Wondering how to use writing prompts with your kids? You’re in luck. Take a look and explore this wonderful and inspiring list of ideas — It’s an English teacher’s worst-kept secret: the more kids write, the better they get at writing. And whether your kids love writing creatively or complain about writing even simple book reports, they should be writing something every single day if you want them to improve their skills.

To help you get your students write regularly, we’ve created a special month-long series of writing prompts to use in your classroom. This set of prompts includes material for 31 days, but individual prompts can easily be cut out or modified based on the length of the month you’re using it in and based on whether or not you wish to assign writing homework on the weekends.
- In Week 1, students will focus on and evaluate their current writing abilities and their overall study habits.
- In Week 2, students will set goals (and reflect on their progress) for the week, while also practicing general reflective and recap writing.
- In Week 3, students will write about their friends and family—as well as how they interact with the people in their lives.
- And in Week 4, students will think about their futures—and consider the potential paths that await them!
The series concludes with a few reflective prompts on what they’ve learned from journaling—so that by the end of the month, your students will truly understand the value of writing regularly. Enjoy and keep on writing!
How to Writing Prompts:
31 Ideas to Get Kids Writing Regularly
Week 1
- Do you enjoy writing? Why or why not?
- Write about three things you know to be true about yourself.
- What is one thing you would like to change about yourself?
- Do you feel like you are a good student? Why or why not?
- Write a detailed tutorial explaining how to do a particular task.
- Choose a topic and research it online. What was the most interesting thing you learned? The most surprising?
- What subject interests you the most? What subject would you be happy to never study again?
Week 2
- Think of one thing you would like to accomplish this week. Write about what this goal means to you and what you must do to achieve it.
- What will you do when you go home from school today?
- Describe everything that has happened so far today, in detail.
- What part of today are you most looking forward to? Why?
- It’s Friday! What are your plans for the weekend?
- What was the best part of this week? Why?
- Think back to the goal you set earlier this week. Did you accomplish it? How do you feel? Describe what happened.
Week 3
- Is there a person in your life who can always make you feel better? How does this person cheer you up?
- Who was your first friend? What did the two of you have in common?
- What is your favorite way to show someone that you care about them?
- What makes you feel special and loved?
- Are you good at communicating with people? Why or why not?
- Do you like to have a lot of attention on you? Why or why not?
- What is the most important thing you’ve learned from your parents? Why?
Week 4
- Write about a time when you set a goal for yourself and then accomplished it.
- Do you consider yourself to be an organized person? Why or why not?
- When you think about your future, what do you see? Use as much detail as possible.
- What is a job that you would be good at, but that you wouldn’t enjoy? Explain why you are suited for this particular job and why you would dislike it.
- What type of education do you want to receive? Why?
- What jobs do your parents have? Do you think they enjoy them? Why or why not?
- How have your dreams and goals changed as you’ve gotten older? How do you expect them to change as you continue to age?
Month-End Wrap-Up
- What did you learn from keeping a journal all month?
- Read back through your previous entries and choose your favorite one. Then, write about why it was meaningful to you.
- What are the top three benefits of journaling? Explain why each one is important to you.
7 BONUS “Have You Ever” Journal Prompts
- Have you ever written in your journal using your left hand, or if you are a lefty have you written with your right hand?
- Have you ever shared your journal entries with your best friend, spouse, or child and asked for their feedback?
- Have you ever dedicated an entire day to quiet reflection and journal keeping?
- Have you ever sat under a tree on a gorgeous sunny day and written out your wildest and deepest dreams?
- Have you ever written a letter to your heart in your journal?
- Have you ever used watercolors to paint a picture in your journal, and, in the process, make the pages all crinkled and wavy?
- Have you ever thought about how many gazillion ways you can answer the question “Have you ever?”
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Jill
journalbuddies.com
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More Resources & Links on How to Get Kids Writing
The following article was first published here on our blog in 2012 and may be of interest to our readers today.
How to Write a Prompt
Simple, Easy Instructions on How to Write Writing Prompts
Highly engaging writing prompts spark the creativity of the writer and ignite their imagination. (We all know that imagination is key to excellent writing that both engages and pleases readers.)
Moreover, writing ideas and prompts aid, guide and assist writers in developing their skill and talent. Prompts even help those so-called “non-writers” explore the wonderful world of the written word.
To write prompts, one should clearly state the expectations of the writer in terms of the context, topic and format. When the writing idea or prompt is made as clear as possible then the writing produced will very likely be much more concise and clear. In order to provide high-quality writing prompts, the following instructions should be followed.
Steps on How to Write a Prompt
That will Ignite the Imagination
Provide Context-
Context is the foundation in writing, and therefore when writing prompts you will want to state the information that is essential to the subject for both the writer’s and the reader’s benefit. For example, in exploring how to write a prompt about desserts you might want to suggest that your writer describe desserts in detail, rather than in a general sense.
So, for example, rather than writing a prompt that says “What is your favorite dessert and why?” it would read “Write about your favorite frosting flavor”. The second prompt is much more concise and gives a clearer context for the writer to find inspiration and focus. This is especially important for children as vague writing prompts are sometimes too overwhelming for them and can give them writer’s block.
Provide Topic Clarity-
In order to provide greater clarity on the part of your writer, you should give succinct directions in the writing prompts. You achieve this by providing your writers with sentences that start with words such as “write”, “tell” “explain” or “explore”. For example, a prompt that gives the writer much clarity is “Explore the desserts you like the most and write about your favorite one. Tell exactly what it is about the dessert that makes it your favorite.”
This suggestion to include clarity is essential to learning how to write prompts because it will help you target and focus on a precise subject. It is not advisable to use broad subjects such as friendship, colors or school for writing ideas or prompts because broad topics can actually confuse the writer.
State the Format-
Give the framework for the prompts. Take note that every genre of writing has its own format. For instance, the usual framework for writing a news article for the newspaper is not the same format used in writing a feature article for a magazine. Indeed, the tactics used to write these articles differ for obvious reasons And, of course writing a news or feature article differs greatly from say writing a poem.
So, when you write your journal prompts be sure to include within the sentence the format you want the writer to use. Here’s an example, “Write a news article on your country’s hottest issue”. Another example is “Write a poem about your closest friend and what makes her so special”. You now have a clear format and focus for your writers.
Instructions on how to write a prompt are really quite simple to follow. It just takes a little bit of understanding and forethought about your writers and their needs. If you do that you are sure to create some spectacular writing prompts!
Until next time, write on…