Beautiful writing

Over the last week (and continuing) in Language Arts, our class has been focusing on descriptive, eloquent, articulate, affecting writing. The children were given the choice of writing a paragraph (complete with proper sentences, correct spelling and punctuation, etc.) on one of four topics:

1) something that you're excited about,

2) something that scares you,

3) something you love, or

4) something beautiful.

After rough drafts, and editing, the children are writing their final drafts on special paper in their best handwriting. Some of the writing I'm seeing is astonishingly expressive and passionate. The topics range from beautiful or dangerous tropical locales, to favorite stuffed animals, to the slow dragging of time until the start of summer vacation. It's wonderful to see the children inspired to put their efforts toward creating writing that will convey to their readers exactly how they feel.