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clouds forming overhead? Are the rocks hard under your feet as you hear thunder in the distance?

As I walked up and down the rows of kids starting to write, I could feel their freedom of judgment. I felt they had lost any sense of fear of being right or wrong about what turned out on their page.

As we started to close, I asked who would like to read their story. Many hands popped up. They'd never experienced any class like this, and they were surprised what their own imaginations had brought. Early on I had let them know that spelling had nothing to do with this part of their writing. We'd have another class time to deal with making each story the best it could be.

Children read what they write with such pride. We all applauded everyone's story. More and more hands flew up and finally I had to end our time together, and I made them all promise me they would keep their original story in their notebook until I came back the next time, and that I thought they were fabulous writers!

Freedom to tell their story . . . freedom to believe they even could come up with a story . . . belief in their own thoughts . . . is what success in writing is all about. That's where the teacher comes in. You must give them trust in you. ( Connie Stockard Wallace)

How To Teach Creative Writing:

After reading my mother's description of her elementary creative writing project, now do you see how a creative writer thinks?

What are the best creative writing projects for elementary students? If what they write comes from inside, it is the best piece of creative writing yet. They write what that spirit inside describes, like a scene that can't be seen otherwise. My mother had that gift.

1. Allow the children to use their own natural gift. Show them interesting pictures of people, places or things and ask them to create a story or poem describing it. Say to them, "We aren't worried about spelling today." Encourage then just to write and write whatever comes to their minds.

2. Have them keep a journal every day and write whatever they want to say. Teach them the forms of poetry and how to rhyme using words no one's ever heard.

3. Take them on a visual trip and ask them to write about the experience, or write one word on the chalk board and have them build a story, sentence by sentence, taking turns so the story twists and turns.

4. Take the time to visualize the idea you have in your mind, and as you do, ask the children to close their eyes and visualize it too. In the end, the words will come to them. They always do when you listen and see that creative spirit inside of you.

To Conclude:

Mo mother always said that creative writing is a spiritual thing to do. It's mystical and sometimes it only has meaning to you, but when you write creatively, an entire world opens up for you. We owe it to the young to teach them how to find that spirit inside them too.

Learn more about this author, Vicki Phipps.
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