Elementary Writing Activities, Prompts and Assignments

How to Create a Variety of Writing Exercises for Elementary Students

Frequent writing is one of the most effective ways to improve one's writing skills. Although your child may be getting a good amount of experience in the classroom, creating additional practice exercises for him or her to complete under your supervision may help to speed up the learning process, develop general understanding and increase confidence. Try these three exercises to help your child improve his or her writing skills at home.

Three Writing Exercises

Word Choice Activity

Many elementary students tend to use dull, vague words in their writing, like 'good' or 'bad.' You can help your child make his or her writing more colorful by teaching word choice during after-school lessons.

Start by giving your child a food item with a distinctive taste. You can choose something he or she will enjoy, like chocolate, or something most kids dislike, like anchovies. Let your child take a small taste of the food and think of descriptive adjectives. For example, 'soft' and 'sweet' could describe chocolate. Let your child come up with as many adjectives as possible, and then have him or her make a poster showing the descriptive words. Instead of a poster, you may also have your child create small flash cards with the food on one side and the descriptors on the other so he or she can use them for reference in class.

Expository Writing Prompt

In first grade, students begin to write very basic informative papers backed by facts. Throughout the remainder of elementary school, research and expository essays are covered more in-depth, and your child will become more comfortable with his or her writing ability. Help your child develop his or her writing and research skills by creating expository writing prompts for him or her at home.

For example, you can ask your child to describe a certain activity and why it is important, like recycling, exercising or studying. You may also simply ask your child to write about something he or she likes, like a teacher, book or animal. Make sure your child provides reasons why he or she likes it.

Daily Journal Assignment

In order to help your child keep current with his or her writing practice, you can assign a daily journal entry. Instead of using specific prompts, provide your child a blank notebook to write in for ten minutes each day about anything he or she chooses. You may want to provide some sort of guidance to help your child gain a better idea of what he or she may want to write about. Journal entries may include a narrative of what happened that day, opinions about a certain issue or occurrence, reviews of books or movies or original stories.