Lessons and Books to Help Generate Writing Ideas for Kids

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This post includes lessons and books to help kids generate writing ideas. Grab FREE writing templates as well!

Helping Kids Generate Writing Ideas

Have you ever met a teacher that didn’t love and hoard children’s books? Me neither!

Every teacher needs to have a few books ready in their toolkit for back to school. There are a ton of great reads available that can help set the tone in your classroom. Books can help you teach expectations and social responsibility. They can get children ready and eager to learn new things. Also, books are a fantastic tool for introducing something new.

Books that Help Generate Writing Ideas for Kids

A vast collection of children’s books is a must for any classroom. I use children’s books to help me teach many topics. My post on the best children’s books for teaching math is filled with tips to help you incorporate books into your math program.

Today I am sharing a few of my favorite children’s books for teaching writing. The book I am mentioning is fantastic for the beginning of the school year and setting up your writing program. This book and others mentioned are useful in helping students generate ideas for writing.

Make sure to read to the end of the post for a free writing resource for generating ideas, as well as a giveaway and tons more posts and ways to use books in September.

Ralph Tells a Story

Ralph Tells a Story by Abby Hanlon is a must-read! This adorable book is perfect for primary grades. It features a likable kid, named Ralph, who struggles during this classroom writing time each day.

He has a hard time coming up with ideas about what to write. His classmates help him realize that he does have stories and encourage him to look at small things to find those ideas.

Ralph realizes that he does have ideas and stories to tell.

As teachers, we can all relate to this story. Maybe we’ve had students like Ralph who can’t think of anything to write every day during writing time. Those kids often sit there while time wastes away. We try to help them think of ideas, but they may just be stuck on a thought that their ideas are not important or good enough.

Ralph Tells a Story is a fantastic book to read to let children know that their ideas are valuable and worth writing about. Writing time should be an opportunity to let our thoughts flow, to express our ideas, and grow as learners.

The writing tips from Ralph are especially sweet and remind us all that writing should be fun. Use this page as an example, and have students create their own writing tips. Grab a free writing template to use for this lesson below.

Writing Lessons for Generating Ideas

I spend a lot of time at the beginning of the school year on generating ideas for writing. Before we begin to write, we talk about what we can write. Below are lesson ideas I suggest teachers use at the start of the year to help strengthen your writing program. I try to incorporate each of these lesson ideas on different days.

Brainstorming

Create an anchor chart filled with writing topics that children suggest. Write “Our Writing Ideas” in the center and brainstorm ideas around it. The anchor chart should not be completed in the first lesson but could be something that is built upon and reviewed at the start of any writing block. Post the chart in a visible place for children to look at when the need arises.

Sharing ideas like this is a powerful thing. Children are listening to their peers share ideas that they may connect too. They may hear someone mention a topic that interests them or that they may relate to personally.

I encourage students to share ideas and topics from their own experiences. Like Ralph and his classmates, learning first to write “true” stories from their lives is the easiest and best first step.

List Writing

Another useful way to help children generate ideas is through list writing. Encouraging them to write lists of words and ideas is helpful when they get stuck. List writing is like a personal brainstorm of ideas and words onto a sheet of paper.

After the class has shared plenty on the ideas anchor chart, have students complete their list of writing ideas. Here they can share ideas they heard that interest them, as well as new ideas they come up with. Keep the list in a writing folder and available for when it’s needed. Grab a free list writing template below.

Leaving strips of writing paper at your writing center is another way to encourage list writing. If a child is not ready to write a “story” yet, they may feel more comfortable writing a list of words related to a particular topic. The Writing & Words resource includes different list writing sheets for every season, as well as many other valuable writing activities.

The book Rocket Writes a Story by Tad Hills is a sweet book about a dog, named Rocket, who wants to make his own story, but can’t think of one. He goes on a journey and discovers small details around him. He writes down those little details, much like a list, and those small details help him think of an idea.

Creating a Heart Map

One of my favorite beginning of the year writing ideas for kids is creating heart maps. A heart map is a heart drawn that divides into sections. In each section, students are encouraged to write the name and draw what is important to them. The book My Map Book by Sara Fanelli includes a page with a heart map. It provides a nice visual for students before they create their own.

writing ideas for kids - map of my heart

We discuss what is important and what matters the most to us. The people in our family, our friends, pets, homes, hobbies, and our favorite things and places help fill our heart maps.

Heart maps help generate writing ideas because all of the things on our heart maps make great writing topics. When the heart maps are complete, keep the hearts in a writing folder or place that is accessible to students. At the beginning of the school year, I will leave the heart maps up on a bulletin board or student desks during writing time. Grab a free heart map template below.