Creative Writing

Creative writing is creative thinking.  Students of all ages can write, whether they write it down themselves or dictate their writing to an older student or adult.  One of the best ways to motivate students to write is to do something with their writing.  There are many ways for students to share their writing.  Some examples are creating colorful books, artwork, and writing displays.  Work that sits in a portfolio is not very exciting and does little to motivate future writing.

Writing can be integrated into all subject areas such as math, science, social studies, reading, language arts and art.

Handle Book

Be creative by recycling gift bags and making them into books for the classroom that can be stored on hooks under the bulletin board or near a center.  You can use decorated bags or plain bags and as a matter of fact you can use holiday bags to make holiday books, or even a Happy Birthday bag to make a birthday big book for the classroom.

Holding the gift bag upright cut down one of the sides at the center-fold all the way down to the bottom of the bag.  Then cut out the bottom rectangular portion of the bag.  Staple some paper into the center of the book along the uncut folded side inside the book.  You may want to glue down the two flaps on either side of the book.

You can make big books out of these bags or use smaller bags for students to make individual books.  The title can be glued to the outside of the bag.  The Dollar Stores have inexpensive small bags that you can purchase or ask parents to send in gently used bags for recycling into books.