Narrative

• Invite students to create narrative stories about their lives or make-believe. Narrative stories have characters, settings, plots and defined beginnings, middles and ends. When working on narrative stories, have students tell stories about their own lives, such as their best or worst day in school, a time they were scared, learning to ride a bike, spending the night at a friend's house or a vacation that didn't go as planned. Students may also use their imagination to make up stories with themes such as, "If I were president for a day," "One day my dog started talking" or "I woke up one morning to find I had traveled back in time."
  
  

Descriptive

• Have students use their five senses to write descriptive pieces. Descriptive writing uses strong details to help readers form pictures in their mind, feel emotions, hear distinctive sounds, smell aromas and practically taste food. Invite students to practice descriptive writing by describing their favorite place to go on vacation, their bedroom or a haunted house. Or encourage them to write about being at the top of a death-defying roller coaster, walking through a forest at dawn, eating at a fancy restaurant or waking up to find a moose in the room.
  
  

Expository

• Take time to have your students write expository pieces. Expository writing gives information, explains, teaches or covers the who, what, where, when and how of an essay. Invite students to write how-to pieces, such as "How to make an ice cream sundae" or "How to train a dog to stay." Encourage students to write newspaper articles about a current event or recent storm. Help students develop research papers on their favorite animals, countries, states or sports and write biographies about presidents, explorers or athletes.
  
  

Persuasive

• Have students write persuasive pieces that tell one or both sides of a story. Persuasive writing focuses on making a point and giving readers enough information so they can make up their own minds about a topic. Have students write about why you should or should not play video games or why students should or should not wear uniforms in school. Have students write persuasive letters to the principal explaining why a recess rule is fair, unfair or needs to be changed. Try some fun persuasive writing prompts in which students try to get others to agree with their opinion on the best sport, vacation place or type of pizza.