Beach Bucket Writing

Whether you’re planning a trip to the beach or you’re just dreaming about warm summer weather, this motivating writing project is a must-try activity for kindergarten or first grade.

Grab your copy below and then hop over to snag our Writing Center Starter Kit to bring out the author in your child or student!

I have some first graders who love writing and some who are a little more reluctant.

To engage ALL of my students, I try to mix things up pretty frequently and allow my students to have choices with their writing.

Since we have been enjoying some seriously warm weather recently, I created a cute beach bucket activity to help spark my first graders’ motivation and imagination.

Getting Ready

It was easy to prep this activity!

I simply printed a cover page and writing page for each of my students.  Because I knew some kiddos would write a lot, I made sure to have extra writing pages for anyone who wanted two or three.

Beach Bucket Writing

Once I had everything ready, I invited my students to our classroom carpet.

To really grab my students’ attention, I instructed them to close their eyes for a minute and listen to the sounds of the beach.

We had practiced “visualizing” earlier in the year, so I told my students to picture themselves at the beach – either a real memory from going there or what they would imagine it would be like.

After about a minute, I asked students to share what they pictured in their minds.

Hands immediately went up into the air, and I called on as many kiddos as I could to share.

“I pictured myself digging a big hole in the sand.”

“I visualized the waves crashing down.”

“I saw my mom putting sunscreen on me.”

Since I love telling students about me as a person (and not just a teacher), I shared about how most of my family lives in Hawaii and how much I love going to one particular beach whenever I visit.

I explained that my family and I went to this beach all the time when I was a kid.  My mom, my sister and I even ended up in the picture on the cover of the brochure in the gift shop!

I emphasized that when we started writing, each student would have a different experience to write about.  Mine would be about the beach in Hawaii, and theirs would be totally different.

It could be a small moment from a real trip to the beach, or a story with details from our visualizations.

I quickly modeled my creative writing piece – showing how to correctly cut out each of the buckets and draw a picture to match!

Then, I sent my kiddos off to work!

I made it a point to check in with each child and have them read their work to me.

I asked questions and prompted my students to add more details.

Students also paired up and shared helpful feedback with each other.

We worked on the beach buckets for a few days, stapled them together and then hung them up in the hall with some cute beach-themed decorations around them.

Grab Your Copy

Ready to download your free copy?!  Just click on the blue button below and then don’t forget to check out our Writing Center Starter Kit in our shop!