Age-Appropriate Procedural Writing Ideas

When it comes to procedural writing, half the battle can be coming up with interesting yet age-appropriate procedural writing ideas!

Thankfully, the Teach Starter has created this comprehensive set of task cards, chock-full of procedural writing goodness! Each card contains a photograph prompt to help stimulate ideas for the students’ writing, as well as some reminders of the types of information that need to be included in a procedural text. For example:

Do you know how to clean your room? List the materials you need and describe how to do it step by step. 

Some of the procedural writing topics included in this set include:

• Painting a Picture
• Riding a Bike
• Giving a Dog a Bath
• Making a Healthy Snack
• Washing Your Hands
• And many more!

A writing template is provided in the resource for students to use when writing their procedural text.

This resource downloads as a full-color PDF or editable Google Slides file.

Use These Procedure Writing Ideas in Multiple Ways

While these procedural writing task cards make great writing prompts, they can be used in other ways in your classroom, too! Here are some suggestions from our teacher team that you may not have thought about:

1. Drama Activity – Why not use these procedural writing ideas cards as a drama activity? Place the students in small groups and assign each group a card. Have the groups work together to act out the procedure on the card. For an extra challenge, see if they can act out the procedure without talking!
2. Ranking Activity – Choose a small selection of cards. Have the students rank the selection of tasks from the one they would most like to perform to the one they would least like to perform. Have the students share and compare their responses with a partner or in a small group.
3. Homework Activity – As many of the procedural writing ideas are related to tasks performed at home, why not have your students take a card home to complete with their families? They can then come back to school and write about what they did.

Download These Procedural Writing Prompts

Use the Download button above to select your chosen file format. Should you choose the Google Slides file, please note that you will be prompted to make a local copy before accessing.

Print the cards on cardstock to increase the durability of the resource. Place the cards together in a large envelope or ziplock bag for safekeeping.

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This resource was created by Lindsey Phillips, a teacher in Michigan and a Teach Starter collaborator.

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More Procedural Writing Resources for Your Classroom

Teach Starter understands that you want to spend less time planning and more time teaching! Click below to access more great procedural writing resources to make your planning a breeze!