Writing Curriculum

All units in this curriculum are differentiated and teach the same content in a way that fits grade levels Kindergarten through 8th grade. This way a homeschool educator can run units and activities with children at different grade levels and skill levels simultaneously.

This differentiated, standards-based curriculum can also be helpful to teachers teaching multiple skill levels (especially English Language Development or SPED) and teachers who teach multiple grade levels.

My curriculum can be purchased in a few major bundles. Once each bundle is purchased an educator has all the resources needed to teach every reading, writing, math, or science/social studies standards for grades kindergarten through sixth grade (some literacy resources included up to 12th grade, while resources like the math units end in 6th grade). Check out my Homeschool Curriculum blog to get a description of major bundles.

In this blog, I am going to explain the writing portion of the curriculum.

Overall, the writing standards are integrated and taught through other content. The writing standards are taught through writing about reading topics (both fiction and nonfiction). Every thematic unit addresses EVERY writing standard, so you could cover every writing only using the science and social studies units. These resources are additional units that add motivation and enjoyment to teaching writing, while also solidifying writing skills.

The Writing Bundle includes 3 major resources:

• Holiday Writing: writing activities and prompts for every holiday (as well as art projects that go along with every holiday read aloud)

• Creative Writing: Creative writing project where students get to practice narrative writing, as well as technical writing (recipes, user’s manuals, wildlife guide books) in a creative way. They even get practice reading and creating maps!

• Daily Writing, Spelling, and Grammar Practice: This includes a few resources that can be done weekly or daily to help teach grammar, spelling (using any word list), and writing.

Read below to get a more in-depth description of each major resource.

1. Holiday Writing Bundle:

Halloween Writing Prompts: Text Structure-This resource uses Halloween prompts to teach students to write using graphic organizers that work for specific text structures. It teaches sequencing, compare and contrast, cause and effect, problem/solution, and description.

Save That Turkey! ELA Activity: Help the turkey escape from Thanksgiving Dinner! This ELA Thanksgiving printable packet. It comes with 4 different activities, each with two levels of differentiation. Great for writing reviews the week of thanksgiving. It teaches topics such as; characterization, parts of speech, narrative writing, and a gratitude quick write.

Service Learning Project: These printables include step by step instructions for students to set up a Service Learning Project within the school or community. This can be done as a class, in groups, or individually (it is also a great homeschool activity) depending on the group skill level and age. A great way for students to learn life skills and apply what they are learning in the classroom to their community. Students practice writing in a very applicable way, as they write about their own experiences and as a way to communicate with others in the community.

Christmas Research Project: This resource is a writing guide to help students research a Christmas topic and write about it. There are three different levels so it can be used for grades 1st through 8th. Students will be guided to either write a few sentences, a paragraph, or an essay on the given topic. This is great practice for Expository Writing AND helps students learn through the writing process.

Valentine Printables: Valentine's that are ready to be printed and used for your class. This can be a great thing to send home with students who would otherwise not be able to participate in Valentine's activities. It can be used as a writing activity in class for the week of Valentine's day (or anytime in the month of February). There are over 50 graphics for different valentines, as well as three different options for line spacing AND 50 phrases that students can use to go along with their valentines.

St. Patrick's Day Persuasive Writing Project: This is a creative writing assignment to help teach students about persuasive writing. Students complete a graphic organizer to write either a few sentences, a paragraph or an essay on the persuasive writing prompt given. Then students create a visual from a list of options to teach about persuasion in multimedia.

Easter Point of View Writing: This assignment is made to help students see the importance of point of view in Narrative Stories. Students will be given the same prompt but will be instructed to write the narrative from different “character’s” point of view. There are four different variations to the same prompt and students can either write multiple stories from different points of view, or each write a story from a different point of view and share and compare.

Holiday Class Books: Writing Prompts and Sentence Starters for Every Holiday: In this activity, each student writes a page about a specific prompt. In the end, all the pages will be put together into one class book that can be put in the classroom library (or given to a student for their birthday).

BONUS: 85 Holiday Read Alouds and Activities: This is an amazing BONUS resource that comes with buying the bundle. It includes 85 activities and read-aloud books (at least 10 for every holiday). Great projects to do with your class or family to bring the magic of the holiday (and literacy) to life!

2. Writing and Spelling Bundle:

156 Writing Prompts (holiday, persuasive and narrative prompts are included)

Prompts are written in squares you can play a game with your students and try to make patterns with the writing prompts as you complete them (or turn it into a bingo game)

You can also cut the prompts up and draw them out of a hat or jar

Great fast finisher activity for students or bell ringer activity

31 Writing prompts at 5 different levels: Weekly journaling to meet the needs of every learner in your class! Great for journaling, writing buddies in class, pen-pals, or letters to the teacher.

• Level 1: Prompts with traceable sentence starters for the whole page

• Level 2: Prompts with sentence starters at the top of the page and lines with dots in the middle to practice writing

• Level 3: Prompts with sentence starters at the top of the page and wide space lines

• Level 4: Prompts with more lines for writing and no sentence starters

• Level 5: Prompts alone that can be copied and pasted into a google document and students can type response

Spelling activities that work with any spelling or sight word list: 2 different levels for differentiation

• 15 activities that help students memorize the spelling of words (all 15 activities are differentiated to two different levels)

• 5 hands-on activities

• 5 spelling/memorization games

• 5 printables to practice spelling

• Bonus: Printable spelling tests for students with space to correct mistakes after the test is graded

Daily Grammar Practice: STILL BEING CREATED

• Part of Speech lessons, practice, games

• Syntax lessons, practices, and games

• Punctuation and editing practice (both with students’ own writing and reading others writing. As well as how punctuation applies to reading fluency.

3. Creative Writing Bundle:

THEMES:

• Pirates

• Video Game (FREEBIE)

• Monsters

• Zombies

• Atlantis/Mermaids

• Space/Aliens

• Medieval/Magic

Each Theme Includes 6 different writing activities (each at 5 different levels)

Fetching Quest: Students are given a prompt and must each write their own piece to the story. This can be done as individuals or in pairs.

Recipe Book: Students write a recipe that matches the theme of the novel created as a class.

Users Manual: Students write a user manual for a piece of equipment that could be or was used throughout the novel.

Map: As a class create a map that shows the location of all the places the characters went during the different parts of the story.

Wildlife Guide Book: Each student creates a plant or animal that could live in the setting of the novel

Biography: In small groups, students write a biography of each of the characters in the novel.

Each writing unit will take about 6 weeks and in the end, there will be 4 class books written by your students that can be added to your classroom library. This resource is a great way for students to practice narrative writing and technical writing (in a fun and engaging way). It also will give them an opportunity to write on their own and in partners and groups.

Related Questions:

Best practices when teaching writing to beginners?

What makes “good” writing is very ambiguous, which can make it difficult to teach. Using mentor texts, graphic organizers, a variety of content matter and writing styles are all good tools that can help students to grow and develop their writing. It can also help them to incorporate voice within their writing, while also recognizing the role of the writer's organization.

How to motivate kids when teaching writing?

Intrinsic motivation can be difficult to cultivate within young learners (especially with writing and reading, where there is a lot of ambiguity and getting better involves consistent practice). The good news about both writing and reading is even though the subjects can be difficult to learn (and teach), you can use a wide variety of content to teach the subjects. Find books and writing topics that interest your students. When students are using writing and reading as a way to learn and express understanding of things that matter to them and are interesting to them, it can make it much easier to motivate students. Get to know your students and help them connect with what they are learning.

How do I teach the writing in a way that prepares students to write as an adult?

Teaching only traditional paragraphs and essay writing may lead students to be unprepared for the writing required in today’s global workforce. Help students write a variety of texts, use multimedia platforms to write and research, and use writing as a way to communicate to a real audience (through pen pals, sharing research with other classes or schools, or writing for community projects). It is important for students to go through the writing process, but to see how writing can be applied in a variety of subjects and read by a variety of audiences.