Using picture books to teach writing in your classroom is one of the most effective ways to engage your students AND teach them critical writing skills. I love their ability to teach many in-depth concepts with relatability and simplicity. With picture books, you can introduce writing lessons that captivate and resonate with your students. The accessibility of picture books makes for a readily available mentor text for your students to refer back to as needed. Today, I’m sharing different ways you can effectively utilize picture books to teach writing. I’ll also share 3-4 picture books to use as mentor texts with each writing skill.

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Tips for Using Picture Books to Teach Writing Concepts

Inspiration for own writing: Many students experience writer’s block during writing time and find it challenging to decide where to begin. In fact, one of the hardest things for many students is to “just write!” I firmly believe students should always have the option of having a prompt (except for the rare student who has endless ideas about what they will write about!). Otherwise, time is lost as students juggle with what to write about.

• Modeling with an excellent picture book prompts and encourages students by giving them a starting point. After reading a book, you can offer a prompt by allowing students to write an alternative ending or write the story from a different character’s point of view.
  
• Many picture books also have imitable formats that students can recreate. For example, after reading Diary of a Worm, students can write their own “Diary of a ________.” I particularly enjoy this when I can make it a cross-curricular connection, such as if we are studying animal habitats or adaptations in science! Ten Ways to Hear Snow is another one that students can recreate easily. Animalia is excellent to have students recreate when teaching alliteration. I assign each student a letter, and then we end up with our own version of the book. Another one I often use is Q is for Duck – my primary students LOVE doing animal research and writing their own version of it!

• Another way to get a jump start on their creative writing is to use wordless picture books. Students can use the illustrations to guide them in writing a story and writing what they think is happening in the story. You can also have students write dialogue for the characters.

Wordless Picture Book Recommendations

The Brainstorm by Linda Ragsdale, One Little Bag: An Amazing Journey by Henry Cole, Professional Crocodile by Giovanna Zoboli 

Grammar and Punctuation

There are so many ways we can use picture books as a supplement when teaching grammar and punctuation! By reading students various picture books, we can expose students to key elements within the author’s writing. 

• Students can correlate specific punctuation marks to distinct emotions or tones that the author is trying to convey to the reader. By actively listening, students can identify various types of grammar, such as identifying adjectives that describe specific characters. 
• When we read picture books, we can ask students to recognize vivid, descriptive language that enhances the plot, settings, or characters.  
• If you are teaching specific grammar skills, mentor texts are an excellent opportunity to show students the skill in practice. In fact, I always teach students how to write dialogue by using mentor texts. Read more about there HERE. 
• Students can focus on specific grammar aspects and standards that you are currently teaching. Try out having students kinesthetically signal whenever they detect parts of the story that showcase specific grammar elements during the interactive read-aloud. 

This free Grammar Non-Negotiables course covers must-teach grammar skills in the upper grades and how to incorporate them throughout the year.

Book Recommendations for Teaching Grammar Skills

Punctuation Celebration by Elsa Knight Bruno, Ghoul’s Guide to Grammar by Leslie Kimmelman, Many Luscious Lollipops by Ruth Heller

Figurative Language

Many picture books showcase beautiful examples of figurative language! When reading a book to students, pause and take breaks to engage your students in a discussion about different elements of figurative language. Provide explanations of their meanings within the story’s context and highlight how figurative language contributes to the imagery and the author’s purpose in writing the story.  Have students analyze and draw conclusions about what each piece of figurative language means based on text evidence. 

Figurative Language Book Recommendations

Homophones: Dear, Deer by Gene Barretta, No Reading Allowed! By Raj Haldar

Idioms: My Teacher Likes to Say by Denise Brennan-Nelson, The World is Your Oyster by Tamara James, Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish

Similes: I Love You Like Yellow by Andrea Beaty

Metaphors: I Am The Storm by Jane Yolen, My Mouth is Volcano by Julia Cook

Palindromes: Was It a Cat I Saw? By Laura Bontje

Personification: The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt, Pencil: A Story with a Point by Ann Ingalls, The Life of a Crayon by Christopher Willard

Puns: Straw, Spoon, Chopsticks by Amy Krouse Rosenthal 

Bonus Book Rec: Punished is a great book for teaching all types of figurative language!

Narrative Writing

Writing personal narratives can be intimidating (but also exciting) for students! They might think, “How can I possibly come up with one event to write about?” Using a mentor text picture book can provide an excellent model for narrative writing. These examples allow students to look closely at parts of the book to see how authors format narratives and from what point-of-view they are written. Whether you are teaching students to focus in on one small moment or to write a sequence of events, there’s an excellent picture book for that! 

Personal Narrative Picture Books

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson, Mae’s First Day of School by Kate Berube, Dozer’s Run by Debbie Levy

Opinion Writing

Opinion writing is so much fun. It allows you to discover students’ many opinions about a topic or issue. I love doing backwards planning for opinion writing. First, we read the book. Then, we recreate the “plan” or outline an author had for writing the book. For opinion writing, this helps students see how the opinion is created, then supporting facts and information are included. 

After you do a reverse outline, ask students to write about their opinion on a book’s main topic (see book examples below). Opinion writing can lead to excellent discussions and collaboration between students. They can practice agreeing and disagreeing respectfully with one another. 

Book Recommendations for Opinion Writing

Hello, Little Ant by Phillip M. Hoose, Our Favorite Day of the Year by A.E. Ali, If I Were President by Trygve Skaug, Give Bees a Chance by Bethany Barton

How-To Writing

Using picture books as a teaching tool for how-to writing offers a great strategy to help students understand its structure and elements. When reading the book, students can identify the action words and the sequential words or phrases used. Encouraging students to illustrate visual aids with their how-to writing can add another element to their writing. 

These picture books have valuable examples, providing a helpful starting point for their writing. I have ALWAYS loved the “peanut butter and jelly” writing assignment (I’ve been doing this for over 15 years in my classroom!) where students write how-to instructions, but then you must follow them EXACTLY as written. It’s always a hysterical mess when they are done! Take this a step further and have students write how-tos about something they are interested in. I’ve had kids write about making bracelets, bath bombs, new characters in a game, etc. Have students peer edit for clarity, and then host a how-to party where students closely follow the directions to create something new. 

Book Recommendations

How to Read a Story by Kate Messner, How to Write a Story by Kate Messner, How to Catch a Clover Thief by Elise Parsley, How to Make a Book by Becky Davies

Visit these additional posts for more tips and book recommendations for using picture books to teach writing.

Free Book Suggestion Guide

Looking for more book tips? You can use these book lists as a resource for yourself or share them with your students’ families. I always print them out and have them ready to go for important nights like parent-teacher conferences, back to school night, and open house.