Writing for an Audience

The boys have entered the Lego Mindstorm contest with these entries. They are to draw the robot of the future and tell about it in 100 words or less. This was our "writing for an audience" practice. Following directions together. I explained to the boys that in life, we must tailor our writing to fit the situation. This situation called for an essay! Even Patrick has learned (the hard way) this year that we *must* follow directions when writing for a class or for contest entries. It is entirely their writing, although I helped with spelling. I also told Emperor that he needed to get rid of three words, so we combined two sentences he wrote together into one sentence. Now his entry has EXACTLY 100 words. The boys are planning on what to do with their new Legos. I told them that there are thousands of entries; they're just doing this to learn more about writing. They had a lot of fun doing it, however. (Ever wonder if maybe the kids have too much fun learning?)