Write

Useful resources to inspire
and improve your writing!

Great places to "publish" or share
your writing on the World Wide Web!

Top authors like Jane Yolen give great ideas on how to write your own fairytales, myths, and folktales. From Scholastic.com.

Here's a great place to get ideas and instruction for writing your own stories, poems, and more. Features writing tips, sample stories, warm up activities, assignments, and even a certificate!

Check it out to learn about Biography Writing with Patricia and Fredrick McKissack, Folktale Writing with Alma Flor Ada, Mystery Writing with Joan Lowery Nixon, Myth Writing with Jane Yolen, Poetry Writing with Karla Kuskin and Jack Prelutsky, and all about Writing a Book Review with Rodman Philbrick. Oh-- and don't miss Journal Writing with Virginia Hamilton. Daily journaling is the best way to sharpen your writing skills! (Site sponsored by Scholastic)

Use these interactive mini programs to help you come up with the beginnings of a story.

Editor and author C.J. Cherryh gives a short but powerful overview of the most common sins of overused and misused language. Aimed at more advanced writers ready to sharpen their skills to publication quality. Funny and illuminating.

Just as words are made up of letters, stories and essays are made up of paragraphs. This site tells you all you need to know to write a really great paragraph, including topic sentences, supporting details, and a great closing sentence. It helps you understand the process of prewriting, writing, and editing so that your writing will really shine.

We all know it's wrong to take someone else's work and pretend it's our own ("Hey! No copying!") But when you write a report you can't just make up the facts. You have to look them up and write them down, exactly as they appear. This is not so tricky for dates in history or science facts, like the boiling point of water. But what about the biography of a famous person? You have to get all the important information down, but your teacher wants you to retell it in your own words -- not just copy all the words in the book (or website). You have to find a balance between writing it in your own words and making sure that your words don't change the facts or meaning of what happened.

But if you were to read a book or article, rewrite it in your own words, and then publish it to the web or print.....you might be accused of copyright violation! (Especially if you forgot to mention that this was your school report and give full credit for the ideas to the original writer.)

So how do you know if and when it's okay to copy something you find on the net, in a book, or someplace else? Well, for the full answer have your parent or teacher click here to read the full explanation of copyright laws. But the easy rule of thumb is:

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Writing Help for Kindergarten and Preschool Kids

ABC Tracing Sheets

"A is for Alligator" and "B is for Butterfly", these animal themed sheets feature both upper and lower case letters -- all in a large size font suited to young children.

ABC Practice Sheets

Lined paper with sample upper and lowercase letters. Each pages features images of objects or creatures that begin with that letter.

Animal Letter Tracing Sheets

Trace the name of the animal, and a sentence about the animal. There are also mazes and other worksheets on this page.

More Letter Practice Worksheets
from The Kid's Page Archive

Lower Case Printing Practice 1
Lower Case Printing Practice 2
Lower Case Printing Practice 3
Lower Case Printing Practice 4

*Letter Practice U-Z
*Letter Practice P-T
*Letter Practice K-O
*Letter Practice F-J
*Letter Practice A-E

Alphabet Flash Cards S- Z
Alphabet Flash Cards J - R
Alphabet Flash Cards A - I

ABC Maze
Alphabet Fun

Paper template for printing practice

*Denotes sheets which may not load properly in Netscape.