Writing Teaching Resources
Teaching writing strategies and the writing process this school year? Explore a comprehensive collection of teacher resources for primary English teachers — all created by teachers!
Stocked with graphic organisers, writing prompts, templates, worksheets and so much more, this collection of printable and digital activities is designed to help you as you help your students become more effective communicators and unleash their creativity and imagination.
Save time on lesson planning with resources that are aligned with the Australian curriculum (including version 9!) and have been through a careful review process by an expert member of our teacher team to ensure they're ready for your classroom and your students!
Are you looking for tips and tricks to add to your teacher toolkit this school year? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including engaging activities for teaching writing inprimary school and a look at some of the different writing strategies your students will need to learn.
11 Writing Strategies Kids Should Know by the End of Primary School
We can't talk about teaching kids to write without talking about the different writing strategies that can help them do just that!
When it comes to teaching our students to become confident writers who articulate their ideas effectively, here are some of the strategies our teacher team prioritises:
1. Brainstorming
Brainstorming is something we often do in the classroom, and it's a crucial part of learning to generate the ideas that will drive students' writing as they progress through their educational journey. Kids should know how to create a list of potential topics or points related to a particular writing assignment.
With younger students, this is often done as a whole group by writing ideas and points on chart paper. In upper years, students transition over to using text-based materials to generate ideas and talking points.
2. Outlining
Before diving directly into any assignment, our students should be able to create a structured framework or outline. Teaching students how to create this outline will help them organise their thoughts and arguments for penning their essays, reports and research papers.
3. Using Graphic Organisers
Technically graphic organisers are classroom tools, so you may not think of their use as a writing strategy per se. However, learning to use these tools is another means of providing kids with the tools they need to organize their ideas and information before they sit down to write.
These organisers are particularly useful for expository writing — students can use them to outline main ideas, supporting details, and transitions.
Students can also take advantage of story maps when they are working on narrative writing to plot the key elements of a story, such as characters, setting, conflict, rising action, climax and resolution.
Graphic organisers such as the OREO strategy and hamburger paragraph are also great tools for students to use when working with opinion and persuasive texts.
4. Freewriting
Writer's block is the enemy of creativity, and it can easily frustrate young students who don't know where to begin.
When students freewrite, they write continuously without worrying about grammar or punctuation. This writing strategy can be extremely freeing — hence the name! — and helps frustrated writers move past that writer's block, generating fresh ideas.
5. Peer Editing
Learning to review and provide constructive feedback on each other's work is a great writing strategy to employ in your classroom to help students improve their writing quality and enhance their editing skills.
The strategy allows your students to learn from one another, and it arms them with an important tool they can use well into the future — calling on peers to provide a critical eye to a piece of writing.
6. Using Sensory Language
Working on descriptive writing? With this writing strategy, students engage the reader's senses through vivid and sensory language to create a more immersive experience.
7. Including Transitions and Connectives
As students become more proficient in the writing process, learning to use transitional words and phrases allows them to create smooth transitions between sentences and paragraphs. This strategy makes their writing more coherent and polished.
8. Incorporating Evidence
In persuasive, opinion and expository writing, students are taught to support their claims with evidence and examples to strengthen their arguments.
It takes some practice to train your students to use evidence in their writing, so it's often a good idea to start with something simple, like the R.A.C.E.S. strategy.
9. Crafting a Thesis Statement
In expository, opinion and persuasive writing, crafting clear and concise thesis statements that summarise the main point or argument of their essay helps students be more focused and organised in their writing.
This strategy can also have the effect of empowering students to express their ideas confidently and persuasively.
10. Incorporating Introductions and Conclusions
With this strategy, students practice crafting effective introductions and conclusions that grab the reader's attention and leave a lasting impression.
11. Following a Revision Checklist
Teaching your students to use a revision checklist is a strategy that will help them be more self-reflective, evaluating their own writing against the checklist criteria and becoming more aware of their strengths and weaknesses.
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Parts of Speech Word Cards Sorting Activity
Engage your students with this parts of speech group activity where they sort 112 word cards into categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, coordinating conjunctions or prepositions).
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Coordinating Conjunctions Dice Game
Use this hands on activity for students to create two 8 sided-dice and write compound sentences using coordinating conjunctions.
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Conjunctive Adverbs Task Cards
Assess your students’ understanding of conjunctive adverbs with these fun adverbs task cards!
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Parts of Speech Worksheet - Halloween Nouns and Verbs
Use this English grammar worksheet to add some Halloween spirit to your nouns and verbs lessons with a cut-and-paste worksheet.
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Comparative and Superlative Adverb Task Cards
Introduce these comparative and superlative adverbs task cards to your class to grow their understanding of these types of adverbs!
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Halloween Contractions Activity - SCOOT! Card Game
Identify contractions and the words they replace with a printable Halloween Contractions Activity for Year 2.
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Grandparents' Day Activity - Simile Spinner Craft
Show Grandma and Grandpa how awesome they are with a Grandparents’ Day Craft filled with super similes!
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Narrative Elements Graphic Organisers – Landscape
Encourage your students to write and draw about various story elements with this set of differentiated graphic organisers.
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Rainbow Affixes - Prefix and Suffix Interactive
Define words with prefixes and suffixes with a self-checking interactive game!
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Instructional PowerPoint - Prefixes
Teach your students to correctly identify, define, and spell words with common prefixes with an interactive teaching presentation.
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Objects in the Sky – Vocabulary Cards and Writing Templates
Create a vocabulary and writing center with a word wall and writing templates that cover objects in the sky.
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Parts of Speech - Colour by Code Mystery Picture Worksheet
Follow the colour-coded parts of speech guide to fill in the word grid and reveal a mystery image.
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CVC Word Chains- Interactive Activity
Practise spelling CVC words and manipulating their phonemes to create word chains with this digital resource.
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How to Catch a Leprechaun STEAM Project
Use your STEAM skills to build a trap to catch a Leprechaun - great St. Patricks Day STEAM activity.
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Australian Hero Triorama Project
Identify and encourage research into notable Austrailian heroes with a triarama project.
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Figurative Language - SCOOT! Task Cards
Explore figurative language in multiple ways with the set of 24 task cards.
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Narrative Features Worksheets - Hey Diddle Diddle
Identify characters, settings and parts of a story with early years reading worksheets featuring the Hey Diddle Diddle nursery rhyme.
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Word Chains Mini-Book
Practise spelling CVC words and manipulating their phonemes to create word chains with this fun-sized mini-book.
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Narrative Characters Teaching Presentation - Humpty Dumpty
Engage young readers in texts and learn about characters with an instructional slide deck featuring the Humpty Dumpty rhyme.
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Switching Sounds in CVC Words - Interactive Activity
Manipulate onsets to create new words with this interactive phonics resource.
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CVC Phoneme Manipulation Worksheets - Short O
Manipulate the individual phonemes in 'short o' CVC words to create new words with this set of differentiated worksheets.
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Is/Are, Was/Were Subject Verb Agreement - Interactive Activity
Embed subject-verb agreement practice into digital learning with this interactive activity.
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Parts of Speech Wall Display
A parts of speech wall display that includes posters and word wall cards.
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Spelling Rotation Classroom Display
Guided spelling classroom display to organise your classroom and their daily activities.
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Writing Rotation Classroom Display
Guided writing classroom display to organise your classroom and their daily activities.
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Silent Letters Worksheets - Word and Picture Match Up
Explore silent letters in one- and two-syllable words with this set of 7 targeted worksheets.
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Word Study List - Consonant + LE
Introduce and explore two-syllable words containing a consonant + le syllable with this extensive list.
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Ocean-Themed Flashcards and Writing Prompts
Build vocabulary and writing skills with this ocean-themed writing activity.
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Onset and Rime Dominoes
Form words by blending onsets and their rimes with this set of 28 dominoes.
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Onset and Rime Peg Cards
Form words by blending onsets and rimes using these hands-on peg cards.
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Roots Window Graphic Organiser
Organise ideas about roots and their origins with this graphic organiser.
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Possessive Google Interactive
Engage your learners with a Google Interactive activity designed to build skill with possessive nouns.
- Writing Worksheets
- Writing Templates
- Writing Posters
- Writing Games
- Writing Teaching Presentations
- Writing Labels, Signs & Decorations
- Writing Word Walls
- Writing Projects
- Writing for Preschool/Kindergarten
- Writing for Foundation Year
- Writing for Year 1
- Writing for Year 2
- Writing for Year 3
- Writing for Year 4
- Writing for Year 5
- Writing for Year 6
- Writing for Year 7