Teachers devise creative ways for kids to display their work to foster excitement, maintain engagement and to challenge kids to think in different ways. The cereal box project allows kids to get creative while forcing them to analyze their book to make decisions like what is the most important message or point they want to get across and where should this information go? Front? Additionally, students will have to think about how to get their message across as concisely as possible there is not a lot of space on the front (or wherever) of a cereal box. Not only will students' messages have to be concise, they will also have to be engaging to capture their target audience's interest, much like the cover of a cereal box. In addition to the writing skills and critical thinking skills, this activity also fosters creativity. When thinking of how you would share information about a book, kids can get creative and make the "ingredients list" become the "character list". Of course, the game on the back also screams creativity which is a buzz word in the 21st Century curriculum. Finally, doing activities like the cereal box project allows reluctant writers to participate in the project as vehemently as great writers, and kids that need more of a hands-on activity will also enjoy a high level of participation. Additionally, kids that need to develop their creativity and do more hands-on work will be challenged while the. On the other hand, if all assignments were like this and kids do not know how to read or write traditional reports, this would impact their future work and schooling. So, in the end I personally think it is a great idea to do creative projects like the cereal box, however I also think it is important to teach students to how to write formal pieces like expository essays, reports and stories as well as informal pieces like blog posts and even tweets. Any other thoughts?
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