Creative Writing Activity for Kids – Roll a Story
Creative Writing Activity for 8 year olds - Roll a story (FREE pdf) KS2
Creative Writing activity for 8 year olds (KS2) – Roll a Story
You NEED to try this with your KS2 children, it’s such a fun creative writing activity for kids.
This activity takes the difficult decisions off your child’s shoulders.
If, like me, you have an indecisive child who takes far too long to decide the basics of a story, this activity is the way to go!
Plus this laid back, hands on approach takes the pressure off!
This printable english worksheet can help kickstart your child’s creativity.
Why this creative writing activity for your kids?
- The randomness of rolling the dice will encourage your homeschooled child to get their creative thinking cap on.
- It will force them to weave a story around unexpected combinations, sparking imaginative connections.
- Sometimes this means they will end up with a really funny story they will enjoy writing (and reading).
- Children will learn to structure a story, create engaging characters, and maintain a logical flow despite the unpredictable elements. My 8 year old really enjoyed this. (To be honest even my older children enjoy this activity).
We also used this book to help get our thinking caps on.
I really like that it has so many ideas and options to choose from, taking some of your child’s tough story writing decisions of their shoulders. (My love for spiral bound books knows no limits! They’re soo much more durable with little kids!)
Here’s a sneak peak of the inside.
Get creative with your writing!
During this activity your homeschooler must make quick decisions about how to incorporate each element into the story, fostering critical thinking skills. This activity encourages children to think on their feet and make creative choices.
Writing a story based on randomly chosen elements requires a wide vocabulary. (This is the best time to pull out the thesaurus). Your child must choose words carefully to convey the intended meaning, improving their vocabulary and language.
If done in a group setting, this activity can promote teamwork, as different children contribute to different aspects of the story. This can help enhance social and communication skills.
If you are only homeschooling one child, you could get involved with the story writing yourself. It can be a fun bonding activity between you and your child.
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This printable English worksheet activity can provide a little structure for storytelling, offering guidance on setting, characters, and plot elements. This can be particularly helpful for those children who may feel overwhelmed when starting a story from scratch.
I used something similar with some of my kids when they struggled to get started. I realised they just needed a little prompt.
Once we got into the swing of things we also incorporated this book which my kids really enjoyed.
Not gonna lie they ignored it to begin with. But now I’ve found they go to it themselves when they feel a little writers block
A little peak inside the book.
The element of surprise and the game-like nature of rolling a story can make the writing process so much more fun, especially for reluctant writers. It turns storytelling into a playful activity, making it more accessible and fun for individuals of all ages. I say individuals because this is even fun for adults!
You can use this activity with very young children too (6 and under), but rather than asking them to write it down, you can just discuss the story. You are focusing on creativity, not writing.
Sometimes you’ll find your homeschooler is struggling with writer’s block or maybe they are new to storytelling. This “roll a story” worksheet can provide a helpful starting point. It offers a set of parameters that can serve as inspiration and guidance for initiating the creative process.
What's the benefit of this creative writing activity? (Or similar ones)
Honestly, where do I even begin!
First and foremost, if you have a reluctant writer something like this would be a great way to start! It’s fun, simple, no prep and most importantly doesn’t feel like “work”.
One thing I love is that if the dice lands on 3 things which don’t typically go together, children can get really creative and create some really funny scenarios/stories.
Although your child is definitely learning, we don’t want that to be the focus of this exercise (not that they are aware of anyway) so we want to focus more on the fun, crazy side to it. That way without realising it your child is creating all these stories they probably wouldn’t have come up with previously.
Don’t be surprised if soon enough you spot your reluctant writer walking around with a notepad and pen!
If you’re anything like me, when you first start, you find creative writing so overwhelming. Like where do I even begin, what order should I do things in? How often should we be doing it?
Trust me, there’s no need to over complicate things! I have definitely been there and reluctantly got the T shirt!
It’s simple, if your child is enjoying it, do it more often If not, change things up a little.
I’m not saying don’t do something just because your child doesn’t want to. (If I did that my family would do nothing but eat snacks and watch TV in our PJs!) But what I mean is, if they truy hate it and immediately want to stop, it’s not worth the uphill battle you’re about to endure.
Instead change it slightly to make it more inviting and fun for them so they don’t see it as a chore and can simply just enjoy the activity at hand.
When I tell you I have been there! Trust me it’s not worth it!
Even if they get through it, they will now associate that feeling with that subject. Which means they are likely to say that just hate English or Creative writing simply because of that one activity. (Boy did I learn that the hard way! It took me wayyy too long to finally convince my kid it was that individual activity they didn’t enjoy, not the subject as a whole. Which is why I can’t emphasise enough for you not to even go down that path!)