Kids need few tools to get started with creative writing. Here are some things we like to keep handy.
Other than that, kids need an audience! When your child has written something, where can he or she share it?
My kids enjoy sharing compositions on a private family blog, as well as via email and letters. I also take a video of them reading their compositions, thus giving them a chance to practice oration.
You can also purchase these Writer's workshop products at TeachersPayTeachers.
Writer's Workshop BUNDLE, Writer's Workshop Writing Papers, Idea Organizers, Writer's Workshop Editing Reference, and Writer's Workshop Holiday-Themed Writing Papers
If we want to encourage our children to write, we should encourage lots of it ourselves by doing it ourselves. So much of the time, we do things via apps, including email and text. To encourage writing practice, send letters, actual real letters, to family and friends yourself! Your child may then be interested in joining in by sending mail too.
My thank you cards is a great place to start! As your children see you writing your own thank you notes for Christmas gifts, they can add their own using their own handwriting and words.
If you've read this blog for any length of time, you'll know that I am a big fan of using great picture books as inspiration for early creative writing. See thoughts on one my favorite teacher books, No More "I'm Done!" for more ideas of how to do this.
Or, review the thoughts I share in my classic post, Elementary-level Picture Book-Inspired Writing Ideas.
What essentials do you include in your writing center?
In Tia Isa Wants a Car and A Chair for My Mother, kids work towards earning money for a goal. Although they are very different stories, the goals of the main characters make them perfect for a lesson in comparing and contrasting. The ultimate goal setting lesson from these books is also a great character
Read MoreThe Red Book by Barbara Lehman is a wordless picture book, so it may not be the first to come to mind when considering a book to “read aloud” to a class. However, because the illustrations tell the story, The Red Book can be an ideal book to use as students practice outlining and retelling
Read MoreI had a lot of fun considering favorite picture books as I considered the variety of ways one could organize a story. So many times in elementary school kids are given a prescription for writing and they must follow that. Obviously many stories follow a traditional structure with a clear beginning, a middle, and an
Read MoreFor our writing class, we compared the perspective of the two characters in A Tale of Two Beasts, beginning with a Venn diagram to brainstorm. A Tale of Two Beasts by Fiona Roberton is an amusing tale about a girl who finds a strange beast in the woods and brings him home to take care of him.
Read MoreI’m always excited to find picture books that would work well as writing prompts for elementary school kids, so I was extra excited to find Ten-Word Tiny Tales: To Inspire and Unsettle by Joseph Coelho (Candlewick, 2023). This new volume has stories that are each, as the title suggests, just ten-words long. With a variety of illustrators
Read MoreA fantastic 60-page picture book geared for middle school students (The One Thing You’d Save) can mentor your students in in the writing concepts of ideas, voice, a new type of poetry, and even more. Just like in the book, an open discussion can help students recognize the impact of these good writing traits. Further,
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