GUEST BLOGGER ELIZABETH SHREEVE
Creative writing projects in the classroom often start with an idea or prompt. Students develop stories with words and text features, sometimes embellished with drawings. This works fine for many students—but what about children who struggle with handwriting, respond best to visual imagery, or simply can’t get started?
Here’s another approach that I used to write On an Ocean Journey: Animals in Motion Through the Seas (Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch Books, March 4, 2025). That project began when artist Ray Troll invited me to collaborate on a picture book using artwork he’d created for a mural project. Ray provided dozens of images, but the story line was up to me.
I loved this “Start with the Art” process, and it became part of an Activity Kit co-developed with the publisher for children in Grades PK-2. The kit is available free from the publisher and also via my website.
Here are detailed steps for teachers in the classroom. Enjoy!
Step 1: Share the Book
Read On an Ocean Journey with your students. Don’t miss the Field Guide at the end; this will introduce facts and features of the various ocean animals and help to spark ideas when students undertake their own stories.
Step 2: Prepare materials
- Scissors
- Markers, crayons, pencils
- Blank paper
- Tape or glue
- Stapler
- Images (below).
Print several sheets of the images (one per student or group) and cut along the dashed line to produce eight small images. Feel free to use other images from the book, if you’d like. We’ve provided this selection in black and white, so that students have the option to add color.
Step 3: Dive in
Explain the approach and activities.
Depending on age group, invite kids to choose at least three images. They can work individually or in small groups. For more ideas, they can refer back to On an Ocean Journey (check out Field Guide in the back—but the story is up to them).
Step 4: Float around
Now it’s time to brainstorm! Have students move the images around. They might try walking to the other side of the desk to view pictures from different angles. How can they arrange the images to create different stories?
Some possible prompts: What about a school of fish (fun play on words!)? Which animals make the best characters? Do you want to give them names? How about a bird and a fish who want to be friends…but one friend wants to travel while the other loves their cozy safe home in a coral reef? What if one friend (gulp!) wants to eat the other one? Could rivals become pals?
Step 5: Creative writing begins now
Once students have decided on the order of images and have an idea for a story line, ask them to tape or glue each picture onto a sheet of blank paper and write the story text underneath. Add color and additional artwork. Don’t forget a title on the first page. Staple the pages in order. Now they have made a book!
Step 6: Share and compare
Encourage students to read and/or act out their stories aloud. What steps did they take? Did they start out knowing what to write about? Or did they change their minds once they began to move the images around? Did they use information that was in the book, or did they find new details or even invent a new world?
Step 7: Ocean and beyond
This creative writing activity can be expanded by adding additional images of other animals, people, and places. Images from books should not be used without permission, but students can make their own drawings (alphabet books are a handy reference) or use a source that’s safe and free for education, such as Pics4Learning.
Let me know how it goes!
Featured image credit: “Nature Painting @ Spearwood Library” by Cockburn Libraries is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Award-winning author Elizabeth Shreeve writes children’s books that celebrate science and the diversity of life on Planet Earth. Recent titles are On an Ocean Journey: Animals in Motion Through the Seas (Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch Books, 2025), The Oddball Book of Armadillos and The Upside-Down Book of Sloths (Norton Young Readers, 2023 and 2024) and Out of the Blue: How Animals Evolved from Prehistoric Seas (Candlewick Press, 2021). Upcoming books include Dinosaurs to Dragons: The Lore & Science of Mythical Creatures (Simon & Schuster, 2026). When she’s not visiting schools or researching a new project, Elizabeth lives in northern California with her family, including Hector the Dog. Visit her at https://elizabethshreeve.com/, YouTube: Elizabeth Shreeve Books, and on social media @ShreeveBooks.
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