This series of worksheets is super helpful to help primary level student find their voice through their written work. The following collection of activity sheets will provide various writing prompts for your primary school students. Activities include using flash card prompts to create a story, writing an original comic strip, describing a brand new planet, spending the night at a zoo, living in a jungle, breaking tasks down into individual steps, and more. Print out these prompts to get you working in the right direction. Students will enjoy the diverse variety of writing ideas and appreciate working on them.
Printable Primary Writing Worksheets
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Rebus Puzzle Reading Basket
Cut up a mix of letters, pictures, and word endings such as "ing" and "ed". Provide primary writing students with the cut up words and pictures and task them with constructing a story using these parts. You can make this activity a lot of fun by adding in exceptionally silly pictures.
Alphabet Sandwich
Write the letters of the alphabets individually on pieces of paper or use alphabet flashcards. Provide the children with the letters in a big bowl. Also, provide them with 2 pieces of "bread", which can be made out of paper, felt, or foam.
Read Your Own Comics
Provide each child with a blank comic book strip. Try to keep the activity to about 3 boxes or panels. Task the students with writing a storyline for their comic strip.
Planet You
Tell the students that they have just been given their own planet. Task them with naming the planet, identifying other neighboring planets, and describing life on their planet.
Sleeping At the Zoo
Provide primary writing students with zoo related books. They have to select a book to read. Then, they have to draw a picture or write what they think it would be like to sleep at the zoo. Encourage them to write using very descriptive language and sound words.
If I Were a Jungle Boy/Girl...
Assign books about the jungle for students to read. Then, have the students write a journal entry that describes their living in the jungle.
Me Pie
Students will have to create a "Me Pie". The "pie" ingredients of the pie will be things about themselves. They will write each "ingredient" on a piece of paper and assemble them into a "pie crust".
How to Clean Something
Students will be tasked with writing a cleaning "how to". You can have them select a word from a word basket, such as FLOOR, or CUP. Then, have the students write a step-by-step instruction guide for cleaning that item.
Cereal Box Hero
Have primary writing students select a famous person that they would love to see on a cereal box. Help them to research the person's photo and find 3-6 facts about the person. The students will decorate a cereal box with information about the person, photos, and magazine clipped pictures.
Popcorn Phonics
Create paper "popcorn kernels". Provide students with a specific number of these blank popcorn kernels. Each student will then write letter sounds on one side of the kernel and the letter name on the other side.
My Mommy/Daddy Says
This is an exercise to teach children about understanding and using quotes. It will also give them an opportunity to reflect on how these quotes and sayings are important in our lives and are a part of our individual personalities.
My Work Day
Pose the question to the students, "What is a work day like for adults?" The students will select a career or job option to write about. They will explain it from their own perspective.
The Three...
There are many classic books that have the start, The Three... such as The Three Kittens, The Three Little Pigs, and Goldilocks and The Three Bears. Have students write their own story of three something.
Lunch Bag Reader Worksheet
Each student will make a "lunch bag". Give the students books from a variety of genres. The teacher will fill the lunch bag with the parts of a "reading lunch", which are a book with a food theme, a poetry book, a mystery book, paper and pencil.
What Next?
This is an exercise in predictive writing. Task each student with writing a story, but tell them not to "finish" it. They are then to write their "ending" on a separate piece of paper that the teacher will hold.
In the Land of...
Task students with writing their very own fairy tale. The story will start with the words, "In the land of..." and let them take it from there. Encourage them to develop the characters in the story, such as having a villain and a hero.
Pen Pals
Partner with another teacher to set up a pen pal letter exchange program. This could be someone within your school or at another school. Each month, assign a theme for the students to use for writing their letter, such as favorite food, favorite animal, etc.
Birthday Rhyme
Task the students will writing a birthday rhyme. This could be for a family member, a classmate, or even a pet, but the theme has to be relative to a birthday. Set specific parameters for the rhyme.
Cookie Letters
Use premixed cookie dough rolls for this exercise. Allow children to roll out the dough. Provide them with alphabet shaped cookie cutters. Each child can use the cookie cutters to form 2-3 words.
Cook up Some Letter Fun
Using alphabet flashcards let the children randomly select a card from a box or basket. The letter that the student pulls out will be "their letter". They will need to create a recipe for a food that begins with that letter.
Book Worm
These lines will serve as the students' reading goal. The student that completes their reading goal first receives a prize. The book worms will be a great reminder of the children, not only to continue to read, but it will give them a sense of accomplishment whenever they see it.
Read Me
Provide the students with 3 sheets of paper. Task them with writing one word on each sheet of paper.
Go Fish
Have each student write 4 incomplete sentences or a story with 4 missing words. Pair the students and have them exchange their writing. The students will be given a bowl of fish shaped paper with words on them.
Books on Tape
Task students with bringing their favorite story book to school. Each student will take a turn reading their book onto a tape.
Magical Pocket
Task students with writing a story about a magical pocket. They will need to explain how they know that it is magical and they should chronicle some of the things that they have seen it do.
How to Improve Writing for Primary Students
During the primary level of our education we should be building the core and foundation of our writing skills. There is a huge transition as we progress from pre-writing to the primary grades. We progress from forming sentences to writing essays. From there we will learn to write response-based pieces that have us research or evaluate some form of problem. As our development continues into high school, our writing endurance must improve to be effective. Here are a few tips to help your primary writers improve on a consistent basis. It all starts with reading with students and have them perform some sort of short primary writing task when you are done. At the primary level, peer reviews will be new to them, but extremely helpful. The last piece of advice we have for you is to play words with your children as much as possible. Competition always heightens motivation. The first thing an aspiring author is taught is to "write what you know," but how do you make it interesting?
Writing is an essential tool for both personal and professional development. The problem is, in today's technologically driven environment, children aren't given nearly enough opportunities to practice and enhance their writing skills. Many parents are left wondering how to help their children improve their writing abilities. You must put in the time and effort to become an excellent writer.
1. Prompt Them to Read
There's a good reason why great writers are often voracious readers. Children who read frequently are exposed to new vocabulary in a context that helps them acquire new terms. It is much easier for a term to move from receptive vocabulary to productive vocabulary for the satisfaction of parents and instructors who like to see their children stretch their vocabulary muscles in writing. Additionally, reading teaches sentence structures that they might apply to their writing.
2. Encourage Writers to Discuss and Rehearse Their Work
Students learn how to talk about their interests more eloquently when they indulge in writing courses. Those who participate in the discussion before and during writing a piece are better prepared to express themselves in written form.
3. Help Them Excel Composing
You need to understand the difficulties young writers encounter in learning to use writing patterns. Composing is a skill, like spelling or punctuation, that must be mastered. It necessitates mastery of both creative principles and grammatical conventions. Students' written works can progress from simple to complicated language use through discussion and teacher explanation.
4. Create Story Insights
Short stories are a great approach for kids to develop their creative writing abilities. Cut out photographs of various people or places from magazines. Use these as writing prompts by storing them in a container or adhering them to cards.
5. Teach Them the Basics
Writers of all levels face various obstacles as they attempt to master the art of expression. A well-planned curriculum targeting various basic skills must be implemented to support kids' higher-order thinking.
Translation and transcribing are the first two skills that should be taught explicitly and systematically. Dedicated daily lessons outside of the composing lesson are needed. Explicit education and regular practice opportunities must be provided to guarantee that students develop fluency in spoken language and written work simultaneously.
6. Encourage Free Writing
Not only can teaching children to write well benefit their academic performance, but it also gives them a new outlet for expressing their creative side. When students are given creative writing assignments, they see it as a chance to express themselves. As long as it becomes an everyday habit, it doesn't really matter who reads their writing or even what they write about.
Parents should advise their children to keep a daily journal in exchange for a small reward at the end of the week. Teachers should also encourage their students to write whenever possible, as the more they write, the better they will become at the craft.
7. Introducing an Audience to Students' On-the-Spot Writing
An audience is essential for writers. It is an integral part of the writing process for many young authors. Set aside a few minutes to read and discuss the day's writings at the end of each guided writing class. This offers an immediate audience and context for the material.
Final Words
And that's how you can help to improve writing for primary students. Being able to write well is a useful life skill. You can help your students with the basic writing tasks to improve their writing.