writing Archives

Helping Hands! Community Helpers Writing Activity

May 7, 2020 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Community helpers are always a popular theme in early education. They have been for years.

I remember learning about mail workers, firefighters, and police officers when I was in nursery school myself.

These neighborhood workers are essential to our daily lives, so it’s only right that we teach kids about them as early as possible.

And, with this community helpers writing activity, you can add in a little ELA too!

Simple Community Helpers Writing Activity for Kids

This community helpers sentence writing activity is a fun way to use early writing and sentencing building skills to teach students about our local helpers!

You could use this as a one-time writing activity or place it at centers for repeated practice so that kids can work on them over and over.

Read on to see how to get your copy.

And, for more ways to learn about neighborhood workers, take a look our list of 20 community helpers books for kids!

Pick up this printable community helpers sentence writing activity to help early writers learn about forming sentences and helpers in the neighborhood!

Helping Hands! Community Helpers Writing Activity

To use this community helpers writing activity, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Printer (with ink)
Printer Paper
Colored pencils
Laminator (optional)
Dry erase crayons or dry erase markers (optional)

Community Helpers Sentence Writing Activity for Kids

This writing activity includes seven community helper sentence practice pages, featuring:

Teacher
Trash collector
EMT
Doctor
Mail carrier
Firefighter
And Police officer

Community Helper Sentence Writing Activity

Each page includes a picture of the community helper, along with an example sentence.

Simple Community Helper Writing Sentences Activity

Students can practice reading the sentence on each page.

Then they can color the sentence, trace the sentence, and write it for themselves on the lines.

This is an excellent activity for teaching sentence formation, because it gives children an example of what a complete sentence should look like.

Point out that each complete sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a period.

Make sure that students include both of these elements when rewriting the sentences.

Simple Community Helpers Sentence Writing Printables

If you prefer, you can turn this lesson into a reusable activity by laminating the pages so they can be wiped clean.

Students can use dry erase markers or dry erase crayons to complete them again and again!

Scroll down to get your Community Helpers Writing Activity!

Learn more about these neighborhood workers with these activities!

Teach children how to identify community workers in both Spanish and English with these Spanish community helper worksheets!

Introduce kids to the helpers in your town with these kids' books about community helpers! Great for read-aloud time with early learners!

Use these printable Spanish community words flashcards to help kids identify places in the neighborhood in Spanish!

To get your copy of this Helping Hands! Community Helpers Writing Activity, click the image or the link below to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

Community Helpers Writing Activity for Kids

>>> Helping Hands! Writing Activity – Teachers Pay Teachers <<<

Spring Stories! Spring Preschool Story Prompts

February 24, 2020 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Piglet and I have been working on her handwriting and phonics skills for months, so I thought she’d have a little fun trying her hand at creative writing.

And spring is a great time to be creative!

Naturally, I thought she’d enjoy some of her own spring worksheets for kids: these new printable spring preschool story prompts!

Helping kids learn to write about their thoughts and guesses at a young age is a good way to help them write without fear later on.

These printable preschool writing prompts can help.

Read on to see how to get your own copy of these spring writing printables!

And, for more spring learning fun for early learners, don’t miss our Birds and Bugs Playdough Mats for Preschoolers!

Spring Stories! Spring Preschool Story Prompts

To use these early creative writing prompts, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Printer (with ink)
Printer paper
Pencils (Side note: I’ve never really used the larger primary pencils for my preschoolers, but they may be helpful if your child is working on pencil grip skills.)

The prompts include four different scenarios for preschoolers to write about.

They can write and draw about their favorite thing about spring.

They can write and draw about their favorite spring animal.

They can express what they like to do in spring.

And, to get more specific, they can write or draw about what they want to do this spring.

Plus, they can draw a picture of what they think could happen afterwards. Let’s see these in action!

How to Use Early Creative Writing Prompts with Kids

As an English major, creative writing is one of my passions.

There’s just something about putting pencil to paper (or fingers to keyboards, these days) and starting off down a road of creative thought.

You kind of have an idea of where you’d like to go, but you’re always surprised at the things you come up with along the way.

The same is true with little writers!

Open-ended questions give them a chance to put their imaginations to work. And, after all, writing without imagination is like…like…not writing at all.

Each of these spring creative writing prompts has a line for kids to finish the sentence. At the bottom, there’s a box for them to draw a picture of what they wrote.

This spring, Piglet wants to play basketball. That’s her shooting the ball into the hoop in the picture.

I will say that I had to read the sentence out to her and help her spell the words. The rest she did herself.

After each initial prompt is a second page asking kids to write what they think will happen next.

This is a simple way to introduce creative writing to preschoolers: ask them to come up with an image and then predict what might happen afterward.

Piglet’s answer to what will happen after she plays basketball was: “Bounces”.

Naturally, she drew a picture of the ball bouncing after falling through the net.

Hmmm….what to do next? Color the pictures!

And that’s what she did. She was so proud of her work that she gave her masterpieces to her older siblings.

This was a fun (and quick) language arts lesson for her.

We spent about 15 minutes on one of the prompts and she got to practice handwriting, creative writing, art, phonics, and spelling – all in one activity!

Scroll down to get your printable Spring Preschool Story Prompts!

Don’t miss these other spring learning printables!

To get your copy of our Spring Preschool Story Prompts, click the image or the link below to grab the product from my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

>>> Spring Early Creative Writing Prompts – Teachers Pay Teachers <<<

This post is part of the Homeschool Writing Prompts linkup at iHomeschool Network! Stop by to get more fun writing prompts for your students from my fellow bloggers!

Apple Tree Life Cycle Sentence Writing Activity

August 26, 2019 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Learning about apple tree life cycles is such a fun fall science lesson for kids. Plus, if you’re able to actually go apple picking, you can see this process in real life!

Studying the life cycle of an apple tree is also an excellent activity for learning sequences with early learners.

Since the growth process follows a set of fixed steps, it’s a good way to talk about what happens first, second, third, and so on.

And that’s why this printable apple tree life cycle sentence writing activity makes such a good lesson for early grades!

With this easy, no-prep writing activity, students can practice reading, writing, and sequence while learning about fall science!

Read on to see how to get a copy of this sentence writing activity for your students.

And see more ways to study how apples grow with my Apple Life Cycle Sequencing Activity!

Need to work with early learners? Take a look at these Apple Alike! Same or Different Worksheets too!

Apple Tree Life Cycle Sentence Writing Activity

To use this apple tree sentence writing activity, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Printer (with ink)
Printer Paper
Colored pencils
Laminator (optional)
Dry erase markers (optional)

This apple life cycle writing activity includes eight different writing pages.

Each page includes a sentence for students to read, color, trace, and then write on the lines provided.

Apple Tree Life Cycle Sentence Writing Activity for Kids

Since each page features one step in the apple tree life cycle process, students can also practice placing the steps in the correct order as they work!

These would be fantastic for fall science centers!

Just laminate each page, place the activity pages on a ring, and let students use them again and again with dry erase markers!

Scroll down to get your copy of our Apple Tree Life Cycle Sentence Writing Activity!

Don’t miss these other writing lessons for early grades!

And see more fun fall learning ideas on my Fall Activities for Kids Pinterest board!

To get your copy of this Apple Tree ELA! Apple Tree Sentence Writing Lesson, click the image or the link below to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

>>> Apple Tree Sentence Writing Activity <<<

Back to School! Creative Writing Prompts for Kids

July 29, 2019 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

A new school year usually brings a new set of worries for parents…and for kids.

I’ve noticed that, as my kids grow older, they start to struggle with feelings of self-consciousness and uncertainty. And the first place I start to notice it is in their writing.

Even my bookworms who used to be able to write with abandon start to feel unsure about how to express their feelings as they move through the upper elementary grades and closer to middle school.

So I thought this set of back to school writing prompts would be a great way to start the conversation about the new school year, even if students feel less than enthusiastic.

These would be great for individual students or take-home writing assignments. Or you could use them for a collaborative writing activity as a group!

Keep reading to see how to get your copy! And, for more practice with writing in elementary grades, take a look at my Back to School All About Me Writing Prompt!

Back to School Writing Prompts for Kids

To use these back to school writing prompts, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

This product includes a list of back to school writing prompts and a word bank that features nouns, verbs, adjectives, and questions for students to use in their compositions.

Plus, there are 10 different lined pages for students to use as they work!

All of the questions are very open-ended and personal, so even the most reluctant writer will feel comfortable with a least one of the prompts.

Need to save on ink? A line art version is also included!

If you use that one, let students color in the pictures for themselves to add a little art to this activity.

As the teacher, you can complete a prompt too! Be sure to share your response with the class!

Scroll down to get your copy of our Back to School Writing Prompts!

Stop by to see these other ELA learning ideas!

Follow my Fun Language Arts Ideas for Kids board on Pinterest for more ELA teaching tips!

To get your copy of our Back to School Writing Prompts, click the image or the link below to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store!

>>> Back to School Creative Writing Prompts <<<

All About Me! Simple Writing Prompt for Kids

July 24, 2019 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Writing is one of the most wonderful things in the world to me. I love the feeling of writing down my thoughts and gaining a sense of clarity as my pen moves across the paper.

As much as I love writing, though, I do not love writing about myself. It’s just…uncomfortable.

And it’s uncomfortable for a lot of children too.

Which is why I wanted to share this simple All About Me writing prompt for kids. It’s a simple, non-intimidating way to break into writing about self, even for younger students!

This would be a wonderful activity for the first week of school, but it could also be a great icebreaker anytime a new student joins the class.

Read on to see how to get your copy free! Plus, check out Travel Tales! a simple vacation writing activity for more ways to get students writing!

All About Me! Simple Writing Prompt for Kids

To use this simple writing prompt for kids, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

What I love about this simple writing activity is that most of the work is already done for students. They don’t have to figure out what to write about, which is what trips up a LOT of writers.

They can simply fill in the blanks!

As the teacher, be sure to fill one out too! That way, your class can get to know you better.

These could even make an excellent bulletin board display! Hand out different colored pencils and let students complete them on their own.

Then arrange them as an “All About Our Class” display!

Scroll down to get your copy of our All About Me! Simple Writing Prompt for Kids!

Don’t miss these other posts to help students get writing!

And be sure to follow my Fun Language Arts Ideas for Kids board on Pinterest!

To get your copy of All About Me! Simple Writing Prompt for Kids for free, click the image or the link below to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store!

>>> All About Me Writing Prompt for Kids <<<

Donut Colors Sentence Writing Activity for Kids

June 3, 2019 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

I’ve never actually sat down and written a list of my favorite things.

If I did, though, I think donuts would be near the top.

Down here in the South, Krispy Kreme reigns supreme as the best place to get doughnuts. While I’m a stickler for the unadulterated goodness of glazed, my kids love frosted donuts.

So I thought this fun Donut Colors sentence writing activity would be a neat way to get some basic sentence writing practice in!

These are fantastic for early writers who are just learning about simple sentence structure!

Read on to see how to get your copy. And, for more fun with sugary sweets, don’t miss our Big and Small Cupcake Worksheets for preschoolers!

Donut Colors Sentence Writing Activity for Kids

To use this donut themed sentence writing activity, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

This writing activity includes eight worksheets. Each features a different colored donut with a different sentence.

Students can practice reading each sentence, coloring each sentence, and tracing each sentence.

Then can write them on the lines provided – all by themselves!

Since each sentence uses two words that describe each donut, this is also a fantastic introduction to adjectives!

If you use literacy centers or morning tubs with your students, you could also use a laminator to laminate each worksheet.

Then hand them out or place them at centers, along with dry erase markers, for writing practice students can use again and again!

Scroll down to get your copy of our Donut Colors Sentence Writing Activity!

Take a look at these other sweet treat posts!

And see more ways to teach ELA on my Language Arts for Homeschoolers Pinterest board!

To get your copy of this Donut Colors! Sentence Writing Activity, click the image or the link below to get it from my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

>>> Donut Colors Sentence Writing Activity <<<

Simple Green Eggs and Ham Inspired Poetry Activity

February 4, 2019 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Since we’ve been working through BookShark Level 1 with our youngest, we’ve gotten to read plenty of wonderful stories. When I looked at the bookshelf and noticed we had yet to read Green Eggs and Ham, though, I wanted to jump for joy.

As a child, I read The Cat In the Hat first. But Green Eggs and Ham is, by far, my favorite Dr. Seuss book. I love it so much.

With the help of our BookShark program, we turned this classic story into a simple Green Eggs and Ham poetry activity. My first grader loved it!

Take a look at how we extended this story into a super easy creative writing lesson! And for more practice with ELA, don’t miss our printable Construction Contractions Language Arts lesson!

Disclosure: I am a BookShark brand ambassador and am receiving free curriculum as part of my role.

Easy Green Eggs and Ham Poetry Activity for Kids

To do this simple Green Eggs and Ham poetry activity, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Green printer paper
Black marker
White Posterboard or Giant Wipe Off Index Card
Dry Erase Marker (only needed if you’re using the wipe off index card)

We began by reading Green Eggs and Ham. Our little one read it to me while I sat and looked on. She found the story and the illustrations hilarious.

At one point, after Sam-I-am offered the green eggs and ham again, she actually said “He just told you he doesn’t like it!”

In our BookShark Level 1 lesson, the curriculum guide encouraged us to work on writing our own poem based on a food that we would not like to eat.

So I pulled out our giant laminated index card and started a couple of sentences. Then it was up to our first grader to fill in the blanks with her own ideas for yucky food and where she wouldn’t eat it.

Then I thought it would be a little more fun to let her write her answers on some “green eggs” of our own. So I just cut out some wiggly shapes from green paper.

She started by choosing a strange food color – “gold”. Then the food she added was noodles. Incidentally, she’d just had noodles for lunch that day. It’s entirely possible she was trying to tell me something.

When we started thinking of words that rhymed with noodles, she got to “doodles” and decided that would work.

Then it was time to think of a place she wouldn’t like to eat her strange food. She choose “at home”.

Which definitely made me think she was trying to tell me something.

And, naturally, if you won’t eat them at home, then you won’t eat them with a gnome either.

And her rhyme was done!

I asked her what she thought the lesson of the story was. She said “Don’t say you don’t like something just because it looks weird. You should try it.”

Score! Now let’s see if she remembers that little lesson the next time I serve dinner.

This Green Eggs and Ham poetry activity was just one of the activities in BookShark Level 1 for this book. Take a look at BookShark’s curriculum to see more ways you can use it to bring stories to life with your kids!

Check out these other reading activities for children!

And see more ways to make story time fun on my Reading for Kids Pinterest board!

ADHD Handwriting Help for Kids

November 30, 2017 by Selena Robinson 10 Comments

Do your kids with ADHD struggle with penmanship? You’re not alone. Many, many kids need ADHD handwriting help from an early age. And, once again, it all goes back to the unique struggles of the ADHD brain.

Executive function is what helps us organize our thoughts and carry them out. Because that is sporadic in kids with ADHD, they may have trouble understanding the process of handwriting, including how to hold the pencil, how to form the letters, and how to copy what they see in a book or on a chalkboard.

Tigger has struggled with her handwriting for the past couple of years. On occasion, it would look perfect – identical to the models in her handwriting book. At other times, though, it was barely legible. For the longest time, I did not understand why handwriting seemed to be so difficult for her until I started reading about all the ways ADHD affects children.

Now that I have a better understanding of how ADHD works, I’ve adjusted my teaching style to offer her more help with handwriting. Here are a few tips I’ve been using.

How to Offer ADHD Handwriting Help for Kids

This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.

1. Adjust your expectations.

We’ve mentioned this a few times in the past, but when it comes to developing handwriting skills, we have to adjust our expectations of our kids. They may not develop the fine motor skills to write well at the same time or age as their peers, which means their handwriting skills may develop slowly.

If that’s the case, having them write pages and pages of copywork is not going to help them develop these skills any faster. It will, however, make them hate handwriting.

Let your kids write to the best of their ability and then have them do a small amount of daily copywork. After a few weeks, you’ll see their handwriting improve. It may not look like the D’Nealian model, but it will improve…in time.

2. Don’t rush to teach cursive.

There’s a minor debate going on in public school right now about the value of teaching cursive writing in the modern age. Personally, I love cursive and I teach it to my kids. But, I don’t insist that they use it at a certain age.

Cursive is generally harder to master than print handwriting. So if your child with ADHD is already struggling with handwriting, don’t insist that he master cursive simply because he is at the grade level when cursive is taught in school.

We introduced cursive to Tigger in third grade, but I noticed that her print was getting sloppier by the day. So, I stopped teaching cursive and we went back to print. Now she’s learning cursive again, but without letting her print penmanship slide.

3. Let kids use alternate methods for composition.

Some kids who dislike handwriting or have sloppy handwriting are actually excellent storytellers. Don’t insist on them writing their work by hand. Let them use other methods to compose their stories, papers, and responses. Try teaching them to type. In fact, learning to type can actually build fine motor skills that will improve handwriting in the long run.

You might even want to let your kids dictate their stories or draw pictures to express their thoughts. Let them know that there are several ways to tell a story. That way, the frustration of trying to master penmanship won’t poison their love for writing.