Never underestimate the power of a good story.
And while that is certainly true when it comes to encouraging children to read more, and consequently develop their reading ability – it is no less true when we are wanting to help students develop their writing skills.
In fact, for many kids, writing a story is one of the most enjoyable activities they take part in at school, and I’ve always tried to lean into this in my classes.
But how can we help ensure every student in the class is going to use their imagination and write a story to share?
Today we’re going to look at using writing prompts to do just that!
Why use story starters?
In a word… enthusiasm.
It’s what we need instilled in every student we are trying to help learn and better themselves.
And a silly idea for a story that switches on a lightbulb in the head of a kid who just cannot apply themselves to their learning can be the difference between significant writing progress in a year, and no progress at all.
Of course it’s not only the reluctant writers that we’re trying to reach – I love to see all levels of ability getting excited to write and share their stories.
How should writing prompts be used for this age group?
Get creative – there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to encouraging kids to get writing!
Here are some ideas:
- Talk through a few of the prompts with the kids.
- Try giving one prompt to the all the kids, talk them through what it means, and see the variety of stories that emerges.
- Assign based on what you know that students interests are: e.g. animals, sports etc.
- Have the kids draw a picture of what they think of when you read out the prompt.
- Ask the children to share their ideas in response to reading and hearing the writing prompt. Record these on a large piece of paper where they can clearly see.
Who are these prompts for?
These writing prompts are intended for first grade age students primarily, but surrounding years in this age group will no doubt get some use out of them too.
I think it’s often best with story starters for first graders to keep the premise very straight forward.
I usually like to use a mixture of directly relatable ideas (“my best birthday party ever”), and silly ideas (“The sheep in the tent was dancing…”), to capture their attention.
The Prompts:
- The cow at the aquarium was sleepy…
- My best birthday party ever…
- The sheep in the tent was dancing…
- If I was the teacher for a day, I would…
- The goose on the boat was excited…
- My favorite animal is…
- The bus driver was in the jet-boat…
- If I could fly, I would…
- The giraffe was at the campground…
- If I got to spend the day with Santa…
- The queen was in the barn…
- If I lived in a toyshop…
- The monkey was in the basement…
- My bike is awesome because…
- The giant was at the playground…
- My friend is from space…
- I climbed a magic tree…
- At night the toys in my bedroom come alive…
- I found the gate to the secret garden…
- If I was in a hot air balloon, I would go…
- The stuntman was in the candy store…
- One, two, three…
- The princess was in the treehouse…
- I looked out the window and saw…
- The truck driver was digging a large tunnel…
- I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw…
- The YouTuber was in the castle…
- I was standing in the donut shop, when…
- The goose at the ski-field was whispering…
- As I was watching the magic show…
- The pig on the train was shouting…
- If my cat could talk…
- The bear on the scooter was smiling…
- If I lived in candy land…
- The monkey at the playground was friendly…
- If I was a super hero…
- The zebra on the plane was crying…
- My ideal treehouse would be…
- There’s a magical birdhouse outside my window…
- My dog dug up a treasure chest…
- I couldn’t believe what I was seeing…
- The ant felt brave so he climbed to the edge of the leaf…
Download the PDF
Thank you
We just wanted to take a moment and say thanks to everyone in the community 🙂
Thanks for visiting, enjoying and sharing our content!
And thanks for getting in touch to describe how you’ve used these in your teaching, or with your homeschooling. Really interesting stuff, keep it coming.
Also stay tuned for more great free resources on the way.
See you again soon,
Matt & Hayley
