Safari Greg Carter used colorful props and audience participation Wednesday to get Corinth Elementary students involved in a creative writing program. Safari Greg Carter bounded into the Corinth Elementary gym Wednesday morning, armed with hot sauce to inspire spicy word choice among students.

Carter presented a program based on the concept that successful writing involves putting the “6 + 1” writing traits into practice. This writing method was developed in the early 1980s in Oregon by educator Ruth Carter to emphasize the importance of ideas, organization, word choice and presentation.

Carter has written a creative writing program based around the “6 + 1” writing trait method. He traveled more than 60,000 miles last year doing school assembly programs in 23 states and two foreign countries.

Carter used colorful props and audience participation to teach Corinth Elementary students about the different parts of good writing — ideas, organization, voice, word choice, grammar and presentation.

“It’s important to express ideas well through writing,” Carter told students. “When we’re writing, we have to be able to put personality into a story and bring it to life.”

Writing is a major focus on the elementary level with students working on various types of writing in preparation for the next grade. Elementary and middle schools will take a writing test in March as part of the state’s Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (PASS) test.

Corinth Elementary began using the “6 + 1” writing method last spring.

“We wanted to give our teachers new ideas on how to help students become stronger writers,” Corinth Elementary Principal Brenda Sharts said. “This trait writing method breaks down the writing process into smaller pieces to make it easier for students to understand.”