How to teach creative writing to primary school children

How To Teach Creative Writing To Primary School Children

photo by Zoe

This How To Guide will help teachers or parents to teach creative writing to primary school children. Students need to learn how and where to gather ideas, take notes on their story ideas, learn the elements of fiction writing, and how to write a short story.

Instructions

Step 1

Gathering Ideas

How To Step

Gathering Ideas - Discuss how children can look for ideas by talking to their parents, brothers and sisters, other relatives, school friends, neighbors, or other people. As they search for ideas, they need to write down anything that comes to their mind so they don't forget their ideas.

Step 2

Elements of Fiction - Settings

How To Step

Elements of Fiction - Settings - You can teach the children that settings are where the stories take place. Settings can be their home, neighborhood, school, park, or relatives' homes. They need to learn how to describe their setting. You can teach them by showing them how to describe their classroom by using any of their senses: hearing, touching, tasting, feeling, and seeing.

Step 3

Elements of Fiction - Characters

How To Step

Elements of Fiction - Characters - Children need to select a main character for their story. Then, they need to name the character and describe that person. You can teach the children how to describe a character by having them select a student in the classroom and write down their physical characteristics or personal characteristics if they know them well enough to describe their likes and dislikes.

Step 4

Elements of Fiction - Dialogue

How To Step

Elements of Fiction - Dialogue - You can tell the children to listen to the other students and how they speak. If something sounds interesting to them, they can write down that dialogue. You can have them pair off and practice talking and listening to each other.

Step 5

Elements of Fiction - Narration

How To Step

Elements of Fiction - Narration - You can explain to the children that narration is the narrator telling the story. The narrator can be in first person or third person point of view.

Step 6

Elements of Fiction - Plot

How To Step

Elements of Fiction - Plot - You can discuss the meaning of plot. The plot is a structure of the story. Without it, there wouldn't be a story. Plots move the story along to the very end. Writers need to develop their plot so readers will continue reading to the last page. You can have the children write the first paragraph of their story. The beginning sentence needs to grasp the readers attention, so they will want to continue reading.

Step 7

Writing The First Draft

How To Step

Writing the first draft - You can review the elements of fiction, and then you can have the students write the first draft of their short story. After that, you can grade their papers and focus on sentence structure, paragraph structure. You can also grade for mechanics such as spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

You will Need

Spiral Notebook or Writing Pad

Pens or Pencils

White Outs or Erasers

Smaller Notebook or Note Cards

Tips & Warnings

Teach sentence structure.

Teach paragraph structure.

Tell the students to start writing down anything that comes to their minds.

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