A Creative Writing Activity That Will Have Students Dreaming of Summer

Watch the words flow as students tap into their creative juices

There’s something about the first taste of warm weather that has us dreaming of long summer days. Whether you’re planning a trip to the beach or you’re just ready for sunny blue skies, this creative writing project is a must-try activity for kindergarten or first grade.

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Beach Bucket Creative Writing Activity Prep

This low prep creative writing activity is sure to spark students’ imagination. And it just takes a couple minutes to get ready!

Simply print a cover and writing page for each student. Be sure to have plenty of extra writing pages for those really inspired children! The more they write, the more pages they will need.

Beach Bucket Writing

Students LOVE thinking about summer vacation. Tap into their love of all things sunshine to hook them in and inspire them to spend time writing!

To really grab students’ attention, start the lesson by having them close their eyes and listen to the sounds of the beach as you play crashing waves on your phone. (Can you say relaxing?!) Ask students to picture themselves walking along the water as their toes sink into the sand – either from a real memory or what they imagine it would be like. 

After about a minute,  ask students to share what they pictured in their minds with their neighbor so that everyone has the chance to practice storytelling and stretch their imagination by hearing peers’ mental models.

You might hear things like:

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

“I visualized the waves crashing down.”

“I saw my mom putting sunscreen on me.”

When you start writing, each student will have a different experience to write about.  Yours might be about a warm, sunny beach in Hawaii, but theirs might be totally different.

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

Quickly model writing down your story and show how to correctly cut out each of the buckets and draw a picture to match.

Then, it’s time for students to get to work!

Once the beach buckets are done, hang them up with some cute beach-themed decorations around them. With just a little effort, you and your students will be able to smile at the thought of summer EVERY day!

Hop over to snag more writing ideas with our Writing Center Starter Kit over on TPT or in The Science of Reading Formula membership to bring out the author in your students. 

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