In my house we sometimes play a game called "High/Low." We play it at the dinner table. Going around the table, each person says what his or her high and low for that day were. We've had some pretty interesting answers.
Let's take High/Low on a writing assignments with your little darlings. Have each student take out a piece of paper and a pencil for this assignment. I'm not opposed to typing writing assignments on the computer, but when they are short I like to have students write them with pencil and paper. It is a great way to get in some penmanship practice. I also encourage keeping a dictionary handy to look up words (as opposed to relying on a spell-check).
Instruct students to reflect back over the winter months and the events of late December, just before Christmas, through today. I would be careful not to mention Christmas because students may just go there. Let them come to events in their own minds. Give students at least 10 minutes (longer if you have time) to think about highs and lows of the winter. Avoid feeding students memories, unless a student is having difficulty after a fair amount of time. Then, perhaps, you may decide to help jog memories.
After reflecting back, have students write "Last Winter's High and Low" as the title for this assignment. Then, instruct them to write one paragraph for the high and one paragraph for the low. Encourage students to explain each situation and why it was a good or bad memory.
This assignment would be a good one for the "memory box" or scrapbook. Perhaps the teacher would like to document a few highs and lows of their own?
My high for this winter: Selling my first magazine article.
My low for this winter: Bitterly cold temperatures that just wouldn't quit!
Happy writing!
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