creative writing club elementary school

How to Start a Creative Writing Club for Kids

I pitched the idea to a friend of mine, a professor of creative writing, who very graciously shared with me exercises she does with her grad students. It took some work but I brought them down to a level I thought would work with 4 th -6 th graders.

Next I had to get buy in from the school principal to run an after school club and use the library. She loved the idea but reminded me I needed a ‘baby sitter’ because I’m not a credentialed teacher. The librarian agreed to keep me on the straight and narrow and I promised to keep his library in good working order.

From there, I got myself invited to a PTA meeting to see if they would throw me some funds to run the club. Really all I wanted were notebooks, pencils and a few other little things here and there to help with the writing exercises. They said yes and I was off.

We meet once a month for an hour. We have two rules for Writing Club. The first is we are respectful of everyone’s ideas; if a fellow student is reading his/her work aloud, we are quiet and listen closely. The second is no one has to read if they don’t want to. No pressure. I also give away middle grade books I’m done reading. Winners beam like they’ve just won the lottery.

September’s giveaway books

At our first meeting this year fifty students showed up! I ran out of everything – notebooks, pencils, seats, table space – but seeing these kids, scribbling away, giving voice to the stories in their heads, gave me hope for the future.

(for specifics on the writing exercises, please visit my website )

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20 Creative Writing Activities for Elementary Students

November 23, 2021

Did you know that November is National Novel Writing Month? While your young learners are probably not ready to write an entire book, this month is a great time to practice creative writing skills with your students. Not only can creative writing be helpful for teaching vocabulary and sentence structure, but it can also encourage students to use imaginative thinkin g —and even find a genuine love of writing!

All of these 20 creative writing activities can be used with elementary school students to practice reading and writing skills. We’ve included options for both early elementary students, who may still be learning to write, and elementary students in upper grades who are ready to work on projects of their choosing.

1. Join the NaNoWriMo organization’s Young Writers Program (YWP) ! Together, your students can work on all sorts of age-appropriate writing challenges and activities throughout the year—including a project of their choice in November!

2. To practice pre-writing skills and collaborating on a project, try these shared writing project activities .

3. If you have any budding cartoonists in your class, this Finish the Comic activity from author Jarrett Lerner can be a great way for younger students to practice writing dialogue.

4. Teach your students about adjectives and writing descriptions with this Popcorn Adjectives activity .

5. Students can learn about creative writing by studying imagery and poetry by established authors. Using this writing worksheet , kids can write out their thoughts about a poem and draw images that stand out to them.

6. To teach creative thinking skills with kindergarteners and early elementary students, try this Mystery Seed writing activity .

7. Get families involved, too! Share these fun home writing activities with your student’s families to help them practice at home.

8. Print out and put together a Writing Jar with tons of creative writing prompts to inspire your students.

9. Check out this resource for even more writing prompts focused on imaginative thinking.

10. Try blackout poetry , an activity that encourages students to make their own beautiful art from a work that already exists.

11. Creative writing isn’t limited to fiction. This narrative writing activity can teach students to write events clearly and in sequence from their real life.

12. For a creative writing project that’s just plain fun, try this Roll a Story activity.

13. This nonfiction project helps children learn to write a letter as they write to a loved one of their choice.

14. If you want to give your students some freedom in choosing a writing assignment, hang up this Writing Prompt Choice Board in your classroom and let them answer whichever prompt they’d like!

15. Encourage students to keep their own journal throughout the year. You could even give them time each morning to respond to a journal prompt .

16. Use this journal page template to help students structure and compile journal entries.

17. These printable Mad Libs can teach children different parts of a sentence while they use their imaginations to create a story.

18. Use this What? So What? Now What? exercise (#6 at the link) to help students structure their creative writing projects.

19. To teach children how to create descriptive sentences, play this Show, Don’t Tell writing activity .

20. If you’d like to hold a month-long creative writing activity, try this 30-Day Writing Challenge for kids .

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How to Start a Creative Writing Club

Last Updated: March 3, 2024 References

This article was co-authored by Ashley Pritchard, MA . Ashley Pritchard is an Academic and School Counselor at Delaware Valley Regional High School in Frenchtown, New Jersey. Ashley has over 3 years of high school, college, and career counseling experience. She has an MA in School Counseling with a specialization in Mental Health from Caldwell University and is certified as an Independent Education Consultant through the University of California, Irvine. This article has been viewed 35,145 times.

Do you have a passion for creative writing that you want to take to the next level? A great way to grow your writing skills is to start a creative writing club, where you can share your work with others who are invested in cultivating the same craft. Working with people who share similar interests to you is both fun and incredibly rewarding!

Things You Should Know

If you’re a student, talk to your favorite English teacher and ask them to sponsor the club; the odds are extremely high that they’ll be thrilled by the idea!
If you’re running the club, remember that different members are likely there for unique reasons—include a variety of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and screenwriting activities.
For a younger crowd, include a writing activity with every meeting and encourage members to share their work—be super supportive!
Make sure that if you’re doing any workshop-style discussions that the members understand that critiquing someone’s work does not mean criticizing them as people.
Clubs with older members will likely attract a good number of experienced writers, so you may want to start meetings by asking members if they’ve been working on anything they’d like feedback on before going into activities, lectures, or discussions.

Forming Your Club

Possible locations include your house, public park, an open classroom, or anywhere else you can meet and converse without disturbing others.

Word of mouth: Invite friends and acquaintances, and ask them to spread the word and bring their friends! Talk openly and excitedly about your club: your enthusiasm will help draw the interest of others. It’s a good idea to invite very broadly to begin with: the people who are truly invested in your club will show up and stick around.
Posters and fliers: Design a cool flier and post it around school or your workplace! This is a nice way to draw attention to your club.
Social media: For example, you can create a Facebook Event for the first meeting and share it widely with your friends!

Step 4 Consider searching for and recruiting an advisor.

If you do decide to ask someone to be your advisor, be considerate of their time and respectful when making your request. Sending them an introductory email explaining your plans (in as much detail as you can) will allow them to make an informed decision. It is also courteous to offer to meet in person or talk over the phone/Skype so that they can ask any questions they might have before they make their decision.
Advisors can be involved in a variety of ways, and this should be a conversation that you have directly with your potential advisor. Will they attend meetings? Will they offer guidance from afar? These are questions that are best to ask early on.

Step 5 Fill out and submit any necessary registration forms.

This is related to possibly need an advisor: some schools require an advisor's signature on club registration forms. Once again, just be sure to research your school, university, or organization's requirements.

Holding for Your First Meeting

You can choose an icebreaker that is relevant to the theme (if applicable) of your club, or you choose something entirely random. The point of this activity is to lighten the mood and help your members get to know each other and feel more comfortable opening up and sharing their work. Classic icebreakers like " Two Truths and Lie " (where everyone shares two true facts and a lie about themselves, and others guess the fabrication) and the "Name Game" (where each person has to find an adjective to describe themselves that starts with the same letter as their name) can be great simple options. [2] X Research source

Step 3 Include a creative writing exercise.

Write about an animal of your choice.
Open up a dictionary, pick a word, and write what it means to you.
Create a poem or story that starts with "Hello."
Write a piece that's inspired by a conversation you've recently overheard.
Write about something you dread or fear.

Step 4 Decide if you want to appoint club officers.

If voting proves too messy (this might be the case, especially if you have many members), an easy and neutral online tool that may help you decide when to hold meetings is doodle.com (or other similar scheduling applications).

Is your main goal as a group to spark new writing ideas together and actually practice writing during the meetings, or to critique and improve one another's written works? Alternatively, you may want to operate as more of a social/support group for writers, where you talk about your craft and hold one another accountable for your personal writing goals. Decide your focus together, and build that into your mission. [4] X Research source

Step 7 Talk about the structure of your club.

Bringing a large sheet of paper and pens (or whiteboard markers if your location has a whiteboard) can be a nice way of involving members in this process. Members can take turns suggesting and writing ideas. You can keep this piece of paper as a reminder for future meetings, or you can take it, type it up, and print it and share copies (or a combination).

Keeping Your Club Going

Step 1 Clearly communicate contact information.

It is helpful to bring a notebook to meetings so that new members can share their e-mails and/or phone numbers, and so that you can then add them to any groups or lists.

Step 2 Keep club members informed about future meetings and events.

It's a good idea to start an e-mail list, a Facebook group, and maybe a group chat so that you can add members and keep them informed and up to date on club meetings and activities. It's all up to you, but clear communication will help your club flourish.

Step 3 Consider how you will handle writing partners.

If you do choose to have writing partnerships be a part of your club structure, you may want to consider assigning writing partners randomly as well as have people change partners periodically. It's a good idea to try to prevent cliques from forming for many reasons: so that no one feels left out, so that members are receiving feedback on their work from multiple perspectives, and so that people are establishing many connections with many different members of different style, backgrounds, and personalities.
Give members ideas of how to connect with their writing partner. Suggest accessible practices such as, "After you've written your piece, share it with your partner via Google Docs so that you can read each other's work. Then, coordinate a time to meet and discuss one your work in person." Encourage members to do whatever feels most comfortable to them.

Step 4 Gather ongoing feedback from your members.

One way to do this is creating and sharing the link to a standing Google Form that is specifically designed for feedback. Creating an anonymous Google Form (or whatever type of digital survey works best for you) will encourage members to voice their opinions. It's good to establish protocol for how this feedback will be dealt with, early on: will you (as the leader) check the responses regularly, and will suggestions be discussed at meetings?
Another way to gather feedback is to designate an allotted amount of time during meetings to open up the discussion for feedback and suggestions.
If you and your members do decide that you want to discuss feedback weekly (however you choose to gather it, whether electronically or during meetings), you may also want to discuss the format of this discussion. Will it be an informal discussion? Will people vote? Will it depend on the feedback? These are good points to consider early on when determining club guidelines.

Step 5 Make sure that you have a plan moving forward.

Let members know what they should bring to the next meeting (i.e. laptop, notebooks, pens, etc.).
Ideally, set at least a loose agenda for your next meeting, before you wrap up your first one. Your goal should be to get right down to writing and club discussions in your subsequent meetings, now that you've set some ground rules and expectations. [6] X Trustworthy Source University of North Carolina Writing Center UNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing process Go to source

Community Q&A

Bringing snacks can be a fun addition to any meeting. But be sure to communicate any allergens (nuts, dairy, etc.)! This will help incentivize people to come to the meetings, and—particularly if your club is hosted during lunch or after school—makes sure that no one is hungry entirely. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
Bringing some extra notebooks and pens to the first meeting (or first few meetings) is always a good idea, just in case someone forgets their own. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
Try this fun activity: Pass sheets of paper around so everyone has one. Have everyone write the beginning of a story, pass the sheet to the person on their right, and have them continue the story (then folding the sheet over so the next person can only see the most recently added sentence, not any of the previous sentences). It's sort of like the game "telephone," and you can theme it around a particular topic! Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

↑ https://www.writersdigest.com/publishing-insights/7-questions-to-ask-yourself-before-starting-a-writers-group
↑ https://icebreakerideas.com/quick-icebreakers/
↑ http://thinkwritten.com/365-creative-writing-prompts
↑ https://www.inkedvoices.com/writing/types/
↑ http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/writing-groups/writing-group-starter-kit/

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The Muse Youth Program believes that power, healing, and change happen when creative writing meets community and inspiration. By offering young minds creative writing classes, mentorship programs, and community events, we welcome young writers to explore and develop their unique voices, improve their craft, and pursue professional opportunities in the literary world. We hope to foster a nurturing environment where writers of all stripes come together, share ideas, and experience the power that words can hold.

Creative Writing Classes for Kids & Teens

The Muse Writers Center is excited to offer these creative writing classes during the 2023 Spring session:

Young Writers Workshop - The Muse Writers Center (the-muse.org)

Spring Creative Writing for Middle School Youth (Saturday Mornings In-Person)

Spring Creative Writing for High School Teens (Saturday Mornings Hybrid)

2024 Creative Writing Summer Camps

Our summer camps are a great opportunity for young creative writers to have fun with words–both out loud and on paper. Join us for a week-long exploration of different types of creative writing expression, including comic writing, fiction, song writing, and more!

Creative Writing Summer Camp: Elementary School (ages 8-10)

Creative Writing Summer Camp: Middle School School (ages 11-13)

Teen Zine Musings

The Muse Writers Center offers our teen students the opportunity to submit to our in-house zine, Musings . Currently, submissions are closed for the 2023 Teen Zine, but the 2024 teen Zine will be coming soon. If you've attended a class, club or event affiliated with The Muse, we welcome you to submit!

This program is open to any sophmore or junior high school student local to the Hampton Roads area. Those selected have access to free creative writing classes and mentorship from professional writers.

Applications will open in the fall for the 2024 Fellowship. The 2023 Fellowship class is underway and our Fellows are amazing!

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We offer a number of opportunities for students to receive hands-on experience with us, one of the nation's largest literary centers.

Teen Writers Club

Join us at The Muse Writers Center, in person or online, every second and fourth Monday for the Teen Writers Club ! The club is open to all teens with an interest in any creative writing form, including songwriting, comics, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and anything else word related. You don’t need to be a Muse student to participate—drop by anytime during club open hours and stay for as long as you like.

Teen Open Mic Nights

We regularly host teen readings and open mic nights, both virtual and in person. If you have any questions or are interested in co-hosting a youth event or co-sponsorships, please contact our Youth Program Manager Jessica Grace Kelley at [email protected].

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Writing club – How to set one up and boost children’s confidence

In the inspiring environment of a well-run writing group, children’s literacy skills will flourish – so why not set up your own?

Lynda set up a lunchtime writing club, ‘Buzzwords’, in her primary school. She began with Year 6 and, after a while, opened the writing club to children across KS2.

Children were given notebooks and encouraged to ‘loosen their writing muscles’ with a range of word hunts, lists and short writing exercises. She found oral anecdotes and memories powerful ways of engaging less confident writers.

She always read aloud a piece of writing to broaden the children’s vocabulary, ideas and structures, and to increase their literary knowledge.

A collection of simple writing prompts also proved effective – pictures, maps, word collections, opening lines and headlines.

Children were happy to find their own materials and spaces, under desks as well as at them, and to write for 20 minutes.

Lynda established an atmosphere of respectful attention so children who wanted to would read out their work. They were always keen to know their peers’ responses and became fond of each other’s distinctive humour.

Greatest success

In Lynda’s view, children’s increased ease with writing was the club’s greatest success. This was especially the case for children with learning difficulties who had previously under-achieved because of low self-esteem, and for able writers hampered by the limitation of prescribed or over-structured writing tasks.

You may have heard of the National Writing Project UK (NWP UK). Perhaps you have attended one of its growing networks of ‘writing clubs’, which since 2009 have been bringing teachers together to write, share their work and enhance their practice.

But have you considered setting up your own for your school’s children? As the example above illustrates, the results can be well worth the effort…

How to set up a writing club

On your own.

Firstly, start writing today! Fix a regular time when you can sit quietly, and aim to write for at least 20 minutes. Sometimes this will be easy, at others hard, but you need to gain confidence to write even when you’re not feeling like it.

Try out the ideas you plan to use with the writing group. Once you’ve done this for a week or so, you’ll be ready to start.

You don’t have to share any of this with your club or class, but it really helps to write alongside pupils, using the same prompts, and to be prepared to show, share and discuss some of the evidence.

With the children

Sound out your individuals and classes. Identify your keen writers. Discuss the idea with them. Establish a convenient time (lunchtime or after school), so that you can meet once a week for at least half a term before you review or change anything.

Engage your enthusiasts by word of mouth, and advertise. In a primary school assembly with about 300 children, one teacher announced the start of her Year 5 and 6 writing club with these words: “I will be doing this in Mrs X’s classroom at lunchtime. If you would like to come along, we’re going to be writing things that we want to write and, you know, it’s for fun, basically.”

17 children came to the first session and 25 to the second. The club is still running after two years.

Get them engaged

Your club should be fun and stress-free, with a range of quick writing games and short challenges.
Meet in a quiet place.
Give each writer a notebook and pen, or encourage them to buy a nice one.
Establish ground rules about privacy, experimentation, practice, sharing and reflection.
Write alongside the children.
Get to know and value the different voices.
Celebrate diversity and withhold judgement.
Be prepared for the membership to change over time, but keep the invitations personal and positive, and keep repeating them.

Quick writing exercises for your writing club

You need something easy to break the ice and ‘loosen up the writing muscles’. And if it’s a lunchtime club you have to have an activity “that they can do while they eat their sandwiches…” noted one group’s leader!

The following list may provide some inspiration:

Newspaper headlines
Opening and closing lines
Lists of words
Word tiles to arrange
A simple stem-structure such as “I like…”, “I hate…”
A ‘scavenger hunt’ of the place you are in
Freewriting for five minutes without stopping

Agree beforehand whether this writing will be shared or not. It’s often good to have a shared and a private piece – that way children can get into the habit of trusting themselves to have a go, and of letting other, more considered, writing ‘brew’ inside them for a while.

Main writing activities

After a while this is best left to individuals to decide, but at first, some children may appreciate some guidance. Try:

Extending your writing from one of the first exercises (take a word, idea or phrase as a starting point)
Writing in voices or from a particular perspective – what the woman in the picture was really thinking; how the artefact came to be here; what the tree remembers
Using snatches of overheard conversations or ‘found’ phrases to launch you into your own writing
Finding an object/picture/view that interests you and write about it twice, moving your writing position/perspective to do so – once from one point of view, once from another

Again, agree beforehand how you will share the writing that takes place.

Establish ground rules, for example, listening to each other attentively and not being afraid just to say thank you. It’s useful to model how to respond to the writing process, rather than the product:

Where did you get your ideas from?
Which words/parts came easily and where did you struggle?
What would you like to do next with your writing?

When children are ready to share, model attentive listening to tone and content (it helps to hear the writing before you see it).

This process may be better in pairs at first, but where possible it’s fascinating to read around the group and hear what different writing has emerged during the session from similar stimuli.

Taking it further

You might like to enhance your group by writing together online. Most schools have a VLE with separate forums that can be closed except to those who are password approved.

This enables all children to see each others’ writing and give feedback. A teacher of one Year 6 class said that the biggest boost to children’s writing confidence came from appreciation and suggestions from their peer group.

Resources for your writing club

The following items will help keep your children inspired for hours…

Small boxes and envelopes, plain and coloured paper, card
A range of writing implements
Collections of postcards, pictures, quotations
A book box with novels, picture books and poetry
Magazines and newspapers to cut up
CD/DVDs: music, short films or clips
Ephemeral texts – newsletters, tickets brochures, catalogues and packaging
A props box, hats and scarves, glasses, glove puppets
A collection of objects – buttons, fir cones, jewellery, toys, bric-abrac, shells, stones

Once the group is established, it’s good to ask children to bring and add ideas, texts, objects, pictures, DVDs of their own.

This article is an edited extract of Introducing Teachers’ Writing Groups by Jenifer Smith and Simon Wrigley ( Routledge ), which is available now. It explains the importance of said groups and offers guidance on setting up your own. Browse more ideas for National Writing Day .

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Articles / Writing

Starting a Writing Club Outside the Classsroom

by MiddleWeb · Published 10/10/2023 · Updated 10/16/2023

By Sharon D. Ratliff

A extracurricular writing club can be a safe space for students to escape the world, express true feelings, and embrace creative ideas.

So how do we as teachers facilitate a safe space? Although my curriculum allows students to write, I realized that students wanted an opportunity to write outside the walls of the classroom and connect with other friends beyond their designated English period.

So I decided to start a writing club in our middle school that would exist beyond curriculum boundaries and provide a comfortable, social experience for all writers.

Three years into the experiment, here are some tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way. I hope these suggestions will help you establish your own campus writing club.

Establish a time and common place to meet .

Meeting in a common area encourages multiple grade levels to participate and avoids the stigma that the writing club is for a certain type or age of student. Our club meets 3 times a month in the library from 8:00 till 8:45. Membership is flexible; any student may join the club at any time. Attendance varies from 30 students to 10 students.

Our most important ‘rule’

Using an open platform, students created the rules for writing clubs. Specifically, I wrote down what they thought a writing club should look like, and we discussed their suggestions. One of the first “rules” the students established in the writing club: there are no “rules” or limitations on what you write! In our club, writing is a haven from the constant barrage of what thumps us in the outside world.

Let the students name the writing club and establish a “purpose.”

While there are no “rules of writing club,” students came up with the following purpose: to freely express ourselves in any genre we select, use words to encourage others, receive feedback from peers on personal writing, and participate (if you want to) in various writing contests.

Writing club embraces both handwriting and using technology to write. Without a doubt, it is essential for students to name the club in order for them to establish ownership. To facilitate this process, at the beginning of each year students brainstorm one week and the following week vote on what the club will be called. For the past two years we have been “Ink and Fable.”

Build a community .

Using icebreakers, giving out free “journals” (colorful composition books) along with pens, providing publishing opportunities, and serving occasional celebration snacks all help build a community. To see some ways I use writing activators to build community click here. For example, students might watch this peaceful scene of waves washing up on shore and respond to a prompt:

Use your learning management system (LMS) and give students access.

I created a course on our district LMS-Canvas (you might choose another space). The course is used for students to post their writing and gather inspiration from the group. I also use the LMS to inform the members about upcoming opportunities to compete in writing contests. Numerous contests abound; here is a WE ARE TEACHERS resource by Sean Hogan that I use to find writing contests.

Establish a light agenda for meeting.

Students thrive on routine. If students know the basic format, their energy can be funneled into creation instead of guessing what we are going to do. The agenda consists of an activator which may include an attention-getting nature picture, a 3-2-1 exercise, a cartoon, a video, or an introduction to a contest.

After the warmup students springboard to work on any type of writing they choose. Sometimes, I encourage students to group themselves according to the genre they are working on.

All levels of writers welcome

Writing club is an eclectic group. Some students come to just write haikus or journal, some to write rap, and some come seeking specific feedback for a writing contest piece. We’ve also had some students come just to get feedback about their English essay!

Words of encouragement

Our writing club had some stationery donated. We have used this to write notes of encouragement to custodians, counselors, or other “unseen” yet important employees in the school. Since there are no rules of writing club, this is not a requirement. Yet students love to participate, and this is where they begin to learn how much their words matter.

Advice Column

One of our activators consisted of students responding to an old newspaper column from a teen seeking advice. We then compared the club members’ responses to the actual advice published. Some club members then asked if they could write an advice column for our school.

Yes! Club members then created a QR code from a Google Form for all students on our campus to anonymously submit problems to the writing club. A group of students from the writing club might then select a question/problem and draft an answer. I then proofread the answer for content, and the writing club students alternate on who will record the answer for playback during the school announcements.

Make this idea your own

I hope these tips and tricks help any ELA teacher interested in starting a writing club. Just remember – there are no rules; the writing police will not appear at your school door, just students who want to connect and create. While kids struggle with self-image, peer relationships, and communication, ink and paper have no judgment.

After all, their words matter!

Sharon Ratliff (@sharondratliff) recently shifted from 7th grade ELA teacher to middle school gifted and talented facilitator in Katy, Texas. Before stepping into the mysterious land of middle school, Sharon taught upper elementary in Texas, Florida, and with the Department of Defense.

Over the past 20 years, Sharon has mentored young teachers, hoping to pass along a love for educating young minds. She enjoys working with all students, developing curricula that emphasizes critical thinking and discovering reading and writing techniques that empower students in real-life applications. See Sharon’s other MiddleWeb articles here .

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Sharon, this is wonderful. I wish I had had such a club as a middle schooler myself. Your tips are very helpful — the way that you create structures around what is a very open space. I think that balance is key for our age group (I teach 8th grade).

I’ve just written a book – Who Gets To Write Fiction: Opening Doors to Imaginative Writing for All Students — about creative writing and how it can and should be a central part of ELA and our study of literature. The book is more focused on integrating imaginative writing regularly into our regular class work. However, there are always a number of my 8th grade students who really take to fiction and/or poetry writing and want to continue.

My colleague in the HS has started a creative writing club and many of my now former students have joined. I will share your article with him. But I’ll also considering starting a MS club after school. A space for those who are called beyond the classroom and school day to write is important.

Ariel, Thank you for the positive feedback. I’m excited about your book and will check it out! If you start a writing club at your school, maybe we can Zoom sometime and just exchange ideas… My former students started a creative writing club at their high school and published their first anthology last year. It is amazing. These kids crave a space to write beyond the lines…

Thank you Sharon Ratliff for a thought provoking article. I am a retired teacher, but I still look for activities in which I can become involved. I was an elementary schoolteacher in my early teaching but spent 26 rears in middle school math along with 10 years of middle school language arts. I get involved with church and community education activities when they are available.

Glendora, I am sure you are a WEALTH of knowledge! Retired teachers are treasures! I hope you will continue to be involved with your church and community education opportunities–maybe there could be a writing club opportunity there? If your church does any type of Thanksgiving baskets, gift gathering, or shoe boxes students could write notes of encouragement, experiment with poetry, or compose post-it positives. Thank you for reading my article :).

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Living God’s Word One Step at a Time

March 28, 2024 by Tricia Goyer 2 Comments

6 Activities for Your Teens’ Writing Club

One of my favorite extracurricular homeschool activities was leading a monthly homeschool writers’ club. We called ourselves “Writing Nerds” because that’s what we were—a group who loved reading and were interested in writing. Our group was made up of junior high and high school homeschoolers. We met for an hour and a half each month. If you like reading and know the basics of fiction writing, consider starting a group with your own homeschoolers.

Here are some activities to get your teens’ writing club started!

5 minute story:.

Give each student each three slips of paper. On the first, they write a character. On the second, they write a setting. On the third, they write a conflict. I had a basket for each (characters, setting, conflict), and they tossed them all in. They drew one slip of paper out of each basket, then they had five minutes to write a story about their character, conflict, and setting. The requirements for the story were:

Open with dialogue in paragraph #1
Describe the action in paragraph #2
Then they could describe the setting in paragraph #3.

After that they could continue with the story as they saw fit. They then read the stories out loud, and they were HILARIOUS! I still remember one was about a nun who had to bail from a plane that was crashing in Paris.

Teaching Dialogue:

To teach dialogue, I used plays, such as mixed-up fairy tales ( here are some free ones!) . We assigned parts and read sections of them out loud. Then I had them write the dialogue of the same characters in a different situation. For example, what if Baby Bear in the three bears showed up at the first day of school and his seat mate was Goldilocks?

Color Coding:

I photocopied the first pages of a novel—such as Kingdom’s Dawn by Chuck Black —and gave everyone a copy and crayons:

Red for action.
Green for dialogue.
Yellow for internal thoughts.
Orange for description.
Pink for emotion.

This really helped them see how novels are not just narrative (this happened, then that happened, etc.). Sometimes I had them write their own story following the same “color pattern.” The results were impressive. Sometimes we colored the openings to two different novels and then compared the authors’ writing style.

Snowflake Method:

We used Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method and “plotted” a novel. You can learn more about The Snowflake Method here .

3 Likes + 1 Dislike:

We assigned people to bring short stories or parts of their book to class every week. They had a limit of 1,000 words and they had to make enough photocopies for everyone in class. We passed around the story and gave eight to ten minutes for everyone to read the story. Then everyone went around and shared three things they liked and one thing they didn’t like.

I was the last to comment after everyone was done, and I did the same (but I usually gave two or three suggestions about ways they could improve their story). I was amazed how insightful the students were. The majority of the time they discovered all the “issues” by the time it got to me.

Sensory Exercise:

I had a collection of objects—steel wool, sponge, a plant, coins, etc.—that they could handle, and they had to write descriptions of them. Then they had to use that same description and describe something else—for example, the description for steel wool became the description for a knight’s armor.

Those are a few ideas to get you started. A writing club is so much fun—and educational, too!

Here is a FREE printable to use for your writing club!

More resources:.

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How to Start an After School Club

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A child's education does not take place only in the classroom, during regular school hours. The home, the playground, and the school campus, in general, can all be invaluable settings for a child's personal and scholastic growth.

One way to enhance a student's school experience is through extracurricular activities such as clubs. At the elementary school level, some appropriate, enjoyable, and educationally beneficial themes might be:

Creative Writing
Books and Reading
Chess and Other Board Games
Outdoor Sports
Collecting and Other Hobbies
Music, Drama, and Chorus
Arts and Crafts (knitting, drawing, etc.)
Anything else that fits the interests of your school's population

Or, consider starting a club about the latest fad (for example, Pokemon a few years ago). Even though these extremely popular fads can also be annoying to adults, there's no denying that they do inspire boundless passion in the imaginations of a wide range of children. Perhaps, a Pokemon club could involve creative writing, original games, books, and songs about those colorful little creatures. Surely such a club would be bursting with enthusiastic young members!

Now, once you've decided on the topic, consider the technicalities of starting a new club on campus . Here are some things to consider once you've determined the type of club you'd like to start at your elementary school campus:

Get permission from the school's administration to start the club on campus. Also, designate the time, place, and supervising adult(s) for the club. Look for commitment and set it in stone, if possible.
Determine the age group that would be included as members of the club. Perhaps kindergarteners are too young? Would sixth graders be "too cool" for the concept? Narrow down your target population, and you'll simplify the process right off the bat.
Take an informal survey of how many students might be interested. Maybe you could place a half-sheet of paper in the teachers' mailboxes, asking them to take a show of hands in their classroom.
Depending on the results of the informal survey, you might want to consider placing a limit on the number of members to be initially accepted to the club. Consider the number of adults that will be able to attend the meetings to supervise and help out consistently. Your club will fail to meet its objectives if there are too many kids to handle effectively.
Speaking of objectives, what are yours? Why will your club exist and what will it set out to accomplish? You have two choices here: either you, as the adult facilitator, can determine the goals all on your own or, at the club's first session, you can lead a discussion of club goals and use student input to list them.
Design a permission slip to hand out to parents, as well as an application if you are having one. An after-school activity requires parent permission, so follow your school's rules to the letter on this topic.
Make a concrete plan for the first day and subsequent sessions, as possible. It's not worth holding a club meeting if it is disorganized and, as the adult supervisor, it's your job to provide structure and direction.

The number one principle in starting and coordinating a club at the elementary school level is to have fun! Give your students a positive and worthwhile first experience with extracurricular involvement.

By creating a fun and functional school club, you will be setting your students on the path to a happy and fulfilled an academic career in middle school, high school, and beyond!

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Creative Writing Club

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The Creative Writing Club meets weekly before school (8:45 a.m.) in Room 203--stay tuned for this year's meeting day of the week. Meetings include time to share (workshop) short stories, novels, and poetry that students have written as well as to practice writing--experimenting with different literary and stylistic techniques. Students will also have an opportunity to write for and be involved in the school's literary magazine. You can check out our PDF issues at https://issuu.com/lchscrowsnest , and view our frequently-updated blog at https://blogs.lcps.org/crowsnest/ . Students wanting to be involved in the layout and publication of the literary magazine can learn Photoshop and Indesign using the publication lab in Room 203. Questions? Email the club sponsor - Valerie Egger . Mrs. Egger is a published author, with numerous short stories and novels written for adults, young adults, and children. She is happy to share stories of the world of publishing with club members. Anyone is free to join, and attendance is not mandatory at every meeting: if students have practice or rehearsal, they can attend the club when they are able.
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Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

By Claudia Looi 2 Comments

Komsomolskaya metro station looks like a museum. It has vaulted ceilings and baroque decor.

Hidden underground, in the heart of Moscow, are historical and architectural treasures of Russia. These are Soviet-era creations – the metro stations of Moscow.

Our guide Maria introduced these elaborate metro stations as “the palaces for the people.” Built between 1937 and 1955, each station holds its own history and stories. Stalin had the idea of building beautiful underground spaces that the masses could enjoy. They would look like museums, art centers, concert halls, palaces and churches. Each would have a different theme. None would be alike.

The two-hour private tour was with a former Intourist tour guide named Maria. Maria lived in Moscow all her life and through the communist era of 60s to 90s. She has been a tour guide for more than 30 years. Being in her 60s, she moved rather quickly for her age. We traveled and crammed with Maria and other Muscovites on the metro to visit 10 different metro stations.

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Moscow subways are very clean

To Maria, every street, metro and building told a story. I couldn’t keep up with her stories. I don’t remember most of what she said because I was just thrilled being in Moscow. Added to that, she spilled out so many Russian words and names, which to one who can’t read Cyrillic, sounded so foreign and could be easily forgotten.

The metro tour was the first part of our all day tour of Moscow with Maria. Here are the stations we visited:

1. Komsomolskaya Metro Station is the most beautiful of them all. Painted yellow and decorated with chandeliers, gold leaves and semi precious stones, the station looks like a stately museum. And possibly decorated like a palace. I saw Komsomolskaya first, before the rest of the stations upon arrival in Moscow by train from St. Petersburg.

2. Revolution Square Metro Station (Ploshchad Revolyutsii) has marble arches and 72 bronze sculptures designed by Alexey Dushkin. The marble arches are flanked by the bronze sculptures. If you look closely you will see passersby touching the bronze dog's nose. Legend has it that good luck comes to those who touch the dog's nose.

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Revolution Square Metro Station

3. Arbatskaya Metro Station served as a shelter during the Soviet-era. It is one of the largest and the deepest metro stations in Moscow.

Arbatskaya Metro Station

4. Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station was built in 1935 and named after the Russian State Library. It is located near the library and has a big mosaic portrait of Lenin and yellow ceramic tiles on the track walls.

Lenin's portrait at the Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

5. Kievskaya Metro Station was one of the first to be completed in Moscow. Named after the capital city of Ukraine by Kiev-born, Nikita Khruschev, Stalin's successor.

Kievskaya Metro Station

6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders.

Novoslobodskaya metro station

7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power. It has a dome with patriotic slogans decorated with red stars representing the Soviet's World War II Hall of Fame. Kurskaya Metro Station is a must-visit station in Moscow.

Ceiling panel and artworks at Kurskaya Metro Station

8. Mayakovskaya Metro Station built in 1938. It was named after Russian poet Vladmir Mayakovsky. This is one of the most beautiful metro stations in the world with 34 mosaics painted by Alexander Deyneka.

Mayakovskaya station

One of the over 30 ceiling mosaics in Mayakovskaya metro station

9. Belorusskaya Metro Station is named after the people of Belarus. In the picture below, there are statues of 3 members of the Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II. The statues were sculpted by Sergei Orlov, S. Rabinovich and I. Slonim.

10. Teatralnaya Metro Station (Theatre Metro Station) is located near the Bolshoi Theatre.

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Have you visited the Moscow Metro? Leave your comment below.

January 15, 2017 at 8:17 am

An excellent read! Thanks for much for sharing the Russian metro system with us. We're heading to Moscow in April and exploring the metro stations were on our list and after reading your post, I'm even more excited to go visit them. Thanks again 🙂

December 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm

Hi, do you remember which tour company you contacted for this tour?