I do a lot of writing things with my students, and usually they are simple writing activities.

To teach common writing I usually have my first class as a all you can write writing exercise. (To see where they are in their writing ability)

After the assignment has been collected, I correct them and then create a game out of the common mistakes I find in order to teach grammatical errors and sentence structure.

Activities I've done that have been successful are:

- Watch a movie / fill out a comic strip

- Make your own comic book / comic strip

- Writing race (groups of 4-6. Have each team start a story and when you say "CHANGE" get them to pass their paper to the left and the next student continues the story

- Finish the ending: Print a simple fairy tale story, but only give students half the story. Make it something they are familiar with. Get them to answer 4-6 questions about the story. Then ask the students to create an alternative ending to the story.
Ive done Aladdin, Goldilocks, and Jack and the Bean Stalk.

- Pen pals.

- Topic writing: Ask a fun question that students will enjoy writing about.
Such as: "If you were king of the world, what would you do"


- Topic writing with questions: " You discovered a new animal. It is now your pet."
1) What does it looks like?
2) Where does it live?
3) What does it eat?
4) Is it friendly?

- Picture descriptions