Teaching Children to Write

Writing is one of the most important skills for children to have. Which is why we believe that journaling is one of the best ways to help students develop their writing skills.

You see…

Daily journaling is a great way to reinforce the importance of good handwriting. Further, it is an easy way to incorporate writing into your existing curriculum. It’s a known fact that good writers naturally become good readers, so it’s incredibly important to focus on teaching children to write in the early years of their education.

Best of all, you can include journaling in every subject, from science and math to reading and social studies.

Our writing prompts will allow you to incorporate writing into your daily lesson plans while simultaneously teaching children to write well.

Below, you’ll find a list of wonderful journal prompts. It’s a great tool to show your young writers that writing can, indeed, be loads of fun!

So get to it and use these prompt ideas with your students today!

Writing Prompts to Use When Teaching Children to Write

Write about your family. Who is in your family? What do you like to do together?
Write about an animal that you would like to keep as a pet. Why did you choose that animal?
What is your favorite color? Write about why you like this color so much.
What do you like most about your classroom? Why?
Write about a new friend you have made at school. How did you become friends?
What is your favorite food? Do you like to try new foods? Why or why not?
Write about a tradition that is special for you and your family.
What do you want to be when you grow up? Why?
Write about a time when you felt happy.
Write about a time when you felt sad.
If you could pack your own lunch, what would you put in your lunchbox?
Write about what you would wish for if you could only make one wish.
Write about what it would be like to have a pet dinosaur. Which type of dinosaur would you keep as a pet? How would you take care of it?
Write about what it would be like to be invisible for the day.
Write about your favorite sport or activity.
Write about something new you would like to try. Why do you want to try this new thing?

Wrting for Sucess

Teaching children to write is one of the most important jobs that both teachers and parents have. Regardless of which career path they intend to pursue, students will need to be able to write clearly and effectively in order to be successful.

Teaching children to write should be an important part of any elementary curriculum program. It’s important to assess children so that you know where their existing writing skills are at and you can develop a plan to help them build upon that foundation.

You can begin teaching children to write as early as preschool, but it should be a fundamental part of the kindergarten and first-grade curriculum.

5 Tips on Teaching Children to Write

From writing book reports to copying sentences or practicing in their journals, every opportunity kids get to write is valuable practice time that will help them hone their writing skills. The following five tips offer simple, practical ways to teach children to write.

1. Good Writers Begin as Good Readers

The best writers are always great readers, and it’s easy to see why. Kids who read regularly develop a better understanding of proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure. Though they might not be able to identify the factors that determine the quality of a book, they’ll still become more familiar with good writing. A solid familiarity with great writing helps kids immensely when they begin writing on their own.

2. Start Out Slowly

As you teach children to write, it’s important to start out slowly—particularly if the student has already decided that he or she isn’t interested in writing. Many students who are challenged by writing avoid the activity because they believe they aren’t good at it. Even writing a few short sentences or a summary of an article can seem to be too much for them and induces stress in them. You can help students get started with writing by working on small activities like lists, notes, and copied sentences.

3. Practice Letters and Thank You Notes

Once students start to get more comfortable with writing, letters and thank you notes are a great way to hone their skills while still keeping the activity casual. A simple thank you note is easy for a child to accomplish—and teaches both manners and sentence writing. Letters to pen-pals, favorite authors, or celebrities are also a fun way to get kids interested in writing because they care about communicating with the recipient.

4. Give Kids Freedom

For many students, writing is easier and more enjoyable when they get to pick the topics they write about. While some students are comfortable writing about anything, others will not react positively when asked to work on an essay or a book report.

These students might not be able to avoid this type of work forever, but you can help them approach writing from a more productive perspective by giving them the chance to begin work in the medium creatively. Give students fun journal prompts or let them pick their own topics in order to keep their interest and promote a good writing experience for the entire class.

5. Keep Things Light and Creative

Journal prompts, essay questions, and response papers are a great way to encourage students to think more deeply about issues and to consider new perspectives—but they can be a little heavy for beginning writers. As students learn to write initially, keep their assignments light, fun, and creative. Begin with short assignments and gradually increase the length over time. When students start to become more comfortable with writing, you can begin to ask deeper questions and have them consider more new ideas on the page.