As we communicate more via the written word in text messages and emails, good writing skills are important. Clear, concise writing is essential because written messages aren’t aided by facial expressions or tone of voice. The Critical Thinking Co. helps kids work on express themselves well in writing with Building Writing Skills – Essential Tips & Techniques.
Lily (currently in Grade 4) wants to be a writer and artist when she grows up. She’s always scribbling notes, doodling pictures, and telling stories to her younger sisters. She’s been quite excited to work through Building Writing Skills – Essential Tips & Techniques.
The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. ~ Mark Twain
How We Used Building Writing Skills
Building Writing Skills – Essential Tips & Techniques seeks to “equip students with the tools they need to strengthen their writing skills.” This hands-on workbook has brief lessons and examples, then space for students to apply what they’ve learned.
Building Writing Skills – Essential Tips & Techniques teaches kids about:
- vivid verbs, specific nouns, strong adjectives
- unnecessary describing words
- pronoun antecedent confusion
- active voice vs. passive voice
- point of view
- showing instead of telling
- using sensory details
- carying sentence length and beginnings
- using effective transitions
- and much, much more!
Building Writing Skills – Essential Tips & Techniques is intended for teaching young writers in grades 6 to 12. I used it with Lily, who is finishing up Grade 4 this year. She needed help with a few pages but for the most part was able to work independently.
This writing skills workbook is available as either a paperback or an ebook. It includes 88 pages of activities for children. I let Lily work through this at her own pace, but you could also pick and choose your topics to complement another writing program.
As a writer myself, I’m a firm believer in the importance of writing skills for kids. I’ve seen in my own life how often I communicate via writing, from essays and research papers in university to emails to friends and family as we’ve moved to different cities. In fact, in university, some of my high marks were solely thanks to my good writing skills!
If you’re teaching writing skills for kids, you may also want to check out Building Writing Skills Level 1 (for kids in grades 3-5) and Building Writing Skills Level 2 (for kids in grades 6-7). All three books help kids learn critical thinking skills as well as writing. Two of the books won a Tillywig Brain Child Award in 2017.
If we teach children everything we know, their knowledge is limited to ours. If we teach children to think, their knowledge is limitless. – Michael Baker, President, The Critical Thinking Co.
About the Author
Noreen Conte has taught language arts for over thirty years. As a teacher, she enjoyed creating lesson plans and activities to motivate and challenge her students. As an author, she continues to do that through her books.
Her other books for The Critical Thinking Co. include Language Smarts E, Building Writing Skills Level 1 and Level 2, and Jumbles: Prefixes, Suffixes and Compound Words.
More about The Critical Thinking Co.
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The Critical Thinking Co. was established in 1958 and now has over 200 award-winning educational books, ebooks and apps. Their products are fun, easy to use, and guaranteed to produce better grades and higher test scores. Critical thinking skills are built into every lesson.
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How do you teach writing skills for kids?
2 Comments
KIds should read much if they wan to improve their writing skills. It helps them to understand the way of writing.
Daisy – yes, that’s true! Encouraging kids to read is good because kids absorb a lot about good writing just by reading good writing. Read-alouds are also good here, for kids of any age, as they hear the words and the rhythm of the sentences and can apply that to their own writing too. 🙂