What's a Zipper? A Writing Game

You take everything out of the refrigerator and spread the peanut butter and jelly on the bread.  Next, you put the sandwich on the plate, and you're done!  That's pretty much all there is to it to making a good ol' fashioned PB and J ... or is it?  This is a great activity for children who are at the age where they are being asked to write increasingly detailed creative stories and/or explanations of problems and concepts in school.  What's a Zipper? is a fun way for your child to begin to develop the skills that are vital to focused and concise rhetorical writing: clarity, timing, and the ability to accurately explain concepts and arguments.

Materials:
You'll need a pen or pencil, a piece of paper, and a little bit of patience and imagination!

What to do:
Friendly, harmless, extremely curious aliens have landed in your hometown.  Your child has been charged with the task of writing a manual explaining simple, every day tasks to them so they will know how to live, eat, sleep, and play on earth.  Depending on how receptive your child is to writing you can do one of these activities at a time or a whole bunch of them at once.  The trick is to explain each task in as much detail as possible.  Getting ready for bed, how to make a sandwich, how to use a zipper, and how to ride a bicycle are all good tasks to use for this project.

HINT: Look at the description of how to make a peanut butter sandwich, above.  If you were from another planet and used those directions, would your sandwich turn out right, or would you end up with a handful of peanut butter?