AGES:  Beginning readers, older readers

MATERIALS:  Paper and pencil, dictionary or thesaurus, construction paper, newspaper and magazines, advertising mail, scissors, glue

It's better to have some words in mind before charging off with a scissors, so provide your children with paper and pencil for a list.  Offer a dictionary also, and a thesaurus if you have one.  Point out that these references have served many a writer well in the quest for le mot juste.  Who knows?  Your children may even pick up a few new words along the way.

Offer help when it comes time to look for the words on the list.  While you scan the headlines and copy in the newspaper, your children can search through magazines.  Advertising mail, with all its hype, may provide a rich source of flattering words.

When you have accumulated a small pile of words, and maybe a few appropriate pictures, your children can arrange and glue the cutouts on construction paper.