Whether you’re looking for a new way to keep your 4th-grade kids occupied on a rainy day or hoping to help your class branch out in their writing, journaling can be a wonderful tool to inspire and motivate kids to express their thoughts.

Journaling has many benefits for both children and adults, and the simple act of writing is a powerful way to express feelings, new ideas, and to instill creativity. Writing daily can translate into encouraging kids to find innovative ways of thinking, and will excite them endlessly with the prospect of possibility.
Here are a few brief points about the fabulous benefits of journaling. Check this out! Journal writing can help students:
- Clarify their thoughts and feelings
- Know themselves better
- Reduce stress
- Solve problems more effectively
- Resolve disagreements with others
Those are some amazing journal keeping benefits if you ask me. I hope you agree!
But kids can be a tough audience and that’s why we’ve provided a list of seventy-three new 4th-grade writing prompts. These prompts are sure to help the wheels start turning and to brighten up any student’s day. Ok, without further ado, here are those exciting new journal starters for 4th-grade writers!
4th-Grade Writing Prompts to
Inspire and Ignite the Imagination
This listing of journal prompt ideas ranges from the silly to the reflective, and from practical to the impossible. This list of journal starters is sure to help your fourth-grader develop an entirely new outlook on writing and the opportunities that journaling can bring.
- Finding an undiscovered planet
- This year, I want to learn…
- Hiking in the mountains
- My favorite family tradition
- My best friend is awesome because…
- What my family does on the 4th of July
- A list of things on my desk
- What America means to me
- One of my best memories
- Would I rather be rich or famous?
- Time capsules are…
- Something I’d like to be better at
- Climbing the world’s largest tower
- A secret garden
- Finding a secret room in your house
- Jumping on clouds
- Diving undersea to find a hidden temple
- Becoming a giant
- Growing up with cousins
- Taking an escalator to the moon
- Underwater house
- Having a food fight
- Being in a video game
- Race car driver
- Making a new ice cream flavor
- Exploring the pyramids
- Do aliens exist?
- Living on a farm
- An epic game of hide and seek
- Playing a professional sport
- Life as a germ
- Playing instruments
- Being a rock singer
- Write a letter to a pen-pal
- If I could live in any state
- If I could have any pet
- The best compliment I ever received…
- My favorite book
- Television is…
- Cooking with family
- Someday, I want to be ________
- If I could live in any time in history, I would choose ________
- My favorite toy when I was younger
- What 5 things would I want if I was stranded on a desert island?
- I felt grown-up, when ______________
- Brothers/sisters are important because…
- If I could trade places with anyone for a day
- The best April fool’s joke I ever played
- A perfect day
- My favorite month of the year
- Walking on the ceiling
- My favorite pair of shoes
- Finding buried treasure
- If dinosaurs still existed
- My greatest talent
- What if there were only 18 hours in a day?
- Something that embarrasses me is…
- The best restaurant I’ve ever been to
- I like living in [city], because…
- The most important thing I ever learned
- If I were the principal, I would _______
- Can wishes come true?
- People who I couldn’t live without
- My favorite thing in my bedroom
- A list of states or countries I’ve been to
- What would grow in my garden?
- A day in the life of a superhero
- Rules are important because…
- If I were a color, I would be _______
- My favorite thing about myself
- I think tests are important/unimportant because…
- Staying home alone
- The best teacher I ever had
I hope that this listing of 4th-grade writing prompts was inspiring and useful to you and your students, children, and special kids.
BONUS: 11 Expository Writing Prompts for 4th Graders
- Describe how things will be different for you in middle school when you have a locker to put your things in. What will you put in your locker? Will you decorate it in any way?
- Explain the rules and requirements at your new middle school and where they differ from your current school.
- Think about the homework you have in the 4th grade and explain how homework might differ in middle school.
- When you enter middle school, describe some ways that you can go about making new friends.
- Define the characteristics that make a good friend.
- Explain several ways that you might handle someone who is trying to bully you.
- Define what being a good listener means to you, and explain ways you can be a good listener in your new middle school environment.
- Define the term “time management” and describe ways you can make use of it in middle school.
- Describe how you believe you have matured in the past year.
- Mistakes are not all bad if you learn from them. Think of a mistake you’ve made and explain what lesson you learned from it.
- Define the term “dress code” and explain why a school might have a dress code.
Happy journaling and writing to you! Until next time, write on…
If you enjoyed these 4th Grade Writing Prompts,
please share them on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Pinterest.
I appreciate it!
Sincerely,
Jill
journalbuddies.com
creator and curator
Love the site! I specialized for many years in inspiring and growing reluctant writers, and there is so much here to recommend to teachers and parents! Wish you all the best! Write on!
Why thank you, Janet! I checked out your website and it is packed full of wonderful resources. In fact I’m so fond of your site that I’ve added a link to it on my resources page! Write on is right!!! 😀
Hello, Jill! I had to stop by and browse around a bit more for additional inspiration in planning lessons for the students I tutor! Writing and journaling truly helps kids-and adults!-transform into the transcendent selves they were always meant to be, and it’s wonderful that your website and work are making that happen!
I feel honored that you like my own fledging little site! I so enjoyed writing with kids of all ages- and across the curriculum- during the years that I was in the classroom, that I decided to build a resource sharing my material. I have a long way to go: more pages of content, dozens of photos and templates to edit and post, contact forms, etc., etc. I’m writing in between tutoring students and training dogs!:)
Again, thank you for the kind words, and I’ll probably order a few of your Journal Buddies shortly! As well as drop by soon!
Blessings!
Indeed there is little on earth that journaling, writing, creative self-expression can not help one to process, deal with, understand, transform, transcend and grow from as we adventure through our wondrous (and sometimes very challenging) lives here on earth.
Thank you for utilizing my site as a resource — and possibly my books, too — and know that I look forward to witnessing your site’s growth. There is no doubt in my heart and mind that we are kindred spirits. It is truly my honor to connect with you!
Visit again soon and write, comment and keep in touch. 😀
I love this website, now I can give prompts to my students and other things.
Thank you. I’m glad you love it! 😀
i like this website and i like writing
Hi Mahek,
I am so glad you like the site and thrilled that you like writing!!!! Write on…
🙂
Jill
I like writing. These are great journal starters for me.
Here are some other good journal starters:
If I had three wishes
My best adventure
My museum/amusement park
A museum where strange things begin to happen
I’m a fashion designer
A trip to the big city
Living in an apartment
I found an old house in the woods
I saw a tiger in a cave
I love your journal prompt ideas, Alyx!! Thanks for sharing them and helping to inspire even more writing. 😀
Kindly,
Jill, Author and Creator of Journal Buddies
Thank you so much for the ideas! We always need extra topics. Mom can only think of so many things.
You are very welcome, Jessica. Please bookmark our site and/or sign up to get email notifications when new articles get published as there will be hundreds of journal prompts added in the coming months. Seriously… in October alone there will be some 300+ prompts! And please share this resource with other moms if you would. 🙂
Journal on…
Kindly,
Jill, Author and Creator of Journal Buddies
Great put up, very informative. I wonder why the opposite specialists of this sector do not realize this. You should proceed your writing. I am confident, you have a great readers’ base already!|What’s Taking place i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I have discovered It absolutely useful and it has aided me out loads. I’m hoping to contribute & assist other customers like its helped me. Good job.
I like this website.
Why thank you! 🙂
Kindly,
Jill
good
I’m glad you like the prompts, Trinity! 😀
THis is an okay website