Holiday Writing Activities – Creating a Picture Book – Elementary Projects

Are you looking for some fun holiday classroom activities? Are your students reluctant writers?  Why not teach them to write and illustrate their own picture books?  Creating a picture book is a great elementary classroom activity to teach and reinforce story sequencing skills and a way for students to focus on building their own story elements.

 

Engage students with a fun writing activity this holiday season.  Students love to write their own stories and no matter what age kids are, they love to illustrate their narratives.

 

✨Check out the previews for a closer look at what is included with this holiday creative writing activity bundle:

• Halloween Picture Book
• Thanksgiving Picture Book
• Christmas Picture Book

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Students will create their own holiday picture books for this unique creative writing project.  They will choose from a list of themed characters, settings, and conflicts to write their story, and then they will color, cut, and glue the provided themed black line illustrations onto the pages of their book.

These seasonal writing activities are an engaging way to get your reluctant writers excited about becoming an author!

 

Want to know the best part? Creating a picture book is a perfect way to blend creative writing with a fun coloring activity to become a writing project that your students will be excited to interact with.

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Here’s What You’ll Get With EACH Seasonal Resource:

• Story starters to prompt students
• Lists of characters to choose from
• Lists of settings to choose from
• Lists of conflicts to choose from plus “create my own conflict”
• Story planning graphic organizer
• 2-4 pages of black line illustrations for students to color and illustrate their story
• Author instructions to provide students with guidance as they complete the activity
• Teacher prep and instructions

 

Prep is Quick & Easy:

✅Print the illustrations, story starters, and story planning sheet for each student

✅Provide students (either print a copy or display digitally) the included author instructions for completing the activity

✅Supply students with blank writing paper

✅Watch students grow in their story sequencing skills and become happy writers!

 

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How Can You Use These Fun Writing Activities in Your Classroom?

• Holiday writing is a great tool to use in your literacy centers, writing stations, literacy stations, or writing centers.  Whatever you call them, creative writing is a perfect literacy activity to add to your elementary teacher toolkit!
• Have students work on this writing project as part of their morning work.
• Introduce the activity to students the day before you have a sub, and it is an engaging and thoughtful activity for students to work on when you are absent and have a substitute.
• Use it during indoor recess for those students who love a little extra creativity.
• Use it to challenge early finishers.
• Do you have small writing groups?  Holiday writing activities like creating a picture book are great ways to assess student writing during a small group.

 

What Exactly Is Included in this Writing Resource?

For EACH SET:

• Students are provided with Story Starters to help them generate ideas for their picture book, including characters, settings, and conflicts.
• Students are provided with illustrations to color and use in addition to their own drawings to illustrate their story.
• Finally, students are provided with a story planning graphic organizer to help them with story sequencing and developing their story elements and plot.

 

Halloween Activity

Character Choices:

✏️cat

✏️ghost

✏️wizard

✏️vampire

✏️talking eye

✏️werewolf

✏️plus 6 more Halloween themed characters!

Setting Choices:

✏️a dark forest

✏️a spider web

✏️a candy factory

✏️plus 5 more Halloween themed settings!

Conflict Choices:

✏️a missing potion ingredient

✏️someone is lost or trapped

✏️a time warp

✏️create my own

✏️plus 4 more Halloween themed story conflicts!

Illustrations Included for Coloring Activity:

• pumpkins and Jack-O-Lanterns
• spooky tree
• ghosts
• candy
• moon and clouds
• witch’s broom and hat
• spiders
• and many more!

 

Thanksgiving Activity

Character Choices:

✏️pumpkin

✏️turkey

✏️pilgrim

✏️rabbit

✏️deer

✏️owl

✏️bear

Setting Choices:

✏️the forest

✏️a football field

✏️a food market

✏️plus 5 more Thanksgiving themed settings!

Conflict Choices:

✏️the turkeys are confused

✏️the electricity is out

✏️time travel gone wrong

✏️create my own

✏️plus 4 more Thanksgiving themed story conflicts!

Illustrations Included for Coloring Activity:

• pumpkins
• turkeys
• forest animals
• food for feast
• leaves
• football helmet and ball
• cold weather items
• and many more!

 

Christmas Activity

Character Choices:

✏️Santa

✏️an angel

✏️a reindeer

✏️a snowman

✏️a bear

✏️plus 3 more Christmas themed characters!

Setting Choices:

✏️the North Pole

✏️Santa’s sleigh

✏️inside something small

✏️plus 3 more Christmas themed settings!

Conflict Choices:

✏️something is lost

✏️someone is trapped

✏️something is broken

✏️create my own

✏️plus 2 more Christmas themed story conflicts!

Illustrations Included for Coloring Activity:

• Santa and Mrs. Claus
• reindeer
• North Pole characters
• snowy scenes
• ornaments and trees
• snowmen
• Christmas goodies
• and many more!

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Supports Common Core Standards (CCSS):

2nd-5th Grade Narrative Writing Standards

W.2.3

W.3.3, W.3.3a-d

W.4.3, W.4.3a-e

W.5.3, W.5.3a-e

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Please email me with questions or feedback at danna@teachertechstudio.com

 

Created by Danna Rodebush © Teacher Tech Studio

Permission to copy for single classroom use only.  Please purchase additional licenses if you intend to share this resource with other teachers.