Trait Crate Plus, Grade K Where Literature Lives in the Writing Classroom

Using fiction and nonfiction children’s books as mentors, Trait Crate Plus adds new life and energy to the teaching of writing through thoughtful and creative lessons that are ready-to-use tomorrow. Everything you need is provided. Traits Crate Plus helps students learn and use the six traits—ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions—to improve specific skills in writing. With six all-new mentor texts per grade and 24 time-saving lessons, Ruth Culham’s Trait Crate Plus expands and enriches the reading-and-writing experience. In addition to the valuable features and components of the original Trait Crate this enhanced edition offers:



An emphasis on modes — narrative, informational, and opinion—to help you address higher standards.

A companion website that provides access to dozens of downloadable pages for students, video interviews with children’s authors, and student-friendly scoring guides.

Culham’s bestseller The Writing Thief, which takes a deep dive into the theory and practice of using mentor texts to teach the craft of writing.

Mentor Texts:



Ideas: The Swing, by Joe Cepeda

Organization: Train, by Elisha Cooper

Voice: The Pet Shop Revolution, by Ana Juan

Word Choice: Lizards, by Nic Bishop

Sentence Fluency: Too Many Toys, by David Shannon

Conventions: Exclamation Mark, by Amy Krause Rosenthal

Ruth Culham, Ed.D., is the president of the Culham Writing Company and former Unit Manager of the Assessment Program at Education Northwest in Portland, Oregon. She is the recognized expert in the traits of writing field and author of many professional resources published by Scholastic, including 6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide, Grades 3 and Up; 6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide for the Primary Grades; and Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide for Middle School, winner of the 2011 Teacher’s Choice award.

As a pioneering researcher in this field, Ruth creates and conducts teacher workshops to provide professional development at local, district, and state levels; at state and national conferences she’s a featured speaker on teaching writing using the traits. The highlight of her 19-year teaching career was being named English Teacher of the Year in Montana. But most recently, she’d proudest of authoring Traits Writing, a revolutionary writing program for grades K-8 available from Scholastic.