Creative Writing Activities for Kids
Teaching Activities to Improve Writing Skills in Children
Oct 15, 2009
Writing activities strengthen the writing skills of the participants. Writing activities work well as warm up exercises in a classroom or as quick activities to fill extra time. Encourage the participants to put their own stamp on the activities, making them more effective and personalized. These writing activities adapt easily to meet the needs of students of all ages.
Journal Writing Activities for Kids
Journal time encourages free writing and development of thoughts. These exercises offer an effective warm up activity that gets the participants into the writing frame of mind. Assigning a topic for each journal entry provides direction for the creative writing activity. Participants should write the entire time, even if they veer off topic, to continue the flow of thought and creativity. The journal may also offer a source of inspiration for future writing projects.
Story Starters
Story starters provide students with a direction for the writing activity. A list of story titles or opening lines, both funny and challenging, provides the beginning for interesting stories. Write each idea on a strip of paper, and place the story starters in a bowl or can. The students draw a story starter from the can and use it as the opening line for a story. The story starter idea also works well for a writing center or quiet activity for students who complete classwork before their classmates.
New Point of View
Traditional fairy tales serve as a basis for a creative writing activity. The students spend time analyzing and rewriting a fairy tale from a different point of view. The book The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka [Puffin, 1996] offers an example and inspiration for the activity. After reading the story to the class, the students have the opportunity to rewrite their selected fairy tales in a similar fashion. A sharing session allows the students to read the new fairy tales to the class.
Collaborative Stories
Collaborative stories allow participants to contribute to stories on a selected topic. The students begin writing about the given topic for a predetermined amount of time. Each student then passes the beginning of the story to the next person. The time period restarts and the kids add to the story that was started by the previous person. The stories continue around the room, requiring the students to read the current story and add to it. The last round of writing requires the students to create a logical ending to the last story they receive. The stories go back to the original writers, who get the chance to see how the story developed at the hands of the other students. A sharing session allows the class to hear all of the collaborative stories.
Creative writing activities for kids encourage them to expand their imaginations while improving their writing skills. They work well in both classroom settings or at home. The kids will likely expand these teaching activities naturally to continue improving writing skills, continuing the educational value for everyone involved.
