writing

I have a 5th grader whose writing is genuinely concerning me, but I don't want to overreact. He's quiet, polite, and gets along well with classmates, but every creative writing assignment turns into a bloodbath. Zombies, alien invasions, murder mysteries.... with pretty graphic descriptions. His parents think it's normal because he plays video games, and honestly, his technical writing skills are impressive. But yesterday's story about a teacher getting eaten by a "demogorgon" (apparently from Stranger Things) had such specific details about my classroom that I got goosebumps. Our school counselor is overwhelmed with serious cases. Anyone dealt with this before? Is this just normal boy stuff that I'm being sensitive about, or should I be pushing harder for intervention?

Hi everyone! I’m trying to help my son improve his writing skills, specifically descriptive writing. I’d love to know if anyone has tips or activities that help students use more descriptive language. I’ve tried using picture prompts, but I’m looking for new ways to encourage them to describe characters and settings more vividly... Thank you!

Hey everyone! I’m looking for creative writing prompts for 1st graders.... I’ve been trying to incorporate more fun writing activities into my lessons, but I want to keep the assignments simple and easy for young learners to grasp. Any suggestions for short writing exercises that can help my kids use their imagination and reinforce basic sentence structure would be greatly appreciated!

Hey guys, I’m looking for creative ways to teach sentence writing to my first graders. Something that combines forming complete sentences and practice with spacing and punctuation. Any tips or resources would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 🙏

So... my students would rather do literally anything else than put words on paper. So hard to get them to write, or at least try. I see way too many doodles than I'd like to... How do you get your students to seat (for more than 20 minutes) and actually write something lesson related?

So this worked well in my classroom this week... We were working on poetry, which my 4th grade students aren't always huge fans of.. I introduced a simple structure called “identity poems,” where each line starts with a prompt like “I am,” “I see,” “I feel,” or “I dream,” etc. I then asked the students to write 2 poems, one about an experience that made them super happy this past week, and one about something that they wish they had done differently. The class then went silent for 20 minutes (in the best way possible). When everyone was done a few students shared what they wrote with the rest of the class... This reminded me why I love teaching writing so much.

Hey all, happy (almost) new year! Do you guys have any fun writing activities for 1st, 3rd and 5th graders? Would love to hear your suggestions! I’m looking for creative ideas that can help make writing fun... I’m open to trying anything 😊 Thanks in advance!

Hi all, I’m looking for some creative writing exercises to do with my 1st and 2nd graders as we head into the New Year. Something age-appropriate that's not the usual "trace the following..." or "complete the sentence.." and maybe even a little reflective to help them think about the year ahead. Thanks in advance - cheers!