4th Grade Writing Exercises and Prompts

How to Create Practice Writing Activities for 4th Graders

Commonly, 4th graders write short essays, summarize texts and respond to writing prompts. One of the best ways for your child to improve his or her writing is frequent practice. Creating enjoyable exercises and prompts for your child to complete at home will help prepare him or her for standardized tests and writing assignments in later grades.

At-Home Writing Activities

Language and Comprehension Exercises

Students in the 4th grade become accustomed to analyzing and responding to texts. One option is to create writing exercises that are tied to reading lessons. If your child writes a summary of a short story or book chapter, he or she is improving on reading comprehension and summarization skills.

Additionally, you may also have your child write reflections on a character's actions or make predictions about a story. Another option that may help your child with incorporating an appropriate amount of details into his or her writing is to create games that challenge your child's knowledge of the parts of speech and how to use them effectively.

Alternate Ending

By having your child create his or her own ending for a short story, you'll help spark creativity while providing practice with concluding statements. To get started, choose a worksheet online that provides a story without an ending, or take a story you already know and delete the last couple of paragraphs. Provide the worksheet to your child with the story and a space to fill in his or her own ideas.

Once complete, take some time to review the ending with your child. Find out why he or she chose that particular ending and confirm that the conclusion is linked to the details throughout story.

Description Challenge

Another activity that may be fun for you and your child is a description guessing game. Similar to a reverse 20 Questions, this timed challenge will give your child the opportunity to write descriptive sentences that paint a picture in the reader's mind.

Start by providing a notepad and a set time on the clock. You can opt for 30 seconds, one minute or a longer interval. Have your child think of a person, place or thing, and when he or she is ready, start timing. During that time, your child will write as many full, descriptive sentences as possible about the chosen item. Encourage the use of different parts of speech, such as adverbs and adjectives.

When time is up, read through your child's sentences to see if you can guess the subject. If not, provide some feedback on how the sentences could be improved and any additional details that might be included.

Writing Prompts

Although writing prompts are used at various grade levels, it's important to write them in a way that's appropriate for what your child is learning in school. In 4th grade, your child is probably writing narratives, explanations and opinions that include facts and conclusions. When creating writing prompts for your 4th grader, choose topics that are familiar and interesting for that age group, such as school, sports, friends and toys.

You could also focus on a particular skill. For example, help your child improve his or her reasoning skills with persuasive prompts, or help your child work on his or her ability to communicate a message through expository prompts.

Persuasive

Your birthday is coming up, and your parents have asked you to make a list of some gifts you would like to receive. You really want a puppy or a kitten! Write a convincing essay outlining why you think your parents should get one for you. Break your paragraphs into separate reasons, and be sure to include an introduction, supporting details and a concluding statement.

Expository

Nutrition is important for young and growing bodies, and the school cafeteria provides well-balanced meals every day for lunch. However, there are some meals that you don't like as much as others. Using your knowledge of nutrition, explain what healthy alternatives you'd like to see on the cafeteria menu. Be sure to provide facts and examples to back up your suggestions.