5 October Writing Ideas for the Upper Elementary Classroom

Writing is a subject I always had a hard time getting my students excited about. It wasn’t that they weren’t good at it, but most of them didn’t know where to begin. And I guess, I didn’t either. Writing was just too overwhelming.

Once I got over the fact that I didn’t have a writing curriculum and I could make my own lessons (maybe this is why it was overwhelming…), writing turned into one of my favorite subjects to teach. I liked to make writing assignments that were monthly themed to get students inspired to write. Here are a few ideas for the month of October that will get your students begging to write.

#1. Have them write from the point of view of an object. Choose something like a pumpkin, scarecrow, or black cat. Then, have students tell the story of that object’s day, through its eyes. My students LOVED this activity.

#2 Use photos as a writing prompt. For example, take this photo (found on the site pixabay):

Students could come up with many different stories and conclusions about what is going on here. My mind is already spinning about a crazed gorilla floating away with balloons! Just project the photo on your board, and have students write away.

#3 Create a classroom debate. Have a hot topic ready for your students such as, “What Halloween costume is the best,” or “Why should you be given $100 to design a costume?” or “Should kids be allowed to trick-or-treat alone?” Then, have students form an opinion. Students can present their ideas to the class, and students can debate about the topic.

#4 Tie writing into science. Grab a fun pumpkin science project and have your students then write about it! What supplies did they need? What was their hypothesis? What was the actual outcome? What did they learn? Have students write an informational essay about a fun October themed science experiment.

#5 Make writing interactive. Instead of “just” writing an essay with an October theme, how about getting students cutting, gluing, researching and writing? Make mini-interactive essay books. Below you can see how student can create a book out of their essay. You can find this product here.