5th grade writing activity

The Best Paragraph Writing Worksheets for 5th Grade

When our students reach fifth grade, it’s a really pivotal time in their writing journey. At this stage of school, we introduce them to the four primary writing styles. Our goal is to help them grasp the differences and patterns within each form of writing.

These four common forms of writing taught in 5th grade are: expository, narrative, persuasive, and descriptive.

But what happens if you have 5th grade students still struggling to understand and write the parts of a paragraph?

That’s where we come in! We have some awesome 5th grade writing worksheets to share with you that literally have everything you need to help your students understand the parts of a paragraph. 

We even included a FREE writing checklist, graphic organizers, and writing paper for you!

5th Grade Writing Expectations

By 5th grade, students should be able to write a really descriptive paragraph. What we typically see is that this is the grade in which the strong writers emerge with tons of creative thinking and wonderful ideas for their writing and this is where the weaker writers will really struggle because of all the writing expectations of upper elementary as they prepare for middle school.

Sometimes we need to use some writing resources to help supplement the curriculum to meet the needs of our writers who need extra help.

Enter the perfect resource below…

5th Grade Writing Worksheets for Paragraph Writing

In order to help upper elementary students write an amazing paragraph, we created a special paragraph writing resource that has everything you need to help students in upper elementary understand how to write a great paragraph.

You can stop stressing over lessons for your struggling writers and help guide them in an effective way with the Paragraph Writing Differentiated Bundle!

Using the activities in this bundle will help keep students engaged and provide true clarity on the essentials of writing a paragraph. It’s full of differentiation and interactive activities for your 5th graders.

We are talking checklists, review sheets, leveled topics and activities, graphic organizers, high-interest texts, reference sheets, anchor charts, teaching posters, complete answer keys and more!

This resource is explicitly broken up into teaching the foundation parts of a paragraph:

• topic sentence
• supporting details
• concluding sentence
• transition words

After using this resource,   your students will be experts at identifying and understanding the parts of a paragraph with less support from you! 

How to Use the 5th Grade Writing Worksheets for Paragraphs

We recommend using the worksheets and teaching lessons in a variety of ways, depending on your student’s needs. These writing worksheets can be used for individual, small group, or whole group instruction.

They are differentiated to easily meet the needs of your students’ different writing abilities and are available to use digitally on the Smartboard through Google Slides or you can print if you want.

They are perfect for the general education classroom, special education classroom, speech and language and ESL learners. This Paragraph Writing Bundle is also perfect for students in 3rd-6th grade.

FREE 5th Grade Paragraph Writing Worksheets

Use this Paragraph Writing Freebie to have students check their writing for the important parts.

The FREE checklist has students make sure that their paragraph includes a topic sentence , 3 supporting details , and a concluding sentence .

We suggest you laminate these or throw them in a page protector and have 5th graders keep them at their desk for the year to re-use over and over again.

This FREEBIE for 5th grade writing also comes with differentiated options for a graphic organizer. We like to teach students that writing a paragraph is much like building a cheeseburger and our free graphic organizer is a great visual example of that:

Last but note least, this 5th grade writing freebie comes with writing paper for your students to use and write their rough draft on!

More Resources for Paragraph Writing in 3rd, 4th and 5th Grade:

Remember, patience and consistent encouragement can work wonders with fifth graders who struggle with paragraph writing. Keep providing examples, practice opportunities and supportive feedback to help them gain confidence and improve their skills over time.

Every step forward counts!

Check out some other paragraph writing resources you might like:

• Free Video for Kids on How to Write a Paragraph
• Teaching Supporting Details in 5 Easy Steps
• 3 Steps for Teaching Topic Sentence

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• Read more about: Paragraph Writing , Writing

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Reading Worksheets, Spelling, Grammar, Comprehension, Lesson Plans

5th Grade CCSS: Writing

For fifth graders, this Common Core area helps students gain mastery of writing skills by working collaboratively and producing written texts, understanding syntax and vocabulary, and organizing their ideas. Among the complete standards for this grade, fifth graders will be asked to: write opinion pieces, explanatory texts, narratives, be able to effectively write introductions, supporting details, developed ideas, reasons, and conclusions to fully realize a piece of writing, properly use illustrations, formatting, and multimedia to enhance a text, use dialogue, and descriptions, and pacing to develop experiences and to show the response of characters to situations, use appropriate technology to publish writing, demonstrate keyboarding skill, understand writing for specific audiences, summarize or paraphrase information in notes and finished work, and provide sources, draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support writing, go through the process of writing, editing and revision for their written work.

Autumn: The Scarecrow’s Surprise Writing Prompt

Students will further develop their creative writing skills with this Autumn writing prompt activity. This is a great worksheet to keep your students’ creativity flowing!

Classroom Reporter: Interview with a Classmate

“Classroom Reporter: Interview with a Classmate” is the perfect way to introduce students to their classmates and learn more about one another.

Father’s Day Writing Prompt: He’s the Best

Your students will have fun writing about their father in this “He’s the Best” writing activity.

Fourth of July Writing Prompt: What Freedom Means to Me

Teach your students about freedom in America with this fun Fourth of July Writing Prompt printable worksheet.

Haiku: Write Your Own!

This worksheet features the Japanese poetry style haiku.

Kwanzaa Candles: Who Lights First? Writing Prompt

It’s the first night of Kwanzaa and the entire Thompson family has gathered for the celebration. It’s almost time to light the candles, and the question comes up: who should light the candles tonight? Write a story about how the Thompson family decides who will light the candles. This printable holiday writing prompt is ideal for 3rd – 5th grade, but can be used where appropriate.

Main Idea Tree

Use this image of a large tree to help your students understand the components of a paragraph. With this worksheet, students will be asked to write a main idea and follow it with three supporting details. What a great way for students to visualize the importance of the main idea in a paragraph!

My Goals for the New Year

This writing prompt about New Year’s goals is a wonderful way to help your students practice their writing skills.

Native American Heritage: Create Your Totem Pole

In the box on the worksheet, design your own totem pole. Make sure it represents you and your interests. Then in the writing space, describe your totem pole and explain how it illustrates you. This printable Native American Heritage Month activity is ideal for 3rd – 5th grade, but can be used where appropriate.

New Year’s Reflections

Encourage your students to look back on the events of the past year and look forward to the ones ahead with this New Years reflection worksheet.

The Lost Dreidel Writing Prompt

The Goldberg family has lost their Hanukkah dreidel! Write a story and tell how you think the Goldberg family should solve their problem. This printable Hanukkah writing prompt activity is perfect for keeping students engaged in class while learning about the holiday.

Using Story Elements: Plan a Story

Planning a story can be tough. This activity helps students break things down so that it’s easier to envision and write the story. A great beginning writing activity for 3rd – 5th graders.

What Happens Next? Halloween Surprise Activity

Keep learning fun during the holidays with this Halloween Reading Comprehension Activity. Students will be asked to read a passage and then answer the given questions about the story. This worksheet is great for use both at home and in the classroom.

Write a Description: Melting Snowman

With this unique winter activity, help your students further develop their writing skills.

Write Rhyming Couplets

Time for some poetic rhyming couplets!

Writing Limericks

This activity lists opening lines for two limericks. Students write the other lines to complete the limerick, remembering which lines that need to rhyme.

Writing Prompt: A New Plant in Spring

Students choose from the letters on a Spring flower and write words that start with a vowel. A fun way to practice vocabulary and anticipate the warm days to come!

Writing Prompt: She’s the Best

Students write about a special sister, grandmother, mother, or friend!

Abraham Lincoln Bio Poem

Your students will write a bio poem about Abraham Lincoln.

Back to School Diamante Poem

Teach your students a fun way to write diamante poems using our new back to school worksheet.

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5th grade writing doesn’t have to be a struggle! This blog post will provide all of my best tips and ideas for teaching your fifth graders to succeed as writers.

I’ve had classes where writing was a struggle allll yearrrr longggg. I’ve also had classes where I’d swear my students were one step away from writing professionally.

Your groups will never be the same and that’s ok. Just roll with it!

Take heart in the fact that when students leave your class at the end of the year, they will be MUCH better writers than when they entered in the fall.

No matter how good (or bad) my students are at writing when 5th grade begins, we always start at the very beginning and work on writing strong sentences.

This post will give you a step-by-step breakdown of how I help my students move from dull to dazzling sentences: How to Help Your Students Write Better Sentences

Once they’ve got the hang of writing an excellent sentence, then we move on. Your class may move slowly or quickly but be sure to watch their writing closely for clues that you may need to slow down.

You need to know where you’re going to know how you should plan the journey. So, the next section lays out my end-of-the-year goals for my 5th grade writers. Everything I do all year leads to the completion of these goals.

My end-of-the-year goals for my 5th grade writers….

By the time my students walk out of my classroom for the last time…

1. I want them to be able to efficiently organize their ideas and plan/write a five paragraph essay.

2. I want my students to be able to construct narrative, informative, and opinion essays.

3. I want my students to be able to choose appropriate sources and write a simple research report. 

4. I want my students to be able to closely read two paired passages and write an essay in response to a prompt. 

If you’re looking for a hyperlinked pdf version of my pacing and sequence for 5th grade writing, click the link below to have it sent to your email address. As a bonus, you’ll become a member of my weekly VIP email club just for upper elementary teachers. 🙂

Obtain a Writing Sample!  

Give students a simple prompt and ask for a response in a paragraph or two. Emphasize to students that you are not grading writing samples for grammar, spelling, or structure. You are interested in the quality of their ideas. 

This writing sample will be valuable as the year goes on. Your students will improve so much that their first samples will (hopefully) be pathetic compared to their new, improved writing pieces.

I usually whip out their first samples after we’ve written a few five paragraph essays. Students feel inspired to keep growing their writing skills when they see how far they’ve come in just a few months. 

Example Writing Sample Prompts: 

• Describe a talent or characteristic that makes you unique and different.
• Tell about a time when you set a goal for yourself and reached that goal.
• Pretend you live in a society where children are required to choose their future career paths in the 5th grade. What path would you choose? Explain.

Create Writing Reference Notebooks with students! 

I’ll admit it – I’m a little obsessed with writing reference notebooks. We use composition notebooks to create these amazing sources of knowledge and we use them all year long. 

So, where do we start with creating writing reference notebooks?

The beginning section of students’ notebooks hold reference materials. I want students to have plenty of resources at their fingertips to improve their sentence writing, including alternatives for overused words and my specialty, sparkle words. Sparkle words are words that are just a little bit special and make my students’ writing shine, like scandalous, embrace, and intriguing.

Other ways that my students use their writing reference notebooks:

• Writing journal entries
• Creating a personal thesaurus
• Writing topics & ideas list
• Taking notes on writing skills lessons
• Writing first drafts of longer assignments

This resource will give you an idea of the printable pages that I use for students’ notebooks: Writing Interactive Notebook – Reference Pages

Do I take grades on students’ writing reference notebooks? Not really. I want these notebooks to be a safe space for students to jot ideas and take risks with their first drafts. I do sometimes take a participation grade on their notebooks. This encourages students to keep their notebooks organized and up to date.

Start with sentences!  

When teaching 5th grade, you can expect students to start the year writing complete sentences, right?! No, sorry. Whether it’s the long break or maybe your students’ 4th grade teachers never required a lick of writing, your 5th graders will often begin the year with less-than-stellar sentences. 

So, I just plan to start with sentences first every year. We work on building and expanding sentences for about two weeks. Yes, two weeks probably seems like a really long time, but spectacular sentences are the foundation for creating great writers.

To improve my students’ sentences, I take the basic, simple sentences that students write and we work on adding more specific details and interest. First, I give students a list of five nouns and ask them to write one sentence using each noun.

I usually get sentences similar to these:

• Pie is my favorite dessert.
• My dad’s car is red.
• I wear my jacket when it is cold.
• This school is a nice place to learn.
• The tree is tall.

This is where I want students to get in their sentence-writing before moving on:

• Pecan, cherry, apple, or pumpkin… any type of pie is delicious!
• My dad spends his Saturdays washing and shining up his candy apple red Jeep.
• A puffy, hooded jacket is the first thing I reach for on chilly mornings.
• My school, North Hills Elementary, has the best teachers and students.
• The tall Redwood tree in my front yard is a welcome sight to visitors and makes my house look spectacular.

My students write every single day!  

I vividly remember being in 5th grade myself and writing long papers on the most boring topics ever, like “The Science of Light” and “The History of Mapmaking.” Snooze fest! I vowed to never do that to my students. Instead, I took a different route.

Students absolutely need to learn to write full reports and five paragraph essays, but they don’t need to do this every week. They do, however, need to continually practice writing. I find that if I make writing assignments engaging, my students don’t complain and actually seem to enjoy writing.

I assign Weekly Writing Choice Boards . This writing has made all the difference in my classroom! Students are now excited about writing class. They see writing as a treat and a fun way to express their thoughts and opinions.

I hand out a new choice board every week and students must complete three assignments from the board. I don’t grade these on perfect grammar, spelling, or punctuation, instead I look for ideas and effort. Even imperfect writing practice will improve your students’ writing skills tremendously!

Enter your first name and email address below for a free set of 6 Weekly Writing Choice Boards! The pdf file will be sent directly to your inbox. As a bonus, you’ll become a member of my weekly VIP email club just for upper elementary teachers. 🙂

If you teach social studies in addition to writing, this blog post will give you a bunch of engaging social studies journal entries that will help you tie social studies into your writing instruction.

Train students in proofreading and editing!  

Student need to practice proofreading and editing their writing (and the writing of other students) near the beginning of the school year.

Repeatedly practicing the steps of the proofreading/editing process will help your students to internalize this procedure. You’ll find that they will start to catch their mistakes earlier and more independently.

I find it valuable to establish and consistently use a common “proofreading language” in my classroom. It takes a little time up front to teach students the markings and their meanings but having a common system for proofreading will save loads of time throughout the school year.

This resource will give you an idea of the proofreading marks and practice that I use in my classroom: Proofreading and Editing Activity Pack

Asking your students to proofread and edit their own writing is a must but it’s also a good thing to have students pair up and look over a partner’s writing also. Your students will receive valuable feedback on their writing, editing ideas, and they’ll get to see some writing styles that are a little different from their own.

Teach five paragraph essays one piece at a time! 

Simple Paragraphs

Once my students are stellar sentence writers, we move to simple paragraphs. The simple paragraphs that I use with students consist of a topic sentence, three detail sentences, and a closing sentence.

Starting with simple paragraphs is much less threatening than jumping straight into five paragraph essays, so I find that spending some time helping students write excellent simple paragraphs is the perfect bridge into essays.

Additionally, we color-code our simple paragraphs. This allows students to think critically about what sentence types they have written and provides a visual for students (and for me) to see that all required parts of the paragraph are included.

The color-code I use with students:

• Topic sentence – green
• 3 detail sentences – yellow
• Closing sentence – red

Planning and Writing Body Paragraphs

Once students are able to write great simple paragraphs, we dive into the planning and writing of body paragraphs.

This isn’t too much of a jump for students because the body paragraphs are structured similarly to the simple paragraphs that we have practiced over and over. The only difference is that they are using one prompt to write three body paragraphs.

Many teachers think they have to start with the first paragraph of the essay, the introduction paragraph. This isn’t what I recommend. Starting by teaching students to write the three body paragraphs helps to steer the rest of the essay.

Adding an Introduction Paragraph

Now that students are able to write their three body paragraphs, it’s time to add the introduction paragraph.

The introduction paragraph contains a hook, commentary, and a thesis sentence.

The hook is a sentence (or two) that “hooks” readers and builds interest in the upcoming essay. I teach my students several types of hooks, including quotes, questions, bold statements, or sharing a memory.

After the hook, I ask students to write a sentence or two of commentary on the hook or on the prompt in general. This helps to “bulk up” their introduction paragraph a bit and make it more interesting.

The final part of the introduction paragraph is the thesis sentence. Because students already learned to write the body paragraphs, crafting a thesis sentence is so much easier.

The formula for writing a thesis sentence: Restate the prompt briefly + detail 1 + detail 2 + detail 3.

Additionally, I teach transition teams at this point. Students need to use a transition word or phrase at the beginning of each body paragraph, so that’s where transition teams come in. Transition teams are sets of three transition words or phrases that work well together.

Examples of transition teams:

• First, Second, Finally
• To begin, To continue, To end
• One reason, Another reason, A final reason

Adding a Conclusion Paragraph

When conclusion paragraph day finally arrives, my students are so excited because they can finally write an entire five paragraph essay.

In my opinion, conclusion paragraphs are super easy to teach because they only have two parts. Here’s the conclusion paragraph formula: Write the thesis sentence in a different way + add a closing thought.

I allow students to be creative with their closing thoughts. I tell them that this is the final thought that your readers will take with them, so it needs to relate well to your entire essay while being engaging and thought-provoking for readers. Some examples of closing thoughts are calls to action, quotes, personal opinions, and brief personal experiences.

Teach, Discuss, & Practice with Rubrics

I inform my students that from this point on in their school journey, they will be graded with rubrics fairly often, so this is a good time to learn about rubrics and become familiar with them.

I create or find five paragraph essay samples that are good, bad, and in-between. We read and examine the samples as a class and circle the applicable parts of the rubric. If students are able to grade a few assignments using a rubric, it’s not this unknown, scary thing anymore. 

Are you grading every single word and making a million corrections on students’ essays? I give you permission to stop doing that! 🙂

You are going to burn yourself out and get to where you hate grading and teaching writing. To be honest, your students will not become better writers when their papers are marked all over with suggestions in the margins.

Help! I need more support…

Please visit the following blog post for in-depth explanations and examples of my five paragraph essay teaching and grading process: 

Tips for Teaching and Grading Five Paragraph Essays

This resource will provide you with a full, scaffolded unit that will help you to teach the five paragraph essay process to students! Five Paragraph Essay Instructional Unit

Narrative, Informative, and Opinion Essays

As much as we’d like to just have our students write simple, straightforward five paragraph essays all year, that’s just not feasible.

But I promise, once your students can crank out those five paragraph essays on simple topics, moving to other modes of writing is no sweat! 

In my classroom, we spend time learning to write opinion essays, narrative essays, and informative essays. 

I start with opinion writing because my students have a lot of opinions, haha! We channel those opinions into five paragraph essay format. 🙂

Research Reports

The skills involved in writing a research report are valuable for 5th graders. They need to be able to judge the reliability of a source and cite their sources properly. 

Research reports also teach students to organize their ideas, take notes, make an outline, write a draft, and create a final report. 

I’d like to point you to the following blog post where I detailed my entire process for teaching research reports.

The Step-By-Step Guide to Teaching Research Reports

Paired Passages

5th graders are too young to compare two passages and write a response. Right?! 

No, this is not true at all. I think that reading paired passages and using them to craft a written response is a valuable skill for 5th graders. 

Steps to analyzing paired passages and writing an essay to answer a prompt:

First, dissect the prompt.

Second, closely read the paired texts.

Third, organize thoughts using the prompt.

The following blog post explains my paired passage writing steps in detail. Take a moment to check it out. You’ll be glad you did! 

How to Teach Writing Using Paired Passages

My Sequence & Pacing for Teaching 5th Grade Writing

Don’t stress! This sequence and pacing guide is hyperlinked and ready to be sent to your email address. Go to the bottom of this blog post to request the guide.

1st Month of School

We start school in the middle of the month, so I only have two weeks to teach during the first month of school.

This is the rundown for the remainder of the month:

Month 1, Week 3

The first week of the school year is all about teaching and practicing procedures. Teach it right or teach it all year! 🙂

Classroom Procedures – I recommend you check out this blog post:  5 Tips for Establishing Procedures in the Upper Elementary Classroom

Welcome Activities –  Welcome to 5th Grade: First Week of School Activities

Blog Post – Back to School Writing Prompts for 5th Graders

Month 1, Week 4

During this week, I review and continue practicing procedures with students but we do go ahead and start working on writing.

I establish my expectations and procedures for my students’ Weekly Writing Choice Boards.

We set up writing notebooks together, including the table of contents, cover page, and an  About the Author  page. 

Obtain a writing sample

We start working on improving sentences.

2nd Month of School

Month 2, Week 1

We continue working on improving sentences.

Start proofreading/editing instruction and practice.

Month 2 , Week 2

Review the process for writing excellent sentences.

Finish proofreading/editing instruction and practice.

Month 2, Weeks 3-4

Writing simple paragraphs (include color-code)

3rd Month of School

Month 3, Weeks 1-2

Planning & writing body paragraphs (include color-code)

Month 3, Weeks 3-4

Teach introduction paragraphs

Writing introduction plus body paragraphs (include color code)

Transition teams

4th Month of School

Month 4, Weeks 1-2

Teach students how to write conclusion paragraphs.

Students will write their first full five paragraph essays this week.

Month 4, Weeks 3-4

Write 5 paragraph essays with a variety of basic prompts.

Have students proofread/edit other students’ essays.

Provide mini-lessons on grammar structure or other issues you are noticing in students’ writing.

5th Month of School

This is where our winter break falls, so I only have two weeks to teach this month.

This is a great time to review what we’ve been working on all year and assign some fun journal prompts.

Also, writing mini-lessons are good fillers for this time.

This Winter Writing Project is a student favorite right before winter break!

6th Month of School

Month 6, Week 1

When we come back from winter break, I like to teach the research report process. I spend a week teaching the process and giving students time to research while I’m there to help.

Month 6, Week 2

Student complete their research reports, including outlines, citing sources, and etc.

I ask my students to do super quick presentations on their research topics. It’s 1-2 minutes max. I don’t want them to read their reports aloud because that’s boring. Instead, I want them to quickly highlight what they learned about their topics and what was fascinating to them.

Month 6, Week 3

We review the five paragraph essay process and write/proofread/edit an essay with a simple prompt.

Month 6, Week 4

I start opinion writing this week. You’ll find that students will slide into opinion writing easily because they already know five paragraph essay structure.

7th Month of School

Month 7, Week 1

Continue working on opinion writing. By the end of this week, students should be able to write an opinion essay using a prompt.

Month 7, Weeks 2-3

We spend two weeks on narrative writing. By the end of the second week, students should be able to write a narrative essay using a prompt.

Month 7, Week 4

This week, I teach the process of writing an informative essay.

8th Month of School

Month 8, Week 1

Continue working on informative essays. Students should be able to write an informative essay using a prompt by the end of this week.

Month 8, Weeks 2-3

Teach students how to write an essay using paired passages.

For more information on how I teach the steps above, visit this blog post: How to Teach Writing Using Paired Passages

Month 8, Week 4

Now that students know the process of using paired passages, I provide a set of paired passages and ask students to answer prompts in a variety of genres, like opinion, narrative, informative, poetry, and etc.

This resource makes it easy:

Paired Passages with Writing Prompts and Activities Bundle

9th Month of School

Month 9, Week 1

Continue working on using paired passages to write in a variety of genres.

Talk about last minute standardized testing tips to help students with their writing tests.

The rest of the month is taken up with standardized testing, so I do a lot of review activities, free writing, and etc.

I do have a set of suspense stories that my students love to write during this month. Check them out here: Suspense Stories Bundle

10th Month of School

During this month, we are wrapping up the year. Students participate in multiple activities and field trips, so there’s not much teaching time.

If you are still feeling overwhelmed, don’t dismay. Instructing young, inexperienced writers is a challenge. Just work on one step at a time to avoid overwhelming yourself and your students. Once you’ve taught writing for a year or two, you’ll feel like an old pro. Promise! 

If you’d like to keep this blog post for later, simply save this pin to your teacher Pinterest board!

Are you that teacher saying, “oh my goodness, please just give me the print ‘n go pages so that i can start teaching writing tomorrow” it’s all here for you:.

I’m not a teacher, perhaps in my heart I am. I am an older Mom who adopted late in life as God gave us our newborn in our 50’s! By His grace, we are healthy, fit, youngish 50’s LOL! I love your stuff and have always supplemented Fi’s education., for I find the California standards quite low. Now that I have her in a college-prep school (5th Grade) I find she is much more prepared because of your wisdom! Thank you. Sophia Joy is someone who has always had to work hard at school, but it is paying off! Thank you and God bless you richly for being so generous with your wisdom,it will all come back to you 100-fold! Sincerely, Susan, Sophia Joy’s Mom

Thank you so much, Susan! You certainly have a heartwarming story with your precious girl 🙂

Hello When you do the back to school journal prompts, where do you have students complete these? On single paper, google classroom?

Hi Sarah! Usually, I have students complete the prompts in their social studies interactive notebooks. This year, however, we were virtual at the beginning of the year, so I had students type their entries onto Google Docs.

Hi! I am a new 5th grade teacher, and I’m wondering if your school uses a particular writing curriculum? Your website has been so helpful – thank you!!

Hi Jenny! We don’t use a particular writing curriculum at my school. I use my own resources to teach writing. Please reach out to me at [email protected] if I can help or answer any questions for you 🙂

Do you have any resources in Spanish?

Hi Danielle! The only resources I have in Spanish are my Parent’s Guide to Reading resources, grades K-5.

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FREE Poetry Worksheet Bundle! Perfect for National Poetry Month.

75 Creative Fifth Grade Writing Prompts (Free Slides!)

Get them excited to write every day!

Fifth grade is such an exciting time! For many kids, it’s the last year of elementary school, and so many exciting things lie ahead. Fifth graders have accumulated some interesting stories to tell by now, and they’re building stronger writing skills. These fifth grade writing prompts encourage kids to imagine, explain, persuade, and reveal—improving their writing abilities day by day.

If you’d like even more upper elementary writing prompts, check out the Would You Rather questions we post regularly on the Daily Classroom Hub . Kids will get a kick out of these, for writing or discussion!

(Want this entire set of fifth grade writing prompts in one easy document? Get your free PDF or Google Slide bundle by submitting your email here .)

1. How important is it to finish what you start?

2. What does it mean to be honest? Give one solid example of what honesty looks like.

3. What three qualities do you think are most important in a friend? Why?

4. Since fifth grade is the top grade in elementary school, should fifth graders get special privileges? If so, write in detail about one privilege you think they should get. If not, why not?

5. Vincent van Gogh said, “If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.” Describe one of your favorite places in nature in detail.

6. Are fifth graders old enough to babysit little kids? Why or why not?

7. Write about three qualities that make a good leader.

8. Should teachers assign homework? Why or why not?

Get My Fifth Grade Writing Prompts!

What are your favorite fifth grade writing prompts? Come share your ideas on the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook !

Plus, check out 50 fifth grade math word problems of the day ., you might also like.

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Our 5 favorite 5th grade writing worksheets

by: The GreatSchools Editorial Team | Updated: May 6, 2016

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Silly spoonerisms!

Skill: recognizing common phrases.

Have you ridden a well-boiled icicle?

W.A. Spooner must have gotten his tongue twisted! He is credited with “inventing” this type of mixed-up phrase, now called a "spoonerism." In this writing worksheet , your child gets practice decoding spoonerisms and then writing the phrases correctly.

Homophones and homographs

Skill: building vocabulary.

Our funny English language

In this writing worksheet , your child will learn the difference between homophones and homographs and get practice using both types of words correctly in sentences.

Active and passive sentences

Skill: 5th grade writing practive.

Was it done to you or by you?

In this writing worksheet , your child gets practice editing sentences written in passive voice and rewriting them in active voice — and vice versa.

Punctuating a paragraph

Skill: editing.

“She’s inspired by cooking her family and her dogs.”*

Punctuation could save lives and lead to a tastier meal. In this writing worksheet , your child will practice editing a paragraph. They will need to correct punctuation, capitalization, and correctly use quotation marks. *”She’s inspired by cooking, her family, and her dogs.”

Following instructions

Skill: writing a report.

Multitasking

An experiment! In this writing worksheet , your child reads instructions, does an experiment, creates a flow chart, makes observations, and writes a report. Multiple tasks will build multiple skills, including science, research, and nonfiction writing skills!

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5th Grade Writing Activities

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Writing Worksheets for 5th Graders

Printable Writing Worksheets for 5th Graders aligned with Common Core Standards. SplashLearn is an award-winning learning program used by more than 40 million children.

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Handwriting Worksheets

Practice Writing: New Year Worksheet

Welcome the New Year with our handwriting practice worksheet, perfect for advanced holiday-themed learning.

Sentence Writing: Advanced Science

Elevate handwriting practice with our science-themed worksheet, enhancing writing skills and boosting vocabulary.

Practice Writing: Spring Verbs Worksheet

Learn and write spring verbs with our exciting handwriting practice worksheet, ideal for expanding vocabulary.

Writing In Cursive: Animals Worksheet

Dive into the diverse world of animals and build vocabulary with our awesome cursive handwriting printable.

Creative Writing Worksheets

Picture Description: Meeting by the Lake

Advance your child's writing skills with this printable worksheet focused on writing a description about a meeting by the lake.

Picture Description: In the Woods

Explore picture descriptions with our fun creative writing worksheet, using the setting of a wood to write a story.

Picture Description: A Robbery Gone Wrong

Build creative writing skills with this fun worksheet focused on writing a description for an image of a robbery gone wrong!

Picture Description: Outer Space Adventure

Develop creative writing skills with our space-themed picture description worksheet, perfect for boosting creativity.

All Writing Worksheets

Practice Writing: Summer Adjectives Worksheet

Dive into summer adjectives with our enjoyable handwriting practice worksheet, perfect for fun and learning.

Writing Practice: Flowers Worksheet

Learn about different flowers and enhance handwriting skills with our fun flowers-themed handwriting practice worksheet.

Practice Writing: Letter A Words Worksheet

Expand vocabulary and learn letter A words using our fun handwriting practice worksheet, ideal for young learners.

Picture Description: The Bugs' Residence

Write picture descriptions with this fun creative writing worksheet, and write about what happens at the bugs' residence.

Writing Practice: Letter E Words Worksheet

Master letter E words and improve handwriting with our exciting worksheet, ideal for boosting vocabulary.

Picture Description: Splish Splash Fun

Encourage creative writing practice with this printable worksheet, focusing on writing a picture description of a rainy day.

Writing Practice: Letter Q Words Worksheet

Discover letter Q words and enhance handwriting skills with our enjoyable worksheet, ideal for young learners.

Picture Description: The Flying Turnip

Use this fun printable worksheet to enhance creative writing skills as you write about the adventures of a flying turnip.

Writing Practice: Letter J Adjectives Worksheet

Enhance vocabulary by exploring letter J adjectives with our handwriting practice worksheet, perfect for creative handwriting.

Picture Description: Garden Experiments

Strengthen your child's creative writing practice with our picture description worksheet about some fun garden experiments.

Writing Practice: Letter K Adjectives Worksheet

Expand your vocabulary with letter K adjectives and improve handwriting using our fun worksheet, for fun and learning.

Picture Description: Picnic Day

Learn to write picture descriptions with our picnic-themed worksheet, enhancing creative writing practice in a fun way.

Writing Practice: Letter L Adjectives Worksheet

Learn letter L adjectives and enhance handwriting with our fun worksheet, ideal for creative handwriting enhancement.

Picture Description: Best Friends

Write about best friends as you write picture descriptions with this fun worksheet and sharpen your creative writing skills.

Writing Practice: Letter O Adjectives Worksheet

Explore letter O adjectives and improve handwriting with our fun handwriting worksheet, perfect for boosting vocabulary.

Picture Description: Snowy Affair

Refine your child's creative writing practice with our engaging snowy day-themed picture description worksheet.

Writing Practice: Letter Q Adjectives Worksheet

Discover letter Q adjectives and practice handwriting with our exciting worksheet, ideal for expanding your vocabulary.

Picture Description: The Football Fiasco

Master writing picture descriptions with our awesome printable worksheet, focusing on writing about a fun football fiasco.

Writing Practice: Letter V Adjectives Worksheet

Master letter V adjectives and improve handwriting with our handwriting worksheet, a valuable tool for vocabulary growth.

Picture Description: The Quarrel

Elevate creative writing practice with this fun printable worksheet, focusing on writing a picture description about a quarrel.

Writing Practice: Letter Y Adjectives Worksheet

Explore letter Y adjectives and enhance handwriting with our engaging worksheet, perfect for creative language learning.

Tell a Tale: The Magical Door

Excel in writing stories with this exciting worksheet focusing on creative writing using a story prompt about a magical door.

Writing Practice: Letter Z Adjectives Worksheet

Discover letter Z adjectives and practice handwriting with our fun handwriting worksheet, ideal for expanding vocabulary.

Tell a Tale: The Friendly Alien

Build your child's creative writing skills with this fun worksheet as they write a story using a prompt about a friendly alien.

Writing Practice: Animals Worksheet

Discover a variety of animals and enhance handwriting skills with our comprehensive worksheet for young explorers.

Tell a Tale: The Time-traveling Backpack

Boost your child's creative writing skills with our fun story writing worksheet with a story prompt about a special backpack.

Practice Writing: Fruits Worksheet

Explore fruits and practice handwriting with our worksheet, perfect for expanding knowledge and improving handwriting.

Tell a Tale: The Talking Animal

Improve your child's creative writing practice with this delightful printable worksheet and write a story about a talking animal.

Practice Writing: Vegetables Worksheet

Explore a range of vegetables and practice handwriting skills with our exciting worksheet, ideal for advanced learners.

Tell a Tale: The Friendly Monster

Engage in creative writing practice with our delightful story writing worksheet, and write a story about a friendly monster.

Practice Writing: Food Items Worksheet

Discover a variety of food items and enhance handwriting skills with our comprehensive worksheet for young learners.

Tell a Tale: The Superhero School

Hone your child's creative writing skills with our fun story writing practice worksheet, and write about a superhero school.

Practice Writing: Thanksgiving Worksheet

Explore the Thanksgiving spirit and improve handwriting skills with our festive handwriting practice worksheet.

Tell a Tale: The Lost Treasure Map

Discover the joy of creative writing with our engaging worksheet focused on writing about a story about a treasure map.

Practice Writing: Christmas Worksheet

Celebrate Christmas and enhance handwriting with our holiday-themed worksheet, perfect for seasonal learning.

Tell a Tale: The Robot Friend

Introduce the skill of story writing with this fun robot-themed worksheet, perfect for developing creative writing skills.

Practice Writing: Summer Worksheet

Dive into summer and improve handwriting skills with our handwriting practice worksheet, ideal for seasonal learning.

Tell a Tale: The Day the Toys Came Alive

Build strong writing skills with our creative writing worksheet, focusing on writing a story about the day the toys came alive.

Practice Writing: Fall Words Worksheet

Explore fall vocabulary and practice handwriting skills with our exciting worksheet, ideal for young learners.

Tell a Tale: Ice Cream Wonderland

Explore the world of story writing with our creative writing worksheet, and write a story about an ice cream wonderland!

Practice Writing: Spring Time Worksheet

Celebrate spring and enhance handwriting skills with our engaging spring-themed worksheet, perfect for fun and learning.

Tell a Tale: The Lost Puppy

Advance your child's creative writing skills with our fun practice printable worksheet with a story prompt about a lost puppy.

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8 Ideas and Activities for Making Writing Fun in Upper Elementary

Making Writing Fun Activities Written by Guest Blogger Jessica Thompson, 4th Grade Teacher

Writing. The minute the word is mentioned there is an audible, in-sync sigh from the students. Of course, there are a few super excited students who cannot get their ideas down quick enough. For every handful of excited writers, there is a large portion of the class that “has nothing to write about.”

The struggle is real, y’all. For both teachers and students.

The big question for teachers is not only how to make writing fun and engaging, but how do we get students excited about writing?

Fun Writing Activities To Try

Here are 8 Activities to try with third, fourth, and fifth grade students. These activities are to get our young writers excited about writing which will make formal writing tasks less daunting.

1. Think-Write-Pass:

This is always a favorite that gets lots of laughs. 

Put students in groups of four.  Give each student a piece of paper and have them write their name on the top. 

Have students write for 2-3 minutes.  You can give them a topic, or simply have them write about whatever they want.   

When the time is up, students pass their paper to another student in their group.   Each student in the group will have to read, continue the writing, and pass the paper again 2-3 minutes later.

When each student gets their own paper back they get a few minutes to complete the story. If time allows: let the groups choose their favorite one to share. 

2.  Sticky Note Stories:

Students want to share stories with us. There are so many stories - from their weekend, the ball game, recess, at their Aunt Barb’s birthday party 5 years ago - they have so much that they want to tell us!

It’s usually the same students ones who are constantly trying to tell us stories that, come writing time, same they have nothing to write about.   Sticky Note Stories are an easy solution.

A sticky post it note is not nearly as intimidating as a piece of notebook paper.

When a student has a story to share, tell them how much you want to hear it - but they have to write it down on the sticky note.

A holiday weekend? A school event?  A birthday party?  A football game?  Write it on a sticky note.

Need some no prep figurative language practice? These worksheets include engaging poems with figurative language along with questions, activities, a student reference chart, and more. And as an added bonus, the worksheets walk students through the process of creating their own short poems with figurative language.

This resource is great for Poetry Month!

3.  Found Poetry

Make copies of text from a book you are reading and have them find words or groups of words throughout the text to create a poem.

They can circle these words and draw pictures or designs around everything else to make the poem pop.  See some examples of found poetry here.   

Or, check out these other ways to help students enjoy writing poetry. 

4.  Go Outside!

A change of scenery makes everything more fun.  Take the notebooks and pencils to the outdoors for 10-15 minutes. Have students sit and use their 5 senses to write observations.

You can stop there, or take this activity a little further and have students write some poetry!

Give them free rein, or add some guidelines for structure.

This free cinquain writing template is perfect for an activity like this!

Or, have students write a short haiku!  This no prep resource gives students a chance to read and write haiku, as well as answer comprehension questions!

You might also like some of these other outdoor lesson ideas.

5.  This or That

Sometimes all students need is a little bit of choice and control.  Give them that control with This or That.  

This is easy - simply provide them with 2 writing prompts and let them choose!

It can be time consuming to create choice boards with 9 options, but with This or That you only need to create two.  You can use these example discussion questions as writing prompts if you need help coming up with options!   

6.  Silly Pictures

This is an easy way to make writing fun!

There are millions of funny pictures without captions on the internet. The key is to find appropriate ones and save them for later use.

Put the picture up on a projector, mirror it to a screen, or print it out. Have students write about what is happening in that picture.

This is great to practice skills such as predicting, inferring, cause and effect, and problem and solution.

Or, inspire even more creativity by having students create their own silly drawings to write about using these Squiggle Drawing Story Starters! 

7.  Persuasive Letters

Two birds, one writing piece.  The key to making this writing activity fun is choosing a topic that is sure to of interest of students.  

What student wouldn't love to try to convince their teacher that recess should be longer?  Or that they should be able to skip homework one night?  Or that they should have a pizza party?

The list of ideas is endless.  They could write to their parents on why they should have a later bedtime or get a dog. They could write to the principal on why donuts should be served with breakfast. They could write to an author on why they should write another book in their favorite series.  You could also let students choose the topic. 

3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students have fun arguing their point and they will learn quickly the importance of supporting their claim. 

8.  Quick Writes

Quick Writes are a timed writing. The idea is not to scare the students, but for them to get their ideas on paper as quickly as possibly and to be writing or thinking the entire time.

Give students a prompt, and then tell them to write down whatever comes to mind over the next 5 - 10 minutes.  Make sure students aren't worried about spelling or a grade - the goal is to just spend some time writing.

If you are looking for a more polished piece, you can have students do this daily for 3-5 days.  Then, have them choose their favorite quick write to revise, edit, and turn in.

9.  BONUS - Secret Descriptive Writing Activity

Make writing a descriptive paper fun!  Have your students secretly draw a picture and use describe with vivid descriptive language.  Then, students read their descriptions aloud while their classmates try and figure out which drawing is theirs!

This works best if students are all drawing something similar.  This is an easy activity to create on your own, but you could also try out one of these secret descriptive writing activities for a no prep way to walk your students through the entire writing process:

• Alien Descriptive Writing Activity
• Snowman Descriptive Writing Activity
• Monster Descriptive Writing Activity

An Extra Tip for Making Writing Fun

A personalized writing notebook can be an easy way to motivate students to write. This is something that is theirs and they have more ownership over.

Composition books can easily be decorated with pictures, stickers, photographs, etc. and covered with contact paper.  Letting them take the time to decorate a notebook with things that are important to them can give them more ownership over their writing - as well as help stir up ideas for writing!

Bonus: Writing will not get lost easily! Make one yourself as a teacher and use it! Let the students see you write. Read your writing to them and make time for students to share too. 

Sometimes it's not about making writing fun - it's about your mindset as the teacher.  Check out these 7 tips for rethinking your writing instruction. 

Or, you might find these other writing tips and ideas helpful.   

Never Stress Over Sub Plans Again!

Make copies, find a fiction book, and you'll be ready for any emergency that comes your way!

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Grade 5 Writing Activities

8 fun grade 5 writing activities.

By Grade 5, children are expected to be able to write creatively and independently. Help them to achieve this with these fun writing activities!

1. The Story Relay

A wonderful place to start writing with your fifth-grade child is within the story genre. They are sure to have the most reference in this area as they will have read lots of narratives and seen a great many movies. A fun way to begin with stories is by telling them verbally before then moving into the physical act of writing. A story relay is a great activity that works both verbally and in writing. Here’s how to play:

• Step 1: Generate a selection of story starters. Single sentences work well.
• Step 2: Gather a group of children to play the game and give each child a position in the story (first, second, third etc…). This will give them an idea of when it will be their turn to contribute.
• Step 3: Select one child to pick out the opening sentence from your selection of story starters. Read aloud the opening and then it is time for the children to contribute.
• Step 4: Move around the group in the assigned order, asking each child to continue the story on from what they have just heard.

*You can record the audio of your story so that you can listen back to it later.

This format works exactly the same in written format as the children pass around the story until it is complete, when it is then read aloud for the whole group to enjoy at the end.

2. A Day in the Future

This is a great activity to do with your child as it can kick start their thought process about what career they might like to pursue in the future. Explain that they have been transported 20 years into the future and they need to write a diary entry about what happened to them that day. You can allow children the freedom to write in their own format, or you could provide them with these key questions:

• What did you do in the morning, afternoon and evening?
• Where did you spend your time and why?
• Who did you spend your day with?
• How did you feel throughout the day?

3. Collaborative Playwriting

Arranging your children into teams and challenging them to write together can be a wonderful way to freshen up the writing process. This idea can be very fun for children as they get to write their own parts for a play they then go onto perform.

Begin the activity by arranging children into groups of no more than 4 (more than this and they can find the activity difficult to manage). Then provide each team with a real-world scenario that they can write about. It is best to start with something familiar to the children, such as something that may happen at school or at home. It is important to assign a narrator role so that one child has the job of setting the scene and writing stage directions, whilst the other three children write the lines that they will deliver.

4. The Ultimate Robot

By asking your child to produce their own artwork or design drawings can lead to a wonderful written piece as a follow-up activity. One such example of this format is to challenge children to design their own ultimate robot. You can supply children with the written brief below and then ask them to begin their own design process.

Design a robot to help you complete your daily tasks. This new robot should help you optimize your daily routine and save you time in the process. Think carefully about the features it will need to help achieve this brief.

Once the design is complete, your children can write the instruction manual for the robot, explaining all of their most interesting and useful features.

5. ‘What If’ Writing

What if… humans had wings and could fly? What if… penguins could talk? What if…an alien landed in your back garden? What if… babies could program computers?

Writing prompts beginning with ‘what if’ can spark the wonderful imaginations that children have. These prompts can inspire excellent creative writing and you might be surprised by what they come up with and how good their writing is whilst they are drafting their ideas. Give it a try and see for yourself!

6. Speed Writing

This is a very simple idea and one that encourages your child to get creative, and not worry too much about grammar and spelling accuracy. It is all about having fun with writing and getting some of their most interesting ideas down on paper or screen.

Simply set up an alarm or timer to go off in 15 minutes. Then display a writing prompt for the whole group to see (here are some text prompts and some picture prompts ). Now challenge your child to write as much as possible on the topic before the time runs out. Remind your child that for this activity, it is about them displaying their creativity rather than their accuracy!

7. A Day In the Life

Writing from the point of view of someone else can prove a challenging exercise for children. However, it is one that is useful to practice and it can often prove one of the most enjoyable writing experiences for young authors.

To begin with, you’ll need to compile a list of popular job titles (e.g. President, Doctor, Teacher, Police Officer, Fire Fighter etc.). Then challenge your child to select one of the professions and put themselves in the shoes of someone employed in that area. They must then try to write a short diary about a day in the life of that person. They should try to imagine the main tasks that they complete during the day.

8. Night Zookeeper

Night Zookeeper makes writing fantastically fun for children aged six to twelve.

Our writing program for kids turns learning into a game , to keep your child engaged and entertained while they develop skills such as spelling , grammar , and punctuation .

Sign up today to get a 7-day FREE trial!

More writing activities & prompts

• Grade 5 Picture Writing Prompts
• Grade 5 Writing Prompts
• Elementary Writing Prompts
• Elementary Writing Activities

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• Elementary Writing Curriculum
• Language Arts Resources

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Solar eclipse 2024 Reading Comprehension Passages ,Writing Activity ,Word search

Description

Solar Eclipse activities in spanish & English

What is A solar eclipse and Why We Shouldn't Look Directly at a Solar Eclipse? Reading Passages Along with Writing activity and word search. Suitable for 2nd to 4th graders.

Introducing our comprehensive and bilingual "Solar Eclipse 2024 Reading Comprehension Passages, Writing Activity, and Word Search" resource, available in both English and Spanish. Designed specifically for 2nd to 4th graders, this educational tool is perfect for teachers looking to illuminate the mysteries of solar eclipses while engaging students in a multifaceted learning experience.

Key Features:

• Bilingual Reading Passages: Dive into the fascinating world of solar eclipses with our detailed reading passages, available in both English and Spanish. These passages cover essential topics such as "What is A Solar Eclipse?" and "Why We Shouldn't Look Directly at a Solar Eclipse," providing students with a solid foundation of knowledge in an accessible language of their choice.
• Engaging Writing Activity: After exploring the reading materials, students are encouraged to articulate their understanding and newfound knowledge through a thought-provoking writing activity. This exercise not only reinforces their learning but also enhances their writing skills, encouraging them to express their thoughts clearly and creatively.
• Fun Word Search: Complement the learning experience with a solar eclipse-themed word search. This enjoyable activity helps reinforce vocabulary from the reading passages and maintains students' interest in the topic, all while providing a fun challenge.
• Designed for 2nd to 4th Graders: All materials are tailored to the comprehension levels and interests of 2nd to 4th-grade students, ensuring that the content is both age-appropriate and engaging.

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