Creative writing tips for kids
Creative writing can often be hard to integrate into lessons for teachers. This part of the English curriculum has many aspects to cover. Plus, some children love writing creatively, whilst others can find it daunting which is a challenge. It is important to encourage pupils to take part in creative writing and instil a passion for it within them. To help you achieve this and overcome the challenges, we have sourced some creative writing tips for kids to use in your lessons.
Change up the classroom
An important step to get your pupils involved in creative writing is changing up your classroom layout. It is best to create a workshop style atmosphere. Move tables closer together, creating larger group workspaces. Group work is important for creative writing because children can bounce off each other with ideas and create stories together. Make sure to leave enough space for you to walk to each table to interact with your pupils and guide them. For these exercises it is better to not stand at the front of the classroom and involve yourself more.
Give pupils freedom
Teachers can often ponder, ‘what is creative writing for kids?’ A simple answer to this is writing exercises that don’t have a strict structure. Children can thrive when they are given more freedom with their writing. Without a doubt, this freedom makes the experience a lot more enjoyable for pupils. Set aside time for your pupils to have an opportunity to write anything they like. They can explore their favourite topics or express feelings in any way they want.
Hand out ideas notebooks
Give your pupils separate small notebooks where they can jot down ideas for their creative writing as well as write parts out. Don’t monitor these notebooks or check grammar and spelling. These are a tool to generate ideas and flesh them out not a final piece. Other tools like mini whiteboards can be used or sticky notes, but these are harder to refer back to if needed.
Use mind maps
Children’s imaginations can spark at any time from things that have happened in their day or what they have seen. Encourage children to jot these sparks of imagination down in the form of a mind map. These thoughts can be anything from setting and themes to characters or random ideas.
Over a short period of time mind mapping ideas, your pupils will start to see that they have created parts of a story that they could try writing out. Mind mapping allows them to be on the right track and formulate their ideas. Nevertheless, when they see a story idea forming it inspires them to write it as what’s the harm in trying something new out?
Make use of storyboards
A great way to get pupils interested in creative writing is using storyboards. Visual cues could be the key to unlock creativity for children. Print out some storyboard templates or ask your pupils to divide their paper into a grid and let them draw out a story. It doesn’t have to be detailed if they don’t want it to be; simple stick people and outlines will do. Underneath each picture, they can summarise that part of the story in a sentence or two.
Once the base of the story is drawn, pupils can start to flesh it out by writing it creating a full story.
Source prompts
One of the best creative writing tips for kids is using story prompts. These get the creative juices flowing by giving pupils an idea to focus their story around or a beginning for their story. Prompts can be found anywhere, therefore many resources are available online to help you find good story prompts. Use story prompts in any way you like in your lessons and let children’s imaginations run wild with them. Prompts still allow pupils to freely write what they want but assist the ones who struggle to come up with solid ideas.
Our sentence starter prompts are perfect to use in creative writing exercises. Take a look at the video below to discover one way you could use them with your pupils.
Incorporate events
There are many different events about creative writing for kids to attend. Research some in your local area and consider taking a school trip to one. It could be a workshop to get your pupils in the mood to write creatively. Or instead, there are plenty of speaking events with children’s authors that can spark a passion for writing. If you can’t go out to an event, try and organise an event to occur within the school.
Get outdoors
Creative writing tips for kids aren’t all just focused on writing or planning ideas out. A great way to spark imaginations is to head outdoors and go on an adventure. Despite there being lots of distractions, pupils can be inspired by what’s around them which can generate ideas for stories. An example of this could be a trip to the local woodland that inspires fantasy ideas for stories.
Set creative writing as homework
It is important for children to carry on practising their creative writing, so what’s a better place to do this than at home? Children can flourish with their creative writing in the home environment due to feeling more comfortable. Home is also possibly more inspiring for kids to come up with creative ideas. Encourage parents to motivate their children to explore creative writing outside of school by setting small tasks as homework. Doing this gives the perfect flipped classroom experience too.
Allow mistakes to happen
The best part about creative writing is that it allows pupils to have room for mistakes. You should always let mistakes happen to carry on that freedom that writing brings. If you see a mistake within their writing, gently point it out so that the pupil can learn from it. Balance this with reassurance showing them that this is what creative writing is all about.
Don’t let them beat themselves up over mistakes or allow them to feel like they don’t want to write anymore. The writing process is always trial and error and there can be no wrongs.
Use these creative writing tips for kids in your lessons to let pupils explore their imagination whilst developing critical writing skills. Instil a passion of creative writing within your pupils and find new ways to introduce the subject into your lessons. Setting creative writing sessions up can be difficult, but these tips can put you on the right track for kids to enjoy writing.
Need help with thinking of creative writing activities to do with your class? Check out our ‘creative ideas for the classroom’ blog.
