentence ending text is inserted into the textbox and the entire sentence is read aloud to the student with highlighting.
• Match Picture to Wordbank CO (Correct Order). In this template and resulting activities the student is instructed to click on a picture within a toolbar to insert it on the page. When they click on a picture it is automatically inserted onto the page. The student is then presented with a model sentence in a textbox just below the picture. Additionally, the student is presented with an empty textbox and a wordbank (i.e. toolbar) at the bottom of the page that contains the words that make up the model sentence. The student can then click on the buttons to insert the button text into the textbox and write their own sentence. The goal is to have the student rewrite the model sentence using the words in the wordbank. In this case the words on the wordbank (i.e. toolbar) are in the correct order.
• Match Picture to Wordbank SO (Scrambled Order). You can create activities having the words on the wordbank (i.e. toolbar) in a scrambled order using the same template as we used to create the Match Picture to Wordbank CO (Correct Order) activities. The only difference is that the words are now scrambled, or not in the same order as the words that make up the model sentence.

In the Animal Habitats folder of activities we ask students where animals live. As you will see below we have chosen a toucan/rainforest; lion/savanna; whale/ocean and camel/desert as our basis for exploring and writing about animal habitats.

Activity 1: Animal Habitats Choose A Picture

Here the student is presented first with an Open Pictures button. When they click on the button they are presented with a toolbar of four pictures. See the screenshot on the left. If they click on the picture of the whale, the picture is inserted and a sentence describing where the whale lives is automatically written into the textbox. (i.e. errorless writing).

Activity 2: Animal Habitats Match Picture to Picture

In this activity the student first goes through the same process of picking a picture. When they choose a picture it is inserted on the page. (i.e. choosing the lions) But instead of the sentence being automatically written into the textbox, the student is presented with a second toolbar of pictures which contain the same pictures that were on the first toolbar (Note: that may not be in the same order though). The student is to choose the matching picture. When they choose the second picture the sentence is then automatically written into the textbox. Then student can then go to the next page to choose another picture to match.

Activity 3: Animal Habitats Match Picture to Picture & Label

In this activity the student goes through the same process as they did in matching a picture to a picture. (i.e. in this case the student chose the picture of the toucan in the rainforest and it has been inserted on the page.) The only difference is that now on the second toolbar they are presented with both a matching picture and a name of the picture. Once they click on the second button which contains a picture and name, the sentence describing that picture and name will be inserted into the textbox.

Activity 4: Animal Habitats Match Picture to Word

This activity is identical to the operations in the previous two activities except that the second toolbar now only contains the name that corresponds to the pictures on the first toolbar. Again, the student chooses a picture to insert it on the page. (i.e. in this case they chose the picture of the lions). They then are presented with a second toolbar which contains on a word or phrase. They are to choose the matching word or phrase to write a sentence about the picture on the page. When they click on a button containing a word, the sentence relating to that word will be written into the textbox automatically.

Activity five: Animal Habitats Forced Order

In this activity the student begins the activity in the same way as the previous activities. They first click on an open pictures button and then choose one of four pictures to be put on a page. When they click on a picture it is inserted onto the page (i.e. the camel), AND a button with a sentence starter appears on the page. The student is instructed to click on the button to begin writing the sentence. When they click on the sentence starter button, the sentence starter text will be inserted into the textbox and read aloud. Once that process is completed, a sentence ending button inclusive of text will appear. When the student clicks on the sentence ending button the sentence ending text will be inserted into the textbox and the entire sentence will be read aloud. The student can go to the next page and choose another picture and repeat the process.

Activity six: Animal Habitats Picture to Wordbank CO (Correct Order)

In this activity students choose a picture in the same fashion as the previous activities. Once the picture is inserted onto the page, a model sentence is presented in a textbox just below the picture. Note: The student can click on that textbox to have it read to them if they like. Additionally, an empty textbox is presented along with a wordbank (i.e. toolbar) that contains the words that make up the model sentence. The student can then click on each word to insert it automatically into the textbox. The goal is to have the student recreate the model sentence by clicking on the appropriate words or recreating the model sentence by whatever device they may be using. (i.e. standard keyboard, Speech Generation Device, IntelliKeys overlay). Note: In this example the words in the wordbank are in the correct order. Although the cursor is not visible in the screenshot on the right, you can see that the cursor is positioned over the “in” button as the “tool tip” is displayed about the word. This would be the next word that would be clicked if the student was correctly writing or recreating the model sentence above it.

Activity Seven: Picture to Word SO (Scrambled Order)

In this activity the functions are identical to the Picture to Word CO (Correct Order) described above, except that the words on the wordbank are now scrambled. This activity is created with the same template as the previous activity but by scrambling the words on the wordbank we have moved the writing continuum up one more step. This is the highest cognitive level template and resulting activity within the Writing Bin – Early Skills collection. Of course the template and resulting activities can be modified easily to accommodate longer and more complex sentence structures if you like.