Below is the list of the non-fiction class writing projects we provide on our website and to our Writing For Pleasure affiliate schools.
You can see how children are introduced to early picturebook making in the EYFS (Young & Ferguson 2022). This includes making ‘list books’ and traditional information books with the focus being to teach someone something new on each page. Within these projects, children also learn to write ‘browseable’ information texts (Young & Ferguson 2023).
From here, when in KS1, children continue their book-making apprenticeship by producing information picturebooks and ‘chapter books’ (Young & Ferguson 2022). They also learn to make Instruction Books, A Class Magazine and Information & Me Books which share more of their voice and personality. In addition, they have an early taste of writing to persuade and give their opinion through our Curiosity Letters project. We believe this gives them a solid foundation in non-fiction – ready to be developed further once they go into KS2.
In Year Three, children are expected to write Information Texts and Curiosity Letters. This continues into Year Four where children will once again write Information Texts and Instructional Texts. At this point, children learn about the six different approaches to non-fiction writing (Young & Ferguson 2023). Children also focus on using specific non-fiction craft moves, defining their topic, and using cohesive devices to keep their readers on track. In Year Five, children build on this knowledge and experience to write Explanation Texts. This is an opportunity to classify their topic(s) and explain key principles objectively or with wild imagination. Finally, in Year Six, children use all that they’ve learnt about non-fiction to write quality Explanation and Discussion pieces.
In terms of writing to persuade and give their opinion, there is also a clear progression. This begins subtly in KS1 and Year Three by writing Curiosity Letters and A Class Magazine. This develops in Year Four where children learn to write Persuasive Letters For Personal Gain. From here, in Year Five, they produce Advocacy Journalism Articles. Finally, in Year Six, as well as writing Discussion Texts and Historical Accounts, they also produce Community Activism Letters & Articles. This links to writing Social & Political Poetry too.
In addition, throughout EYFS-KS2, children use what they learn during these projects to inform their disciplinary writing and other writing in the wider curriculum. For example, children should write Information and Explanation texts in the foundation subjects. Throughout KS2, they write quality People’s History texts. They also produce Science Reports, Biographies, Autobiographies and Historical Accounts.
We believe that this progression provides ample opportunity for children to achieve the STA teacher assessment writing statements. For more information on this, please follow these links LINK and LINK.
For a more detailed explanation of how children’s non-fiction writing progresses, consider downloading our Writing Development Scales And Assessment Toolkit.
Suggested class writing projects
For more information on these specific Class Writing Projects, click the link next to the project title.
EYFS
Let’s make ABC books [LINK]
The great strength of this project is that children already know this genre of text. They will have seen them at home or in the classroom library. It also allows them to engage in their phonics learning from the perspective of a writer and teacher. By inviting them to write their own ABC books, we can also sow the seeds of intertextuality – that you can copy the types of writing and books that you like. You can then make them your own. Once this lesson is taught, children can make books with ease.
Counting book [LINK]
Making a counting book is a project which the youngest of writers will find very appealing. It’s a genre which they will have been familiar with from a very early age and so they will be confident with it. They will enjoy showing off their counting skills, and choosing their own favourite objects to be counted. They will also get pleasure from teaching their readers and listeners something, and from the interactive element of everyone counting together when they share their book.
Food books [LINK]
You only have to sit with your class at lunchtime to know that food is a popular topic of conversation for small children. The great strength of this project is that children already know this genre of text. They will have seen food books at home or in the classroom library. Children also like list books – where something different is shared on each page. They see them as an opportunity to share about the things they know about or that are important to them. It’s nice to invite children to make their Food Book for an audience younger than them like babies or toddlers.
My book of first words [LINK]
It makes sense to invite children to make a book of first words as this is probably one of the first books they’ve seen and read themselves growing up. I would hope that you would have similar books in your classroom library too. Children like list books – where something different is shared on each page. They also see it as an opportunity to share about the things they know about or that are important to them. It’s nice to invite children to make their Book Of First Words for an audience younger than them. For example babies and toddlers.
My book of animals [LINK]
Children love animals and will regularly ask one another which is their favourite. I also suspect that animal books are some of the most popular books in your classroom library. Why not take advantage of this fact and invite children to make their own?
My book of people [LINK]
Hopefully, children will already know about these types of books by learning about people who help us. They are also a popular board book for younger children – where each page shares about a different person. Children like making their own versions of these books. They will tell you about people they know, people who help them, and about fantasy characters that they love from the games they play and from the films and programmes they watch. It’s this kind of project that also lays the foundations for young writers understanding where they can find characters for their stories too.
All about… books [LINK]
Spend any time at all in a Nursery or Reception class and you’ll have children come up to tell you about things they are interested in or love most. It’s often spontaneous and they often have plenty to say! This is why they love making All About… Books so much.
This book-making project will show children that they can be knowledgeable about a subject and that sharing this knowledge is an enjoyable, social and satisfying thing to do. You and your class will begin to appreciate the pockets of ‘communities’ that make up a writing classroom – with children talking and sharing with each other their passions, interests and aspects of their lives. It is important for children to understand the power of writing as information giving but also to experience it as a social resource.
What’s wonderful about this particular project is that it can be adapted easily and can be repeated many times across the year. For example, once experienced with the genre, children can make All About… Books about what they are learning in the wider curriculum. You can also make similar books such as:
- My first book of…
- Why…
- How do…
- How to…
- My first encyclopaedia
A book about a place [LINK]
Children like to tell people who don’t know about the important places in their life and what happens there. Making a picturebook about a place gives them an early notion of information sharing and storytelling. This project can actually be done a number of times throughout the year with a different focus each time. For example: an information text explaining all the different things that can be seen at a certain place, a memoir text about a favourite place and what they did there, and finally, a story with a strong setting where something happens!
A friends and family book [LINK]
Children love to tell each other about the most important people in their lives, who may include not only family members but also carers and close family friends. Making a ‘list’ picturebook about some of them lets children write about what they know and make links between home and school. Other children will enjoy having this extra information about the friends they meet every day but who they may only know in the context of the classroom – so a great way to get to know everyone better!
These picture books are an early form of non-fiction writing, but they can also be seen as containing elements of personal narrative and even autobiography. The writers themselves will undoubtedly want to share them with those at home.
This project is quite versatile and can be approached in a number of different ways. For example:
- An information text explaining who all the favourite people are.
- A memoir text with stories about their favourite people.
- A story with their favourite people as the characters.
All about me books [LINK]
All About Me Books give children the opportunity to share about themselves. They can tell you what they like, what they don’t like and other important information about them and their lives they think you ought to know. It’s a combination of non-fiction and personal narrative. Children enjoy reading about one another and finding out about things they have in common and things that are different.
KS1
Information books [LINK]
Children accumulate lots of information every single day. It is vital to their development as writers that they are given the opportunity to share their knowledge and expertise with others and to experiment with the language and organisation of non-fiction genres.
This class writing project will show children that they can be knowledgeable about a subject and that sharing this knowledge is an enjoyable, social and satisfying thing to do. You and your class will begin to appreciate the pockets of ‘communities’ that make up a writing classroom – with children talking and sharing with each other their passions, interests and aspects of their lives. It is important for children to understand the power of writing as information giving but also to experience it as a social resource.
Information and me books [LINK]
When children write about the things for which they are passionate and have a high degree of understanding, experience and knowledge, they bring themselves to their texts. Two genres begin to merge. We call this ‘memoiration’. The texts become a rich mix of memoir (personal narrative) and information. You’ll notice that not only do children make a connection with their topic but they also try to connect with their readership too. For obvious reasons, this project works best when children have already had experience in writing Information and Memoir books.
Instruction books [LINK]
Instructional writing – the recounting of processes – is an important genre that is vital to science, business, and art and design. It is also, perhaps surprisingly, a remarkably rich genre, offering children many possibilities for innovative writing and for creating hybrids with, for example, information, explanation, memoir, poetry, ‘faction’ and persuasion. A good book that showcases exactly this is How To by Julie Morstad. Children can write instructions for a number of reasons: to share their expertise with the community; to enable others to take part in pleasurable, useful or necessary activities; and sometimes simply to help themselves remember how to do something they have just learnt. It is a genre of writing that they can stretch, expand and take in different directions. Why not be enthusiastic, entertaining, ironic, poetic, sarcastic and experimental and let your own voice come through?
Curiosity letters [LINK]
Children like the idea of letters. They are full of curiosity about the world, and this is a chance for them to ask the ‘experts’ about any of the things that puzzle them. They’re usually very good at formulating their own personal questions themselves, so probably the only support they’ll need from you during this project is finding an addressee who is likely to be able to give an answer to their query. It’s exciting when the (often local) addressee replies, showing children another powerful and authentic function of writing.
Let’s make a magazine! [LINK]
This project offers you and your class a new and refreshing perspective on the usual ‘recount’ or ‘newspaper’ writing assignment, when, for example, children are asked to write about their visit to the farm or the local museum, and you inevitably end up with thirty very similar pieces.
The idea here is that you invite the children to write about something they’ve seen, noticed or experienced recently – the kind of thing that they are so often bursting to share with you and everyone when they come into school in the morning. Alternatively, they can simply write about something they are interested in and want to ‘get off their chest’. You can then collect all the pieces and make a class magazine, which you can read aloud time and again to the children and place in the class library for everyone to read whenever they like.
What a great thing to do – to give children access to a class collection of different pieces which tell about all the various happenings, big or small, in their lives.
Incidentally, there are now quite a few magazines on the market aimed at children from as young as three to seven years old. For example: Dot, Chirp and Okido. They should have a place in your class library too and can act as great mentor texts.
KS2
Information [Year Three – LINK Year Four – LINK – Year Five – LINK]
By writing about what they know and care about, children learn that they can use their expertise to inspire and awaken the minds and hearts of others.
Children accumulate lots of information every single day. It is vital to their development as writers that they are given the opportunity to share their knowledge and expertise with others and to experiment with the language and organisation of non-fiction genres.
This class writing project will show children that they can be knowledgeable about a subject and that sharing this knowledge is an enjoyable, social and satisfying thing to do. You and your class will begin to appreciate the pockets of ‘communities’ that make up a writing classroom – with children talking and sharing with each other their passions, interests and aspects of their lives. It is important for children to understand the power of writing as information giving but also to experience it as a social resource.
Instructions [Year Four – LINK]
Instructional writing – the recounting of processes – is an important genre that is vital to science, business, and art and design. It is also, perhaps surprisingly, a remarkably rich genre, offering children many possibilities for innovative writing and for creating hybrids with, for example, information, explanation, memoir, poetry, ‘faction’ and persuasion. A good book that showcases exactly this is How To by Julie Morstad. Children can write instructions for a number of reasons: to share their expertise with the community; to enable others to take part in pleasurable, useful or necessary activities; and sometimes simply to help themselves remember how to do something they have just learnt. It is a genre of writing that they can stretch, expand and take in different directions. Why not be enthusiastic, entertaining, ironic, poetic, sarcastic and experimental and let your own voice come through?
Explanation [Year Five – LINK Year Six – LINK]
By writing about what they know and care about, children learn that they can use their expertise to inspire and awaken the minds and hearts of others.
Explanation texts are a gift. All of us ‘own’ knowledge capital. Indeed, many people make great sums of money from disseminating this capital. Others, though, choose to share their knowledge freely because of the joy and the benefits it can bring to other people. It teaches your reader something, and this is the wonderful thing that children will learn during the project. This introduction itself is an explanation text. You can tell because it does three things:
- It says what an explanation text is.
- It says why it is a useful genre for children to write.
- It says how it is best taught.
By Year Six, children will be very familiar with reading and writing information texts. Explanation texts are very similar, but where an information text simply tells you what something is like, an explanation text goes on to explain how and why things happen. Explanation texts are probably the type of non-fiction that children will read most as they go through school.
Children know about many things that their peers or adults around them know nothing about. It can be very rewarding and self-affirming to share this knowledge through writing. Children will become aware that they have valuable expertise to pass on to others. This class writing project will show children that sharing knowledge is often an enjoyable, social and satisfying thing to do. You and your class will begin to appreciate the pockets of ‘communities’ that make up a writing classroom, with children talking and sharing with others their passions, interests and parts of their lives. It is important that children understand the power of writing to explain and inform but also experience it as a social resource.
Every day, children explain things so that others can understand them. They often have to explain things to adults. There may be many topics from the lives and cultures of your pupils that you don’t know much about, so this writing project is an opportunity for your pupils to teach you a thing or two!
Explanations can be about something physical in the world (such as geography), things people do or even abstract ideas. It is best to write an explanation text on a topic you know a lot about. Think: do I know exactly why something happens? Or exactly how something works? Could this be useful to somebody else?
Discussion [Year Six – LINK]
Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; an argument, an exchange of ignorance – Robert Quillen
This discussion writing project builds on what children have learnt in other non-fiction projects in previous years. For example, they have learnt how to recount. They’ve learnt how to tell stories and write memoirs of their past. They’ve learnt how to give information to others and how to explain themselves. They’ve learnt how to account for and explain why things happen in both history and science and, finally, they’ve learnt how to hold a position on something they care about through persuasion. However, there are subtle differences between this project and all of the others we provide. Discussion isn’t just explanation. It’s not about simply giving facts or writing about the consequences of something, nor is it just a persuasive piece. It’s not there simply to promote and champion your position, nor is it there simply to challenge or destroy another’s. Instead, discussion brings all of these skills together. Children will learn to consider more than one point of view and use recounts, poetic metaphor, evidence, explanation and persuasion to better understand both sides. Writing discussion pieces is about being both thoughtful and penetrative.
We discuss things all the time. We weigh things up and discuss things in our heads. We hear people out – we might challenge their thinking from time to time and we will probably try to justify our thoughts with some kind of explanation. We might also challenge what we’ve heard but still be open to changing our own opinion. In the world of social media, globalisation and political polarisation, discussion is an important life and academic skill that children should be exposed to, and they should know how to use it for themselves.
Persuasive letters for personal gain [Year Four – LINK]
Sometimes we get the things we want and sometimes we get the things we don’t want. When children make requests, whether at home or school, they are often denied. It usually happens like this: their point of view is briefly acknowledged, then a list of rational reasons as to why they cannot have what they want follows, and so the status quo is maintained. Being given the opportunity to put forward a point of view and make a successful request through persuasive writing should capture children’s interest. At last they will learn a way of possibly getting what they want!
This project is about learning to write a persuasive letter for personal gain. Children will be writing to someone in a position of power or influence such as family members, celebrities, organisations, or to you, their teacher! Children are likely to focus on the following opportunities:
- Purchase something or have something purchased for them.
- Get a response from a celebrity, expert or organisation.
- Do something or go somewhere.
- Change their circumstances, responsibilities or level of independence.
Advocacy journalism articles [Year 5 – LINK]
Advocacy Journalism, as the title suggests, is when you advocate for something. It means you champion it, support it and try to stand up for it. This project will give children first-hand experience of undertaking and writing up original research. It will also provide the opportunity for them to learn about local causes and the power of community action. It is a legitimate way for them to learn how news/magazine articles are used to inform, entertain and persuade people.
This can be a truly collaborative project that brings home and school together. Parents and carers can be involved and children will see their writing ‘get to work’ by informing others in the local community about their chosen charity. They see what writing an article in a journalistic style can do. You will be struck by the sheer variety of local charities and the children’s personal commitment to them. You may want to compile a list of charities yourself which the children could potentially use. A great many children will, however, be able to choose charities that they, or someone close to them, have been directly involved with or received help from. This will make the project feel even more important to them personally.
Community activism letters and articles [Year Six – LINK]
This writing project sits comfortably amongst the other projects you might do this year, such as Discussion pieces and Social and Political Poetry. The project will move children on from the Advocacy Journalism project they undertook in Year Five and will give them a final opportunity to see that writing, if they use it carefully and intelligently, can be a powerful tool for good. This time, it’s about your class coming together and using their writing voices to try to influence decision makers, such as local government representatives, or raise awareness of the need for a positive change to occur in their local community.
If we want children to react and impose themselves on the world, then they must talk about, read and observe what’s going on in their own community. We as teachers must be observant to what the children themselves are concerned about. For example, it may be the case that children don’t all want to write yet another poem about Greta Thunberg, write out into the ether about saving the planet from plastic waste or receive a generic letter in response to their own from a multinational corporation.
People’s history [Year Three – LINK Year Four – LINK]
If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten – Rudyard Kipling
Many interesting things have happened to ordinary people which are almost forgotten. By writing them down for others to read, we make sure they are remembered. Even though these events or experiences are not well-known or previously recorded in detail, they are still an important part of human history. Everyday events can be incredibly interesting, and it is important to write about them so that they are not hidden. Everyone in our society has a story to tell. By sharing these stories publicly, children learn that they can give a voice to those people who would never otherwise have had an audience.
People’s history writing has strong elements of Memoir, although the writer will not be writing about their own experiences. Instead they will be writing about other people they know personally or have heard of through family members, friends or the community. This project encourages a great sense of community. By bringing in and celebrating stories from outside your school, you can strengthen and enhance the sense of community and connection inside the classroom. There may well be gains, too, for the person being interviewed.
Biography [Year Five – LINK]
Biography is history seen through the prism of a person – Louis Fischer
This writing project will show children how they can document the lives of people in their communities. They will discover how the lives of ordinary people they know can be sources of great historical, social and personal interest – not only to themselves as the writer but to others too. All people’s lives are interesting, but we don’t always realise it ourselves. Everyone in our society has a story to tell, and by asking the right questions and sharing these stories publicly, children learn that they can give a voice to those people who would never otherwise have had an audience.
Biography writing has strong elements of Memoir, although it will be about other people that the writer knows personally or has heard of through family members, friends or the community. At their very best, biographies can carry within them great opportunities for poetic description and rich anecdote. One of the great benefits of this writing project is that the writer can bring in and celebrate stories that can strengthen and enhance the sense of community and connection inside the classroom. There may well be gains, too, for the person being interviewed and written about.
A good biography topic creates the possibility for reflection, empathy or a shared understanding of a person or an experience. Children will come to understand the role biographers have in documenting and preserving people’s past.
Autobiography [Year Six – LINK]
History is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood – Carl Jung
People are interesting. Everyone has a story to tell – and an audience eager to read and enjoy it. You might write your autobiography mostly for yourself, perhaps for the pleasure of looking back and being reflective, explaining to yourself how you became who you are, understanding yourself, telling your side of the story. Or you might write it for others to learn new things about you, or for friends to remember you by, or for future readers to learn about the time and the place in which you live. It’s a way of making and leaving your mark on the world.
This writing project has a connection to The Anthology of Life Poetry Project, which children will also undertake this year too. Your young writers will also be drawing on their experiences of writing Biography and Memoir in other years. Like Biography, People’s History and Memoir, children’s autobiographies will inform, educate, entertain and give pleasure to themselves and their readers.
Science report [Year Three – Six – LINK]
To present a scientific subject in an attractive and stimulating manner is an artistic task, similar to that of a novelist or even a dramatic writer – Max Born
Reporting a science experiment clearly and accurately is important because every experiment can, in effect, offer new knowledge. In writing a description of the aims and methodology, writers are able to share this new knowledge with their community and perhaps inspire others to repeat the experiment or take it a step further. We suggest children devise their own experiments, which can be linked to the current class science topic or be an investigation into something of personal interest. We say this because the science reporting should be genuine and shared with others in the class. There is little point, and little to be learnt, by asking 30 children to write up the same science experiment.