Back to School Writing Ideas

It’s that time of year again! The leaves are changing, the air is getting cooler, and school is starting up. This can be an exciting time for students, but it can also be a little daunting. One way to make the transition back to school a little easier is by incorporating writing into your daily routine. This means that you are probably looking for some back-to-school writing ideas. In this blog post, we will discuss different types of writing prompts and journals that you can use in your classroom this year.

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Back to School Writing Ideas #1 Picture Prompts

One low-pressure way to get students to write is by using picture prompts. These can be found online or in magazines- anywhere! Simply show your students a picture prompt and let them write for a set amount of time. They can base their writing on anything in the picture. This type of writing can be used as an assessment tool, or simply for fun!

One product that I have that incorporates picture prompts is my build a treat writing activity. In this activity, students will be able to build treats and then write a story about them. This means that it is fun and engaging and students feel like they are playing a game and don’t feel as much pressure from the writing. 

I use picture prompts all the time in my creative writing club and I have found most of my pictures on google images but Unsplash could work as well. I know the more interesting and complex the picture though the better that it is for picture prompts.

Back to School Writing Ideas #2 Creative Writing

Another low-pressure way to get students to write is to incorporate creative writing into your daily writing practice as a class.  This can be done through writing prompts, or simply by giving students free rein to write whatever they want. This type of writing is great for building confidence and fostering a love of writing in your students.

I like to start the year off with creative writing because it eases my students into daily journaling and back-to-school writing ideas. Usually, students are more into creative writing than writing that needs a certain structure it takes the pressure off and allows them to write in a genre that they like and that is interesting to them.

Back to School Writing Ideas # 3 Freewriting

Freewriting is another great writing activity that doesn’t put a lot of pressure on my students to perform. There are a couple of ways that you can do freewriting either you can give a one-word prompt like writing about ice cream. You could just have students write for 5 minutes on whatever you want. I like allowing students to write on whatever they want but put the parameters that their pencil cannot leave their paper in that 5 minutes. So they have to be constantly writing. This produces a stream of consciousness and also brain dump writing that can be helpful for anxiety. 

Back to School Writing Ideas # 4 Grammar Check-Ins

One way that I like to mix up our writing routine is by doing grammar check-ins. This is where students are given a quick exit ticket style activity that assesses their knowledge of a certain grammar rule. For example, you could give your students a sentence and ask them what are the nouns in this sentence, or why the comma is where it is in the sentence.

This can be given at the end of the week and go over the concepts that you taught that week that way your know your students understand. For some grammar practice that could prepare your students for these grammar check-ins, I have conventions of standard English grammar task card bundle that will teach students many of the grammar skills that they need to learn in upper elementary. You can grab this product by going to my TPT store or clicking here.

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Back to School Writing Ideas # 5 About Me Writing

One way to get to know your students and for them to get to know each other is by doing some about me writing. This can be in the form of a journal, or simply have students fill out a worksheet with information about themselves. This is a great activity to do during the first day or week of school so that you really learn about your students.

I have recently created a cactus back-to-school writing activity on Easel for TPT. This resource will give you five writing prompts for the first week of school and it is already completely converted into a digital activity for you that is perfect for writing centers or to even assign as homework during the first week.

If you are looking for a product that is not digital; however, I do have printable back-to-school journal pages that will give you prompts for back-to-school for the entire first month of school. This will put you well on your way to having daily writing activities for your students planned and you don’t even have to think of any prompts.  If you would like the grab the full version of the back-to-school journal pages you can click here. If you would like to receive a sample version you can click on the picture below to become a part of my email list. 

Back to School Writing Ideas # 6 Word Walls

One way that I like to help my students with spelling and writing is by having a word wall. This is where you have a designated area in your classroom where you put up words that are important for students to know how to spell and use in their writing. These could be high-frequency words, sight words, or even words from books that you are reading in class.

When my brother was in first grade his teacher was always very impressed with how he used the word wall. This also helps kids not feel self-conscious about if they are spelling something correctly.  If they see it on the wall, then they know that it is a word that we use and it is spelled that way.

Back to School Writing Ideas # 7 Mentor Sentences

One way that I help my students with writing is by incorporating mentor sentences into our routine. This is where you choose a sentence from a book that you are reading, or any sentence really, and you analyze it as a class. You talk about why the author chose to use certain words, what the punctuation adds to the meaning of the sentence, and anything else that you notice.

Then students can choose their own sentences to analyze and write about in their journals. This is a great way to help students with grammar, punctuation, and just overall writing skills. I also really enjoy using mentor sentences to teach students about the different parts of speech and how they work together in a sentence.

That’s it for now! I hope you found these ideas helpful and that they give you some inspiration for ways that you can incorporate writing into your back-to-school routine. If you found this blog post helpful please consider sharing it so others can benefit as well.