Let’s face it.  Motivating children to write is a major challenge, but here are some fun, genre-specific, writing prompts elementary kids will enjoy.  These are great for the first few days of school, as well.

Expository Writing Prompt:  Think of a very hot vacation destination, and then write a weather forecast for that place.  It can be somewhere you have recently visited, or some place you would like to go. Describe how sunny it is, what the temperature feels like (a good way to use a simile), and how the hot weather makes you feel.  Include ideas for staying cool.  Before you begin, you will need to do some research about the place you chose.  Use an atlas, encyclopedia, or websites to gather information about your vacation spot such as the hottest temperature and when that is, the latitude and longitude of the place, what country it’s in, and the fun activities there are–especially ones that will cool you down!  Make sure that every sentence in the body of your essay has an explanation that follows.  Relate your reasons to a book you’ve read or a personal experience.

Persuasive Writing Prompt:  Write a persuasive essay that talks your parents or grandparents into taking you to your favorite vacation destination.  It can be some place you’ve already traveled to, or a place you’d like to go.  The beginning should have a good lead sentence that states your opinion.  The body of your essay should have at least 3 reasons why you want to go there, writing an explanation after each reason.  Be very descriptive.  The last sentence of your essay should be a ‘call to action’ wherein you tell your parents what you want them to do.

Narrative Writing Prompt:  Think about a time when you were nice to another person.  Write a story telling about what you did and how it made you feel.  Be sure to explain how you made that person feel, too.  Don’t forget to include all of the elements of a story:  Setting, Characters, Problem/Solution (the plot), and Title.  Make sure you incorporate dialogue and descriptive language.  Your ‘voice’ should reflect how you would speak to someone your age.

Response to Literature Writing Prompt:  Think of your very favorite book ever.  It can be something simple you read when you were younger, or a book you just finished.  Check it out from the library.  Begin your essay with an interesting lead sentence that states the name of the book, the author, and why it’s your favorite.  Briefly introduce the character or characters and the problem they encounter.  Don’t give away the solution, however!  End your writing with a clever sentence that makes the reader want to read the book.  Then, get a piece of plain, white paper, draw the cover of the book, color it, and staple it to your essay.  If you want to make it look like a book, fold the plain, white paper in half, write your final copy on the inside, and illustrate the front.  Have fun!

Studies have shown that we tend to read the first and/or last letters of a word, and that our minds figure out the rest.  Amazing, isn’t it?  Read the following for an example of this phenomenon, and see the bottom of this post for spelling strategies that can help increase children’s retention of spelling word lists in school:

Cna yuo raed tihs?
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod
are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the
rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit
a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by
istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig! i cdnuolt bleieev taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.

Many elementary-school teachers do not believe in the importance of correct spelling.  It is true that when children have a strong phonemic awareness, especially with beginning and ending sounds, they tend to have a firm reading foundation.  That, coupled with a print-rich environment where excellent reading and comprehension is modeled and practiced, students tend to do very well in reading.  Spelling doesn’t seem to matter.

So, what’s all the fuss about spelling not being important in the younger years?  To begin with, in elementary schools of the past, students weren’t pressured as much to write well in many genres such as persuasive and expository essays.  Things we did in middle and high school have been brought down into the lower grades, and national assessments are in place for levels as low as second grade writing. 

So, in order to have students get their ideas on paper, this requires uninterrupted writing, ie., going with the flow of ideas.  However, where many teachers “miss the boat” is not instructing students how to find and correct spelling errors in the editing process of their writing.  In addition, students must still have spelling and vocabulary building skills in order to learn sight words (words that can not be identified through rules of phonics). 

Therefore, regular weekly spelling exercises and lessons in how to use a dictionary are vital to this process.  Those who disagree need to ponder this:  If children don’t learn how to spell correctly in elementary school, when will they learn?  Are doctors, lawyers, authors, and any professionals allowed to have consistent spelling errors?  I’ve heard a Last Will and Testament is null and void if there is a spelling error!  Are college thesis papers and dissertations accepted with spelling errors?  In addition, most job applications are thrown out if they contain errors in spelling.  And don’t fall back on ’spell check’, as we all know it doesn’t catch every misspelled words.

Don’t limit your child’s future professional choices by believing that correct spelling is a thing of the past. 

5 Spelling Help Ideas

1.  For some fun spelling games and puzzles, go to http://www.spellingcity.com.  All you have to do is create a user name and password for your child.  If your child’s school has posted lists, you can access them through the state/city/school route on the main page.  If your teachers have not utilized this website, let them know about it! Other schools can be accessed, as well.

2.  Sort spelling words with commonalities in columns.  For instance, if the focus is words with the long ‘ay’ sound, separate the words by how those sounds are made. For example:  ay, ai, a/consonant/e, ea, ei.  So, your list would look like this:

ay                            ai                            a/c/e                           ea                              ei

day                          paid                        made                          steak                         weigh

3.  Get some graphing paper and show children how to make a crossword puzzle using their spelling words.  The connecting words won’t fit if the others aren’t spelled correctly.  Get an age-appropriate crossword puzzle book as a model for how to create their own.

4.  Make up a song with similar spelling words.

5.  Play Scrabble For Kids, modifying the game by having the child use the dictionary to find words that would work.

6.  Help your child memorize commonly misspelled words.  You can find these in most spelling workbooks.

Word spelling doesn’t have to be a struggle!  Utilize these ideas and other spelling for kids websites and language spelling workbooks.  And, as I always say, most children succeed in school when parents partner with teachers and work with their children at home.

The Steps of Writing Process illustration on the first page of my book is a quick reminder on how to set up a writing center in your classroom. Following is a description for each step. This should be used for all genres of writing in the elementary school setting:  persuasive writing, narrative writing, informational or expository writing, and response to literature.

Steps to Writing

Prewrite

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Compose

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Evaluate

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Revise

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Edit

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Publish 

Prewrite:  The first step of the writing process is to create a prewrite.  This is where students collect research information and ideas on their topic, creating either a formal or informal list of ideas.  You can provide a graphic organizer for this, or not.  A common one used is the ‘web’ wherein students put their topic in the middle of the paper and draw lines, webbing out from the center, that lead to ideas within this general topic.  If a student’s idea is too broad, use a funnel graphic organizer:  Draw a funnel on a piece of paper.  Write their broad topic at the top, and have the student narrow that idea down, line after line, until it’s very concise at the bottom of the funnel.

Compose:  This is where students use their prewrite information to write a rough draft of their topic.  Students should be encouraged to disregard spelling at this point.  They should be focused on getting their ideas on paper–using logical steps, transitional phrases–and following the guidelines of the prompt’s genre.

Evaluate:  At this point in the steps to writing, students should check their rough draft against their prewrite to make sure they included everything from their organized list, or more importantly, check to see if they omitted something vital to the paper.  A good way to evaluate is to have classmates read each other’s papers and share ideas on how to better them. This is also a good point to conference with the teacher regarding their rough draft.

Revise:  Students now take their ideas from student and teacher conferences to create a second draft of their paper.

Edit:  Then, each student should use a thesaurus to look up overused or common words found in their writing to find higher-level vocabulary that gives their composition more definition.  Doris TheSaurus is an excellent elementary school writing trade book to enhance the importance of this step. Next, they should circle all of the words they think are misspelled, and using a dictionary, correct errors.  After that, students should make sure they have proper punctuation, capital letters, and complete sentences of varying lengths.  A good way to proofread a paper is to ‘whisper read’ wherein students go to a quiet place in the room and whisper aloud their paper to themselves.  Finally, students should correct all errors.

Publish:  Students now take their edited, corrected paper and create a final version on the computer or in long hand.  Often, students enjoy using interesting fonts, adding clipart and/or illustrations to their compositions.  Most children love reading aloud their papers to the class in the Reader’s Theatre or Author’s Chair setting.  They are also very proud to see their essays displayed somewhere in the classroom.