Finding time to dedicate to creative writing exercises can be challenging. Maybe you have high hopes of teaching creative writing because of all of its benefits (encouraging self-expressions, boosting confidence and imagination, increasing concentration, among others). But you just can’t squeeze it into your class periods. Then doing a daily warm-up is your best option! And even if it is not every day… maybe you do Creative Writing Mondays to get your students’ juices flowing at the beginning of the week.
Here are my 3 favorite creative writing exercises for daily warm-ups in Spanish class!
- Creative Writing Images
- Daily Journal
- Word of the Day
1. Creative Writing Images
As the saying goes, “an image is worth a thousand words.” Every day, you can share an image that your students will use as a creative writing warm-up. You can have your NOVICE students write a caption for the image – even one sentence! Your INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED students can write a few sentences to tell a short story. To make this tie into your curriculum, find images that relate to your current content.
With these images, you can post them on the screen as students come into your class. They have 5 minutes to look at it and write a caption. Then, share aloud!
Another option is to create a “Caption This” bulletin board. Each week you will print and display a fun image or painting. Students have all week to be creative and add their caption to the bulletin board. On Fridays, read them together and vote for the best one… who wins a prize!
Here are some ideas for creative writing images:
Artwork
You don’t have to just use artwork during an “art unit.” Find famous artworks that relate to your current unit. Carmen Lomas Garza has tons of paintings about Mexican family life, food, communities, holidays, etc. This is a great place to start. I love using her books “En mi familia” and “Cuadros de familia.” They come with bilingual short descriptions for each painting!
Funny Images
Search for images online that will provoke a lot of discussion, description, or even laughter! Let your students’ imagination run wild as they describe these images. There is no back story to the images… your students will come up with it themselves! Grab a set of 50 creative writing images here!
Memes
There are so many popular memes that students are familiar with. Show one of the memes with or without text. (If you show it with the text, it will provide context and give them an example.) Then, let them write their own version of the meme! Learn more about using memes on this blog post.
Story Prompt Cards
Grab a set of cards from Amazon or Target. Read about a ton of ways to incorporate these story prompt cards into your class! Here are Curious Kingdom Story Starter Cards, Story Cues sequence cards, and Spark Cards sequence cards.
2. Daily Journals
Some students need to be held accountable for their daily warm-ups. Simply posting a question on the board and discussing it will not cut it for all kids. Try using a daily journal as a creative writing exercise. Having a manipulative in hand, with a set amount of pages gives students just the push they need to keep going. Plus, they will see a final product of all their hard work!
Here are some options for printable daily journals. Of course your students can simply use a spiral notebook and write their entries each day, but this tends to get more active participation and engagement.
Daily National Holidays
Did you know every day is a holiday? Every day, celebrate a holiday like…Sept. 6: National Read a Book Day or January 19: Popcorn Day or April 28: National Superhero Day. Students will answer 3 fun prompts, making them think about the holiday in a unique way!
Learn more about using National Holidays in Spanish class on the blog post and try out the entire month of September for free! (Get 365 days of prompts here!)
Gratitude Journals
Practicing gratitude is a skill many of our students don’t spend enough time on. Dedicate a few minutes each day to being thankful. You can do this for the month of November, when gratitude is generally a focus, but it can honestly be used anytime of the year to promote thankfulness! These prompts get students thinking creatively so they won’t say the typical, “I’m thankful for my family and friends.” Learn more on the blog post, or get novice, intermediate, English, and Spanish versions on my store.
3. Word of the Day
This follows the same idea as a Daily Image, but instead, you just provide students ONE word. This is the easiest, low-prep way to incorporate a quick creative writing warm-up. It even can tie right into a vocabulary activity with your current unit!
Just give students a word: el verano (summer), la bicicleta (bicycle), el regalo (gift), el huevo (egg). Then, let them write a short story or poem about that word. If you want to give them requirements, then they must use 5 additional vocabulary words associated with your current unit!
This activity won’t give students as much inspiration as using images or a daily journal prompt, but sometimes that is better. Using a word a day makes the students do more creative thinking!
So, daily images, journal prompts, or word of the day. Which of these creative writing exercises will you be trying with your students? If you are looking for a scaffolded approach to creative writing. Check out my first blog post in my Creative Writing series about using your 5 senses! Next, I’ll be sharing 15 fun and outside-the-box creative writing prompts to try out!
