Children already have a ton of great stories in their heads and it is extremely exciting to watch our young students learn how to formulate ideas through brainstorming, exploring different writing styles, and structuring their own creative stories. It is our job to give our students the tools to take those stories and ideas that they already have and organize them into great writing. We do this through writing assignments, fun projects and, of course, different types of graphic organizers.
Graphic organizers are not only helpful in completing writing projects that they are currently working on but they can also reference the organizers to help inform future assignments.
Below I have provided different kinds of graphic organizers for writing that are free and printable based on grade level.
Don’t feel restricted by the grade-level labels on these. If you feel like your 2nd graders could benefit from one of the 4th grade organizers, go ahead and download them.
The organizers below can be used for single assignments or for larger writing projects like creating a classbook. Classbook projects are a fantastic way to get your students excited about writing and after you complete your classbook, your students become published authors!
Kindergarten and 1st Grade Graphic Organizers
In kindergarten and 1st grade, your students are just beginning to be introduced to the world of language arts and writing. They don’t quite have the skills to formulate and organize a complete piece of writing on their own, but they do have original thoughts and ideas that they can start to express on paper.
Graphic organizers, like the ones linked below, can help them see how writing is structured and how the writing process works in an organized way.
Click each section below for a preview of the corresponding graphic organizer and feel free to download as many as you need for your class!
Brainstorming
A mind map is a great way to introduce kindergartners and 1st graders to brainstorming! Have your students use this sheet individually or as a group to start ideating awesome story ideas.
Click to download this graphic organizer
Opinion Writing
Kindergartners and 1st graders are opinionated, to say the least. Use this worksheet in conjunction with writing prompts about changing school rules, convincing parents to get a pet and more persuasive writing projects!
Click to download this graphic organizer
Narrative
Whether it is fact or fiction, our students all have a story to tell. Give them this graphic organizer to help them learn how to craft characters, setting and a simple plot for their narrative.
Click to download this graphic organizer
Informative Writing
Learning how to create pieces of writing based on knowledge is a skill best learned early on. With this sheet, your students will organize facts and come up with their own conclusion based on those facts and learn the foundations of informative writing.
Click to download this graphic organizer
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2nd and 3rd Grade Graphic Organizers
Second and 3rd graders have had a couple years of practice with their writing and are starting to get familiar with writing structure. Now, the goal is to get them to work on topic development and add details that enhance their writing.
This age is when your students organize their writing and really dig into their own creativity and use detail to create visuals within their writing by using things like descriptive language, personification, similes and more!
These 2nd and 3rd grade graphic organizers were made with a focus on detail to help your students make their writing more intriguing to the reader.
Click each section below for a preview of the corresponding graphic organizer and feel free to download as many as you need!
Brainstorming
This brainstorming graphic organizer will provide your students with a wealth of writing topics that they can use throughout the year. Just have them keep this sheet in their folder and color in the check mark when they use one of the ideas!
Click to download this graphic organizer
Opinion Writing
This opinion writing graphic organizer will help your students learn how to structure a piece of persuasive writing in a methodical way. They will then learn how to formulate and articulate their own opinions effectively through writing!
Click to download this graphic organizer
Informative Writing
Your students can pretend that they are hard-hitting journalists with this graphic organizer. They will have the opportunity to research interesting topics, keep their notes all in one place and discern what the most important takeaway is for the reader.
Click to download this graphic organizer
Main Idea
Pretty much every good piece of writing has a main idea or message, but it is the details that help the reader realize what that main idea is. This graphic organizer will help your students think about details that help establish and support their main idea.
Click to download this graphic organizer
4th and 5th Grade Graphic Organizers
Fourth and 5th graders can have a bit more independence when it comes to their writing. They have been working with story structure and understand the importance of adding details to their writing. So, now it is time for them to work on more complex story and plot development.
These 4th and 5th grade graphic organizers focus on helping your students hash out things like setting, character personalities and adding even more detail into their writing. The intention is to show them that there are multiple facets to a piece of writing and establishing multiple facts and details is a critical part of becoming strong, confident writers.
Click each section below for a preview of the corresponding graphic organizer and feel free to download some for your class!
Brainstorming
This brainstorming sheet is great for 4th and 5th graders because they can see how different elements of their story will work together. For example, if they have multiple ideas for an ending, they can jot those down and then decide which fits their story best.
Click to download this graphic organizer
Developing a Topic
This organizer helps students focus on only including details that speak to the main topic of their writing. 4th and 5th graders already understand the importance of adding detail to their writing so, the goal now should be to only include details and facts that enhance the main idea and topic.
Click to download this graphic organizer
Informative Writing
This in-depth graphic organizer is fantastic for planning a piece of informative writing from beginning to end. It can be hard to remember everything that needs to be included in this form of writing, but this sheet will help keep your students on track!
Click to download this graphic organizer
Narrative Writing
This organizer helps your students piece together what their characters might do or say when dealing with a problem in their story. 4th and 5th graders are experienced enough with writing to focus on character development, tone and dialogue and this sheet helps them see which ideas work and which do not.
Click to download this graphic organizer
Opinion Writing
In opinion and persuasive writing, it is important to not only have a reason for your opinion but facts to back it up. This organizer helps 4th and 5th graders put together opinions and reasoning but they also must find a fact to back it up and use all of these elements in their writing.
Click to download this graphic organizer
Learning how to plan and organize writing is a skill that your students will use for the rest of their lives. Although they may not use these particular graphic organizers when they get to high school and college, they will take the tools that they learned from the worksheets with them whether they realize it or not.
For more lesson plans, worksheets and other helpful creative writing resources for your classroom, check out our online teacher’s lounge, and be sure to sign up for your free classbook publishing kit!
