How to Teach Writing to Primary Children

Establish a creative learning environment for young writers.

For most children, the foundation to literacy is laid long before they arrive at school. Teaching writing to primary school-age children is especially important to establish a strong foundation. Classroom tone is very significant. Instead of approaching writing as an isolated lesson, integrating writing with other educational disciplines contributes to keeping writing fresh and meaningful. Language-rich environments stimulate good writing skills and imaginative resources offer young children incentive in learning to write.

Instructions

1. 

   Set up a literacy center in the classroom.

   Create a literacy center, literary station or writer's center in the classroom. The literacy center includes materials such as individual notebooks, computers, wooden or magnetic letters and letter-boards.

2. 

   Introduce an auditory guessing game to inspire descriptive writing.

   Play a recording of varied sounds or shake a colorful bag with one audible item at a time. Ask students to write a description of what they hear before they guess. ReadWriteThink, a website containing lessons endorsed by the National Council of Teachers of English, encourages basic or simple educational activities that integrate the use of descriptive language.

3. 

   Omit the end of a story and ask students to write it instead.

   Read or tell a story. Brainstorm with the students hypothetical endings that occur after the end of the story. Instruct students to write their own after-the-end endings.

4. 

   Include stuffed animals as educational motivators.

   Give each student a stuffed animal or puppet and ask students to interview their animal by writing questions they'd like to ask. Students take turns reading their questions aloud, and the class responds by writing down the answers.

5. 

   Ask students to to write and illustrate a sleepy-time story.

   Coordinate a class pajama-day with story-time and a writing activity. Read a bedtime story such as "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown or Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" and ask students to write their own illustrated versions.

Tips & Warnings

• Younger children may draw pictures of words to avoid feeling frustrated while learning.

References

• The Parent Report: The Primary Grades-Article
• ReadWriteThink: Classroom Resources
• Education.Com: Second Grade Writing Activities

Resources

• Jefferson County Schools Primary Teachers
• Dr Labush's Links to Learning: Teacher Links
• Super Teachers Worksheets: Free Printable Worksheets