How to Help Your Child with Writing Over the Summer: 5 Easy and Fun Strategies

Looking for ways to help your child become a stronger writer over the summer without it turning into a homework battle? You’re not alone. Many parents want to support summer learning, but don’t want to burn out their kids (or themselves) with rigid lessons and worksheets.

The good news? Building writing skills doesn’t have to be boring. In fact, summer is the perfect time to make writing fun, creative, and connected to everyday life.

Here are five easy ways parents can support writing at home this summer.

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1. Start a Low-Stress Summer Journal

Encourage your child to keep a casual journal—no prompts or grades required. Just let them write about what they did that day, something that made them laugh, or a weird bug they saw on a walk. Even a few sentences a day can help keep writing muscles strong.

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2. Add Writing to Screen Time

Turn screen time into a writing opportunity. Ask your child to describe a favorite video game level, rewrite the ending to a movie, or invent a new character for their favorite show. This kind of writing builds creativity, vocabulary, and storytelling skills.

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3. Use Sensory Experiences to Build Descriptive Writing Skills

Summer is full of sensory moments—sticky popsicles, the smell of sunscreen, the feel of sand under bare feet. These are perfect chances to practice descriptive writing. Ask questions like:

• What did that taste like?

• How did it feel?

• What did it smell like?

Want an easy way to introduce sensory writing? Try our Scented Marker Descriptive Writing Activities. This engaging printable resource lets kids explore descriptive language through smell-based prompts using fun scented markers. It’s perfect for reluctant writers or creative kids who need a little push.

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4. Write for Real-Life Reasons

Real-life writing is one of the best ways to show kids why writing matters. Have them:

• Write a packing list for an upcoming trip

• Help plan a grocery list

• Draft a letter to a family member

• Create a menu for a backyard picnic

All of these small tasks reinforce writing structure, sequencing, and clear communication.

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5. Connect Reading and Writing

Reading and writing go hand in hand. After your child reads a book or watches a movie, ask questions like:

• What would you change about the ending?

• Which character would you want to be friends with?

• What do you think happens next?

They can answer verbally, draw a comic, or write a short paragraph—whatever feels right.

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Make Writing Fun This Summer

You don’t have to be a teacher to support your child’s writing this summer. With simple, hands-on strategies, writing can become a natural part of your daily routine. Whether it’s journaling, sensory prompts, or real-life lists, the goal is the same: keep your child’s creativity flowing and their confidence growing.

Want a ready-to-go writing activity that kids won’t roll their eyes at? Grab our Scented Marker Descriptive Writing Pack. It’s fun, easy to use, and helps kids practice vivid language in a hands-on way.

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Writing Into the Day: A Simple Practice That Builds Big Habits

You know those quiet, golden minutes at the start of the school day, before the whirlwind of lessons, transitions, and “Can I go to the nurse?” begins? We’ve started using those minutes for a practice we now can’t imagine going without: Writing Into the Day.

It’s simple. Students walk in, find their journals, read the daily prompt on the board or screen, and start writing. Just 5–7 minutes. No pressure. No overthinking. Just pencils moving.

And here’s the thing: we even tell them it’s okay to write “I don’t know what to write” over and over again if that’s what it takes to get started. It gets boring pretty fast. Usually within a minute or two, they end up veering into a real response to the prompt or telling a story or sketching out their thoughts in their own quirky way. That’s the magic. Momentum leads to meaning.

The prompts themselves can come from anywhere:

• A silly question like “What would your shoes say if they could talk?”
• A mysterious or funny photograph
• A work of art
• Even a short clip from a song

We’ve found that this daily routine does more than just warm up their brains. It also doubles as a morning meeting, giving students a calm and creative entry point into the day. After the writing time ends, we invite a few students to share out. Some read word-for-word, others summarize or just talk about what they were thinking. These moments have become one of the best ways we get to know our students. You’d be surprised what they choose to open up about.

One of the biggest surprises? Kids are actually into writing. Every once in a while, a student will ask if they can continue their writing from the morning during free time. That never used to happen. It’s like they’ve realized writing can be something they do for themselves, not just for a grade or an assignment.

To keep things low-lift for us but consistent for students, we started using this Daily Writing Prompts Journal. It’s a digital and printable resource with a full year of engaging prompts, organized by month. Each page gives just enough direction without being restrictive. We love having the flexibility to project a prompt for the class or hand them out in journal form for morning work.

You can check out the full resource here on our TPT store. It’s been a game changer for starting our day with purpose and calm. Plus, it gives students a chance to build writing stamina in a way that actually feels fun and meaningful.

Let us know if you’ve tried daily quick writes in your classroom or if there’s a prompt your students can’t stop talking about. We’re always collecting new ideas to keep the creativity flowing.

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Using Picture Books for Narrative Writing

We love to use picture books in our classroom. We are firm believers that you are never too old to learn a good lesson from a picture book. Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee is no exception. While the concept and text of the book may be simple for 5th graders (it is about a girl's first thrilling ride on a roller coaster), we are able to get a couple week's worth of writing instruction out of it!

We have to admit, this idea was inspired from a training we attended about integrating visual arts into literacy instruction. One great way to get students talking about art is to have them study illustrations in picture books. Marla Frazee is an amazing illustrator, and the facial expressions and subtle nuances of her pictures make for great art pieces to look at closely. To begin this lesson, we don't even have the students read the text in the book. Instead, we choose one set of thrill seekers to follow page by page. For example, there is an elderly couple that is riding the roller coaster together. We have the students focus just on the facial expressions of this couple as the story progresses. Students then choose another duo to study from beginning to end on their own.

After getting familiar with the different characters in the book, we then lead a class discussion on character traits. The students have a fun time thinking of traits for each set of characters, especially because looks can be deceiving with this set of riders! Several character pairs go through a character shift over the course of the book which also helps with understanding sequencing. We like to record this class discussion as an anchor chart for students to refer back to in future lessons.

The next lesson we do focuses solely on dialogue. Students are encouraged to imagine the conversations the character pairs have with each other before, during, and after the ride. They use the illustrations, as well as the character traits listed in the previous lesson, to come up with realistic dialogue for their characters. Again we like to model with one duo, giving us the opportunity to explicitly teach grammar rules related to dialogue. Students then move on to independent work using a character set of their choice.

Finally it is time to take what they have created thus far and turn it into a complete narrative writing piece. After modeling the components of a narrative that are expected at their grade level, students are given the opportunity to write their own stories from the perspectives of their chosen characters. As we all know, and as Marla Frazee makes perfectly clear with her wonderful illustrations, we all have different experiences on roller coasters, and the stories that come from this activity certainly reflect that.

Of course, after all of their hard work, we do end up reading the text to the class. We then like to compare the story the author wrote to the ones they came up with to look for similarities and differences. This book also does a great job of showing how authors and illustrators use font size, color, and shape to help tell a story. We were amazed at how in-depth our conversations with our students became as a response to this book. Do you know of other picture books that would lend themselves well to this kind of activity? Let us know!

If you want to use this book in your classroom, here is our affiliate link! By purchasing from this link, we earn a small commission.

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Super Bowl Activities for the Classroom!

Each year, when the NFL season starts up, we both get very excited for a variety of reasons.  We have been San Diego Charger fans since we’ve been born (although their move to Los Angeles may have broken our hearts).  We also enjoy playing fantasy football with friends, so when it comes time for the Super Bowl we look forward to the culmination of one of our favorite sports.  

We wanted to bring the excitement into the class and share some fun activities with our students.  We came up with some activities that could be used with real stats for the Super Bowl and it was a hit with our students.  We love that we can use it each year since it isn’t year specific.  

This was a particularly high interest activity for some of our kids that normally may be harder to motivate.  It was exciting to see them thrive and dive into the activities.  For the kids that aren't football fans, they gained a lot of knowledge too.  We wanted to show the kids that what we are doing in the classroom can translate to anywhere in the real world!  If you are interested in checking out a sample of these activities, click the link below to download a free copy.

FREE SAMPLE ACTIVITIES!

The full product is available in our Teachers Pay Teachers store.  Activities in the full packet include:

Research activities for pregame, during the game, and post game
Graphing
Roman Numerals
Math Word Problems
Word Search
Performance Task (adding, subtracting, multiplying)
Writing with football themed paper
Fantasy Football Activity
Helpful Keys

We hope you can bring the joy of football into your classroom with these engaging activities! Click the image below to go to the product!

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No Prep Circle Books

Open House is just around the corner, and we were looking for some eye-catching ways to display the learning going on in our classrooms.  One of our fifth grade colleagues came to us with a great way for students to show what they know when it comes to the important battles of the American Revolution.  We always appreciate an activity that is high quality in BOTH process and product!  Best of all, these circle books take very little prep on the part of the teacher.

As we read about the various battles of the Revolutionary War, students took notes to help them with a written summary.  What a perfect way to incorporate informational writing in our social studies block!  This is one example of a graphic organizer that was helpful for some students to keep track of important information.  Students chose four battles to focus on to do their writing.

Once students gathered notes, the graphic organizer we used allowed space to write a rough draft.  Students peer edited with one another before revising and creating their final product.  Students were then given four sheets of paper with the circle template.  Click here to grab your FREE copy of the template we used!  There is both a lined and an unlined version available.  The unlined version can allow for more flexibility in the placement of the writing.

Perhaps the favorite part of the project for students is adding a little art.  The blank space on the circle can be used to illustrate the students' writing.  Check out how great these turned out!  (Yes, she can draw and write more beautifully than either of us can.)

Once the students have completed their writing and artwork, it is time to put the books together.  First, cut out the four circles and fold each circle in half.  Then, glue one half of a circle to a half of a different circle.  Continue until all four circles are glued together.  These look great strung from one end of the classroom to the other.  Simply stick a paperclip through a punched hole at the top and watch these circlebooks spin freely.  Everyone who walks into the classroom is immediately drawn to these projects.

We chose to grade our writing using a simple rubric focusing on content, organization, and mechanics.  You can easily make your own rubric using RubiStar, a free website for teachers!

The great thing about this project is that it is so easily adaptable to whatever content you are teaching!  Leave us some comments below if you do this activity and what content you used.  We are always excited to see others' ideas!

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