Fun writing activities for 5th graders

8 Ideas and Activities for Making Writing Fun in Upper Elementary

Making Writing Fun Activities Written by Guest Blogger Jessica Thompson, 4th Grade Teacher

Writing. The minute the word is mentioned there is an audible, in-sync sigh from the students. Of course, there are a few super excited students who cannot get their ideas down quick enough. For every handful of excited writers, there is a large portion of the class that “has nothing to write about.”

The struggle is real, y’all. For both teachers and students.

The big question for teachers is not only how to make writing fun and engaging, but how do we get students excited about writing?

Fun Writing Activities To Try

Here are 8 Activities to try with third, fourth, and fifth grade students. These activities are to get our young writers excited about writing which will make formal writing tasks less daunting.

1. Think-Write-Pass:

This is always a favorite that gets lots of laughs.  

Put students in groups of four.  Give each student a piece of paper and have them write their name on the top. 

Have students write for 2-3 minutes.  You can give them a topic, or simply have them write about whatever they want.   

When the time is up, students pass their paper to another student in their group.  Each student in the group will have to read, continue the writing, and pass the paper again 2-3 minutes later.

When each student gets their own paper back they get a few minutes to complete the story. If time allows: let the groups choose their favorite one to share. 

2.  Sticky Note Stories:

Students want to share stories with us. There are so many stories - from their weekend, the ball game, recess, at their Aunt Barb’s birthday party 5 years ago - they have so much that they want to tell us!

It’s usually the same students ones who are constantly trying to tell us stories that, come writing time, same they have nothing to write about.   Sticky Note Stories are an easy solution.

A sticky post it note is not nearly as intimidating as a piece of notebook paper.

When a student has a story to share, tell them how much you want to hear it - but they have to write it down on the sticky note.

A holiday weekend? A school event?  A birthday party?  A football game?  Write it on a sticky note.

Poetry writing can be intimidating - for teachers and students!  This No Prep Poetry Writing Packet has templates and worksheets to help your students confidently and successfully write their own poems!

3.  Found Poetry

Make copies of text from a book you are reading and have them find words or groups of words throughout the text to create a poem.

They can circle these words and draw pictures or designs around everything else to make the poem pop.  See some examples of found poetry here.  

3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students can also use words cut out from magazines to create a poem. It is best to precut words and have them in a container to make sure all words are appropriate. 

4.  Go Outside!

A change of scenery makes everything more fun.  Take the notebooks and pencils to the outdoors for 10-15 minutes. Have students sit and use their 5 senses to write observations.

You can stop there, or take this activity a little further and have students write some poetry!

Give them free rein, or add some guidelines for structure.

This free cinquain writing template is perfect for an activity like this!

Or, have students write a short haiku!  This no prep resource gives students a chance to read and write haiku, as well as answer comprehension questions!

5.  This or That

Sometimes all students need is a little bit of choice and control.  Give them that control with This or That.  

This is easy - simply provide them with 2 writing prompts and let them choose!

It can be time consuming to create choice boards with 9 options, but with This or That you only need to create two.   You can use these example discussion questions as writing prompts if you need help coming up with options!  

6.  Silly Pictures

This is an easy way to make writing fun!

There are millions of funny pictures without captions on the internet. The key is to find appropriate ones and save them for later use.

Put the picture up on a projector, mirror it to a screen, or print it out. Have students write about what is happening in that picture.

This is great to practice skills such as predicting, inferring, cause and effect, and problem and solution.

Or, inspire even more creativity by having students create their own silly drawings to write about using these Squiggle Drawing Story Starters! 

7.  Persuasive Letters

Two birds, one writing piece.  The key to making this writing activity fun is choosing a topic that is sure to of interest of students.  

What student wouldn't love to try to convince their teacher that recess should be longer?  Or that they should be able to skip homework one night?  Or that they should have a pizza party?

The list of ideas is endless.   They could write to their parents on why they should have a later bedtime or get a dog. They could write to the principal on why donuts should be served with breakfast. They could write to an author on why they should write another book in their favorite series.  You could also let students choose the topic. 

3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students have fun arguing their point and they will learn quickly the importance of supporting their claim. 

8.  Quick Writes

Quick Writes are a timed writing. The idea is not to scare the students, but for them to get their ideas on paper as quickly as possibly and to be writing or thinking the entire time.

Give students a prompt, and then tell them to write down whatever comes to mind over the next 5 - 10 minutes.  Make sure students aren't worried about spelling or a grade - the goal is to just spend some time writing.

If you are looking for a more polished piece, you can have students do this daily for 3-5 days.   Then, have them choose their favorite quick write to revise, edit, and turn in.

9.  BONUS - Secret Descriptive Writing Activity

Make writing a descriptive paper fun!  Have your students secretly draw a picture and use describe with vivid descriptive language.  Then, students read their descriptions aloud while their classmates try and figure out which drawing is theirs!

This works best if students are all drawing something similar.  This is an easy activity to create on your own, but you could also try out one of these secret descriptive writing activities for a no prep way to walk your students through the entire writing process:

• Alien Descriptive Writing Activity
• Snowman Descriptive Writing Activity
• Monster Descriptive Writing Activity

An Extra Tip for Making Writing Fun

A personalized writing notebook can be an easy way to motivate students to write. This is something that is theirs and they have more ownership over.

Composition books can easily be decorated with pictures, stickers, photographs, etc. and covered with contact paper.  Letting them take the time to decorate a notebook with things that are important to them can give them more ownership over their writing - as well as help stir up ideas for writing!

Bonus: Writing will not get lost easily! Make one yourself as a teacher and use it! Let the students see you write. Read your writing to them and make time for students to share too. 

Never Stress Over Sub Plans Again!

Make copies, find a fiction book, and you'll be ready for any emergency that comes your way!

7 Fun Writing Activities for Reluctant Writers

No doubt about it – writing isn’t easy. It is no wonder that many of our students could be described as ‘reluctant writers’ at best. It has been estimated by the National Association of Educational Progress that only about 27% of 8th and 12th Grade students can write proficiently.

As educators, we know that regular practice would go a long way to helping our students correct this underachievement, and sometimes, writing prompts just aren’t enough to light the fire.

But how do we get students, who have long since been turned off writing, to put pen to paper and log in the requisite time to develop their writing chops?

The answer is to make writing fun! In this article, we will look at some creative writing activities where we can inject a little enjoyment into the writing game.

The Purpose: This activity encourages students to see the poetry in the everyday language around them while helpfully reinforcing their understanding of some of the conventions of the genre.

The Process: Encourage students to ‘scavenge’ their school, home, and outside the community for snippets of language they can compile into a piece of poetry or a poetic collage. They may copy down or photograph words, phrases, and sentences from signs, magazines, leaflets or even snippets of conversations they overhear while out and about.

Examples of language they collect may range from the Keep Out sign on private property to the destination on the front of a local bus.

Once students have gathered their language together, they can work to build a poem out of the scraps, usually choosing a central theme to give the piece cohesion. They can even include corresponding artwork to enhance the visual appeal of their work, too, if they wish.

The Prize: If poetry serves one purpose, it is to encourage us to look at the world anew with the fresh eyes of a young child. This activity challenges our students to read new meanings into familiar things and to put their own spin on the language they encounter in the world around them, all while reinforcing the student’s grasp on poetic conventions.

2. Story Chains

The Purpose: Writing is often thought of as a solitary pursuit, and for this reason alone, it can be seen as a particularly unattractive activity by many of our more gregarious students. This fun activity exercises students’ understanding of writing structures and engages them in some fun, creative collaboration.

The Process: Each student starts with a blank piece of paper and pen. The teacher writes a story prompt on the whiteboard. You’ll find some excellent narrative writing prompts here. For example, each student spends two minutes using the writing prompt to kick start their writing.  

When they have completed this part of the task, they will then pass their piece of paper to the student next to them. Students then continue the story from where the previous student left off for a given number of words, paragraphs, or length of time.

If organized correctly, you can ensure students receive their own initial story back at the end for the writing of the story’s conclusion.

The Prize: This fun writing activity can be used effectively to reinforce student understanding of narrative writing structures, but it can also be fun to try with other writing genres too.

Working collaboratively can really motivate students to engage with the task as no one wants to be the ‘weak link’ in the finished piece. But, more than that, this activity encourages students to see writing as a communicative and creative task where there needn’t be a ‘right’ answer. This encourages students to be more willing to take on creative risks in their work.

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The Purpose: This is another great way to get students to try writing poetry – a genre that many students find the most daunting.

The Process: Acrostics are simple poems whereby each letter of a word or phrase begins a new line in the poem. Younger students can start off with something very simple, like their own name or their favorite pet and write this vertically down the page.

Older students can take a word or phrase related to a topic they have been working on or that they have a particular interest in and write this down on the page before beginning to write.

The Prize: This activity has much in common with the old psychiatrist’s word association technique. Students should be encouraged to riff on ideas and themes generated by the focus word or phrase. They needn’t worry about rhyme and meter and such here, but the preset letter for each line will give them some structure to their meanderings and require them to impose some discipline on their wordsmithery, albeit in a fun and loose manner.

The Purpose: This challenge helps encourage students to see the link between posing interesting hypothetical questions and creating an entertaining piece of writing.

The Process: To begin this exercise, have the students come up with a single What If question, which they can then write down on a piece of paper. The more off-the-wall, the better!

For example, ‘What if everyone in the world knew what you were thinking?’ or ‘What if your pet dog could talk?’ Students fold up their questions and drop them into a hat. Each student picks one out of the hat before writing on that question for a suitable set amount of time.

The Prize: Students are most likely to face the terror of the dreaded Writer’s Block when they are faced with open-ended creative writing tasks.

This activity encourages the students to see the usefulness of posing hypothetical What If questions, even random off-the-wall ones, for kick-starting their writing motors.

Though students begin by answering the questions set for them by others, encourage them to see how they can set these questions for themselves the next time they suffer from a stalled writing engine.

The Purpose: Up until now, we have looked at activities encouraging our students to have fun with genres such as fiction and poetry. These genres being imaginative in nature, more easily lend themselves to being enjoyable than some of the nonfiction genres.

But what about descriptive writing activities? In this activity, we endeavor to bring that same level of enjoyment to instruction writing while also cleverly reinforcing the criteria of this genre.

The Process: Undoubtedly, when teaching instruction writing, you will at some point cover the specific criteria of the genre with your students.

These will include things like the use of a title, numbered or bulleted points, time connectives, imperatives, diagrams with captions etc. You will then want the students to produce their own piece of instruction writing or procedural text to display their understanding of how the genre works.

 But, why not try a fun topic such as How to Make the Most Disgusting Sandwich in the World rather than more obvious (and drier!) topics such as How to Tie Your Shoelaces or How to Make a Paper Airplane when choosing a topic for your students to practice their instruction writing chops?

The Prize: As mentioned, with nonfiction genres, in particular, we tend to suggest more banal topics for our students to work on while internalizing the genre’s criteria. Enjoyment and acquiring practical writing skills need not be mutually exclusive.

Our students can just as quickly, if not more easily, absorb and internalize the necessary writing conventions while engaged in writing about whimsical and even nonsensical topics.

if your sandwich is entering the realm of horror, be sure to check our complete guide to writing a scary story here as well.

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The Purpose: This activity allows students to practice personal writing within the conventions of diary/journal writing. It also challenges them to consider what their world will be like in the future, perhaps stepping a foot into the realm of science fiction.

The Process: Straightforwardly, after working through some examples of diary or journal writing, and reviewing the various criteria of the genre, challenge the students to write an entry at a given milestone in the future.

This may be when they leave school, begin work, go to university, get married, have kids, retire etc. You may even wish to get the students to write an entry for a series of future milestones as part of a more extended project.

The Prize: Students will get a chance here to exercise their understanding of this type of writing, but, more than that, they will also get an opportunity to exercise their imaginative muscles too. They will get to consider what shape their future world will take in this engaging thought experiment that will afford opportunities for them to improve their writing too.

The Purpose: Give your students the chance to improve their dialogue writing skills and to work on their understanding of character development in this fun activity which combines writing with the use of a series of visual elements.

The Process: There are two ways to do this activity. The first requires you to source, or create, a comic strip minus the dialogue the characters are speaking. This may be as straightforward as using whiteout to erase the words in speech bubbles and making copies for your students to complete.

Alternatively, provide the students with photographs/pictures and strips of cards for them to form their own action sequences. When students have their ‘mute’ strips, they can begin to write the dialogue/script to link the panels together.

The Prize: When it comes to writing, comic strips are probably one of the easier sells to reluctant students! This activity also allows students to write for speech. This will stand to them later when they come to produce sections of dialogue in their narrative writing or when producing play or film scripts.

They will also develop their visual literacy skills as they scan the pictures for clues of tone and context before they begin their writing.

Keep It Fun

Just as we should encourage our students to read for fun and wider educational benefits, we should also work to instil similar attitudes towards writing. To do this means we must work to avoid always framing writing in the context of a chore, that bitter pill that must be swallowed for the good of our health.

There is no getting away from the fact that writing can, at times, be laborious. It is time-consuming and, for most of us, difficult at the best of times. There is a certain, inescapable amount of work involved in becoming a competent writer.

That said, as we have seen in the activities above, with a bit of creative thought, we can inject fun into even the most practical of writing activities. All that is required is a dash of imagination and a sprinkling of effort.

MORE FUN WRITING ACTIVITIES FOR YOU

The content for this page has been written by Shane Mac Donnchaidh.  A former principal of an international school and English university lecturer with 15 years of teaching and administration experience. Shane’s latest Book, The Complete Guide to Nonfiction Writing, can be found here.  Editing and support for this article have been provided by the literacyideas team.

Intellectual tournament for 5th graders | Class hour (grade 5) on the topic:

Municipal budgetary educational institution of the city of Novosibirsk "Secondary school No. 156

with in-depth study of subjects of the artistic and aesthetic cycle"

MBOU secondary school No. 156 Novosibirsk, st. Gogol, 35-a,

tel. 224-75-29, E-mail: sс[email protected]

Scenario

of an intellectual tournament for fifth graders

Authors:

I. P. Fomicheva, teacher of Russian language and literature

VKK

I. N. Burdygina,

mathematics teacher VKK

Novosibirsk 2013

“Without grammar, one cannot learn mathematics”

Goals:

1. Show the connection between mathematics and the Russian language, instill interest in subjects.
2. Develop students' logical thinking, speech, creativity and curiosity
3. Develop the ability to work in a team.
4. Form the need for students to constantly improve their intelligence.

Equipment: computer, posters “A word carries any information in a mathematics lesson”, “Inspiration is needed in mathematics, as well as in poetry”,

Presentation: “You cannot learn mathematics without grammar.”

Event progress.

(The dispute between the teacher of mathematics and the Russian language)

M.: There is nothing more important than that science,

What people call mathematics.

What can empty sounds give people?

Writing poetry, is it work?

R.: There is nothing worse than boring numbers

Some formulas, lots of zeros.

Is the word right? After all, it heals the soul

And in difficult times it makes us stronger.

M.: No! Numbers rule the world.

They put our mind in order.

And only mathematicians know the truth,

Like Archimedes, Euclid, Pascal and Jung.

R.: There is noise of leaves and peace under the clouds.

Dawn. Fog. Autumn storm.

You can’t say with numbers everything that you can express with words -

Both pain and fear, love and happiness.

M.: But the creator of rockets taught mathematics

And we flew into space without you.

R: No! The first to fly into space was a writer,

The writer who was a science fiction writer.

M: I think: no need for quarrels,

We will resolve this dispute now.

R: Guys, today we have an unusual lesson, today we are holding an intellectual tournament, where you will see that subjects so different at first glance, like the Russian language and mathematics, turn out to be so closely related to each other.

No wonder they said in ancient times: “Without grammar, you cannot learn mathematics.” So, this expression will become the theme of our tournament.

5 teams take part in the tournament, leading the tournament: mathematics teacher Burdygina Irina Nikolaevna

M.: And the teacher of Russian language and literature Fomicheva Irina Petrovna.

R: Jury - Students of grade 9A ... and ...

M.: Game conditions: Our tournament consists of several rounds. The results are summed up after each round. The answers to the questions of the team are handed over in writing, time is limited, but the speed of the answer is not evaluated. For each correct answer, you get 1 point for your team.

R.: If a team violates the rules, shouts out answers aloud, behaves incorrectly, points are deducted from it. Violation of discipline -1 point.

M.: So, the first round - greeting of the teams The sequence of the teams' performances will be determined by answering the question that you must give in writing:

- Count how many "legs" pulled the turnip in the famous fairy tale. (Answer 18)

Greeting contest conditions: Who is friendlier, brighter ... evaluation: maximum number of points -1 point

Team 1:

We were waiting for this tournament.

Team 2:

Team 4:
We will show ingenuity and courage
All our thoughts will fall on paper.
We are sure - we are lucky!
Victory will find everyone someday.

Team 5

The tournament is a great opportunity

to win!

We are a strong team,

You must know this.

There are no difficult tasks for us,

You will see - we will beat you!

The word of the jury:……………………………. .

M.: The second round will show the mathematical literacy of the participants in our tournament. Since the beginning of the year, we have been studying natural numbers and actions with natural numbers. And now let's remember the literal notation of the properties of addition, subtraction and multiplication.

Continue with the following entry:

a - (b + c) \u003d

(a + b) - c \u003d

a - (b + c) \u003d

(a - c) - c \u003d

a. (v - s) =

The word of the Jury:…………………………..

R: The third round is announced - the round of the savvy.

-Remember the word that is often found both in Russian language lessons and in mathematics lessons: “root”.

M: Remember as many words as possible with the number 3

M: For some reason, the number 7 was very fond of the people and entered their songs and sayings. Guess the proverbs and sayings in which the number 7 occurs. 30 seconds per slide

The word of the jury…………………………………. .

R: - Guys, in maths lessons you learned to add and subtract, multiply and divide in a column, and now you have unusual columns in front of you: two columns from nouns. Group them in pairs to form new words. The assignment allows 1min

Hedgehog

Bank OSA

Yar, Point

OIK

Hall Rot

Boy

hay

kipa window

Weight shaft.

M.: Guys, numbers give speech not only accuracy, but also expressiveness. So, one cannot do without numbers in set expressions, which we often use in oral speech. Your task is to fill in the missing numbers in phraseological units (Maximum points - 11):

1. Without ... minutes doctor
2. ... spans in the forehead
3. as your ... fingers
4. again ...
5. drive ... sweats
6. ... Fridays in the week
7. from a pot ... an inch
8. lie from ... a box
9. for ... lands
10. to ... bills
11. a book for .. . seals

Jury's word:……………… ……………

R.: You all know that guessing puzzles develops thinking and ingenuity... You will find the unity of mathematics and our native language if you look at these puzzles, where the words that you so often meet in the classroom are encrypted Russian language

1. 2.

3. 4.

5. 6.

The word jury: ………………………………….

R: Guys, any information in the lesson of mathematics and the Russian language is carried by the word. With the help of words, we answer the question of the task, tell the rule, so each of you needs to be able to correctly formulate your thoughts. Please write down this mathematical expression in words:

X + 65 \u003d 70 - the sum of x and sixty-five is seventy;

K - 16 \u003d 21 - the difference between ka and sixteen is twenty one

M: Now let's solve these equations and see which Russian writer owns the following words: "Inspiration is needed in mathematics no less than in poetry. "

x + 32 = 68

76 - x = 24

x - 97 = 121

138 + x + 57 = 218

(24 - x) + 37 = 49

248 - (x + 123) = 24

x = 218 x = 12 x = 36 x = 101 x = 23 x = 52

Sh and p N K U

002

R: Many people consider mathematics to be a dry science. In fact, this is a science that requires great imagination, it was not for nothing that one of the first mathematicians of the 20th century said quite rightly: "You cannot be a mathematician without being at the same time a poet in your soul." (S. Kovalevskaya)

M.: So, let's sum up the results of our tournament.

Jury's word----------

R.: This concludes our tournament, but let your work on yourself not end, because at all times the mind and intellect have been the dignity and adornment of any person.

M.: We wish you success in the endless process of learning and self-improvement.

task options, demos, subjects, preparation, assessment criteria

Many schoolchildren associate spring, oddly enough, not with the awakening of nature and holidays. Pupils are waiting for the All-Russian test work. Together with an expert, we figure out what the CM will be like for grade 5 in 20230003

Since then, the knowledge of students in grades 4-11 throughout the country began to be assessed in accordance with the Unified State Educational Standard. If earlier schools independently determined the level of complexity of examinations, then with the advent of VPR, in one fell swoop, they clearly outlined the requirements for a certain set of knowledge for everyone and in all subjects. At the same time, the results of the VPR do not affect the annual assessment of schoolchildren, but only show the educational level of a particular educational institution, in fact, this is a diagnosis of problem areas.

Why are they needed? This question is asked from year to year by many parents, complaining about the extra burden on children in connection with the preparation for the CD. In this regard, it is doubly difficult for fifth-graders: schoolchildren complete the first year after moving to the middle link, it is simply unusual for them to purposefully prepare for this kind of cuts of knowledge. Nevertheless, specialists from Rosobrnadzor insist: All-Russian test papers are useful for schoolchildren of different ages as a rehearsal for the OGE and the Unified State Examination, which are also carried out according to uniform standards.

What should fifth-graders prepare for? VPR in 2022 they write in four subjects: Russian, mathematics, biology and history.

VPR Grade 5 in subjects