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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Silent Letters Worksheets - Read, Find and Colour
Identify silent letters in words with this set of three find and colour worksheets.
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Word Study List - Trigraphs
Introduce and explore common trigraphs with this extensive list of words.
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Word Study List - Y as a Vowel
Introduce and explore words containing the letter ‘y’ making a vowel sound with this extensive list of words.
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Word Study List - CVCE Words
Introduce and explore words containing the ‘magic e’ with this extensive list of CVCE words.
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Insect-Themed Flashcards and Writing Prompts
Inspire young entomologists to read and write about insects with minibeast writing prompts and word wall cards.
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Building Sundaes - CVC Word Mats
Segment CVC words with this set of 14 word mats.
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Australian Animal Book Review Templates
Display students’ book reviews using these cute Australian animal book report templates.
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Grandparents' Day Worksheet — Adjectives A to Z
Celebrate Grandparents' Day in the classroom with awesome adjectives!
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Adverbs Scoot
Build vocabulary and grammar skills with a game of Adverbs SCOOT!
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Adverb Crossword – Worksheet
A crossword where all the answers are adverbs.
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The Enigma of AX29 - Narrative Plot Worksheet
Explore the features of narrative plot structure with this gripping science fiction story.
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Fairy Tale Setting and Book Characters Classroom Display
Teach fairy tales and narrative structure with a printable fairy tale setting poster and book characters for a classroom display.
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Family and Culture Poetry Prompts – Task Cards
A set of 16 illustrated poetry task cards to help students write about their family and cultural celebrations.
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Parts of Speech Word Search (Nouns and Verbs) – Worksheet
A word search where students find and categorise nouns and verbs.
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Novel Study - Alternate Story Ending Worksheet
A worksheet which encourages students to write an alternate ending to a shared class story.
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Stick Person Graphic Organiser
A simple and effective graphic organiser that can be used for a wide range of purposes including note taking, mind mapping and planning writing responses.
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My Monster Story Template
A cute story writing activity.
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Nouns and Things - Worksheet
A worksheet to help students use more descriptive nouns in their writing.
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Rhyme and Shuffle – PowerPoint Game
An active PowerPoint game to practise producing rhyming words.
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Comical Chronicle Worksheets – Year 1
A set of 10 ad-lib style stories for students to complete.
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BUMP! Possessive Nouns – Board Game
A board game to practise writing possessive nouns using apostrophes.
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Handwriting Rhyme Poster
A fun poster to help your students learn proper handwriting technique.
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Number 20 - Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about the number 20.
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Number 15 - Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about the number 15.
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Mini Envelope and Letter Templates
A colourful set of mini envelope designs that can be used in the classroom and beyond.
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Number 12 - Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about the number 12.
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Persuasive Writing Worksheet - Would You Rather?
A worksheet for students to use to write an persuasive composition.
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Comical Chronicle Worksheets - Year 6
A set of 9 ad-lib style stories for students to complete.
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CVC Word Shape Task Cards
A set of 24 CVC word shape task cards.
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Full Stop Punctuation Poster
A poster that explains full stops and provides an example of how to use them.
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Exclamation Mark Punctuation Poster
A poster that explains exclamation marks and provides an example of how to use them.
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NAPLAN-Style Assessment Rubric – Biographical Texts
Use this NAPLAN-style rubric to assess students’ biography writing as you prepare students for Year 5 tests.
- 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