Trait Crate Plus - Grades K-5

Trait Crate Plus Logo

Bring literature to life in the writing classroom!

Developed by best-selling author/educator Ruth Culham, Traits Crate Plus helps students develop and improve writing skills through six writing traits—ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions.


Each crate kit contains:


Each kit contains

Trait Crate Plus features:

  • Six mentor texts per grade (fiction and non-fiction) and 24 time-saving lessons
  • An emphasis on narrative, informational, and opinion modes of writing
  • A website with access to dozens of downloadable pages for students, video interviews with children’s authors, and student-friendly scoring guides
  • Culham’s bestseller book, The Writing Thief, which takes a deep dive into the theory and practice of using mentor texts to teach the craft of writing.

Photograph of Ruth Culham, Ed.D,

Developed by Ruth Culham, EdD

Recognized expert in the Traits of Writing field, author of many professional resources, President of the Culham Writing Company, and former Unit Manager of the Assessment Program at Education Northwest in Portland, Oregon.

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