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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Kangaroo Information Report – Writing Project
Get your students to write a kangaroo information report using this fact file, graphic organiser and writing scaffold.
- Free Plan
Persuasive Planning Template
A planning template to assist students in writing a well-structured persuasive text.
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A to Z Handwriting Sheets with Upper and Lower Case Letters and Examples
A set of 26 A to Z handwriting sheets with upper and lower case letters and examples.
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Writing Noun Groups Worksheet Pack
Use this set of noun group worksheets with your year 2 students to assist them understanding how to improve grammar knowledge and sentence writing
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Emotive Language Cloze Passage Worksheet
Get students using emotive language examples in their persuasive writing with this differentiated cloze passage worksheet.
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Mother's Day Interactive Booklet
Celebrate Mother’s Day with this digital interactive booklet.
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Information Report Structure Worksheet – The Apple iPad
Teach your students about information report structure with this cut-and-paste sequencing worksheet.
- Free Plan
PEEL Paragraph Structure Poster and Worksheets
Explore the acronym PEEL to help with paragraph technique during persuasive writing lessons.
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Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives Flashcards
Create a variety of grammar activities with 60 printable noun, verb and adjective flashcards.
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Persuasive Writing Examples and Analysis Worksheet
Use these persuasive writing examples to teach your students how purpose, structure and language features work together in strong persuasive texts.
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Koala Information Report – Writing Project
Get your students writing a koala information report using this age-appropriate fact file and writing scaffold.
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Auto-Fill Customisable Spelling Activity Worksheets
Save time making custom spelling lists and spelling practise worksheets with an editable auto-fill spelling worksheet pack.
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Persuasive Techniques Posters
Support students to improve their persuasive writing with these persuasive techniques posters.
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Dotted Numbers 0-20 Handwriting Sheet
Get your students writing numbers from 0-20 with this number formation worksheet available in Australian school fonts.
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Year 2 Editing Passages
Use this set of Year 2 editing passages to help your students demonstrate their spelling, punctuation and grammar knowledge.
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Perfect Punctuation Sheets – Booklet (3-5)
Use our Punctuation activity sheet booklet with 50 punctuation activities to practice a variety of grammar skills in the upper years classroom.
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OREO® Persuasive Writing Posters
Help students remember the structure of persuasive texts with this fun OREO® acronym.
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Topic Sentence Starter Examples Slideshow
Spark creativity with this topic sentence starter examples slideshow that provides your students with writing prompts across three writing genres.
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Using Persuasive Devices Worksheet
Use this persuasive devices worksheet to help your students create persuasive device examples based on a specific topic.
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Persuade Me Persuasive Writing Prompts
Encourage students to write persuasive texts with these engaging task cards or teaching slides.
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Year 1 Editing Passages
Use this set of Year 1 editing passages to help your students demonstrate their spelling, punctuation and grammar knowledge.
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Year 3 Editing Passages
Use this set of Year 3 editing passages to help your students demonstrate their spelling, punctuation and grammar knowledge.
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Dressing Up A Sentence Activity
An activity to help encourage students to add more descriptive language into their sentence writing.
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What Is a Noun Group? Teaching Slides
Answer the question “What is a noun group?” with this engaging slide deck designed to help primary students use descriptive language correctly in their writing.
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Let's Research! Information Report Templates
Conduct, organise, and display research about books, people, planets, animals, states, and countries with a versatile set of report writing templates.
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Past, Present and Future Tense Teaching Slides
Teach past, present and future tense to your Year 3 students with this engaging teaching slide deck that builds students’ understanding of verb tenses with clear explanations and relatable examples.
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Persuasive Writing Scaffold Pack
Use this engaging persuasive writing scaffold pack to encourage students to write about their favourite ice cream flavour while persuading the reader why it's the best.
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Noun Groups Worksheet Pack
Teach noun groups to your students with this set of 7 activity worksheets that help them use adjectives to build more descriptive and accurate sentences.
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Name Tracing Worksheets - Auto-Fill Handwriting Sheets
Use our Auto-Fill Name Tracing Worksheets PDF to easily create name tracing worksheets.
- Free Plan
Printable Paper with Handwriting Lines - PDF
Use these printable red & blue lined handwriting paper templates to develop your students' penmanship skills in the early years' classroom.
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Persuasive Text Writing Prompts - Complete Set
A set of 5 persuasive writing prompts, covering a variety of topics.
- Free Plan
Handwriting Lines with Cat - Dotted Line
Use the cat to help your students set their handwriting out correctly.
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