Spooky Halloween writing that'll have your 6th graders begging for more. Really!

 "Are we writing today?"  

"No, not today.  We write on Fridays, remember?

{Insert sad face}

How many times do your students ask to write in your class?

A Halloween writing assignment that your 5th and 6th graders beg to work on?  

Yes, please! 

With a week's set of lesson plans that are handed to you?

Umm, yes!  Let's get started!

 Getting started on spooky Halloween writing: 

        “Close your eyes.  Imagine that you are walking home from a friend’s house.  You live about a ten-minute walk away.  It’s dark now and you’re heading home.  Can you picture it?  Visualize what this looks like in your head.  As you are picturing this, start to jot down responses to these questions."

Keep going and journaling:  

Each step of the way, you lead them through visualization, and then another next set of questions.

I wrote along with them and shared what I'd written, after the first set of questions.  That really helped students who weren't quite sure how to get started.  We kept the questions up on the board for a while so that students could add to or tweak what they'd already written.

There's something about the scaffolding questions that gives kids so much confidence!  Their writing is more descriptive and they don't tend to get as stuck.  And your reluctant writers?  Oh, my word!  Pages and pages.  (This gives them so much more to work with when it's time to edit.)

Set the mood with spooky music:

Play (mildly) spooky music to get them in the mood!  Students begged to turn off the lights and pull down the blinds.  They loved it! 

Want to give it a try?  Click here to take a closer look!  This writing activity provides you with a week's worth of lesson plans!