Opinion Writing Prompts for 2nd Grade — Use these writing prompts listed below in your classroom to get students who are new to writing interested in their journals and willing to begin writing regularly!

Quick Writing Tip for Second Grade Students
Journaling can be a refreshing practice for people of all ages, but its healing powers are harnessed especially well when the habit is developed early on.
Students who begin journaling when they are very young are more likely to stick with it as they get older and to become more competent at expressing their feelings and comfortably arguing their opinions in writing. Even children in kindergarten and first grade can begin journaling (we have a blog post or two for them!)
Appropriate writing prompts for 2nd grade students most frequently center on either things that are familiar to them (such as opinion writing topics on likes and dislikes or their families) or things they can imagine (faraway lands or magical powers or new experiences).
The key to getting students interested in writing from an early age is to make sure that the writing prompts you give them are engaging, exciting, and easy to answer.
Yeppers…
These 30 new second grade writing prompts and journal starters are intended to get your students excited about writing by giving them the chance to discuss their favorite subjects or to get as carried away by their imaginations as they desire.
30 Opinion Writing Prompts for 2nd Grade
Get to it and use these engaging prompt ideas in your lesson plans with your second grades today and get them on their way to being skilled, independent writers. Pull out your writing notebooks, pens, pencils, crayons – or even a digital versions of journals and have fun!
- Think of your favorite fairy tale from when you were in preschool and retell it with a different ending.
- Think of your favorite fairy tale from when you were in preschool and retell it with the same ending, but a different beginning.
- Think about your favorite book series and write an original story using the same main characters.
- Think about your favorite season of the year. Then, write about the season and explain what makes it so special to you.
- What would it be like to be one of your parents for one day? Which parent would you want to be and why?
- Would you rather have a tiger or a gorilla for a pet, and why would you choose that animal?
- What is your favorite meal of the day? Why is it your favorite?
- Think about your favorite toy. Why do you like it more than your other toys? How often do you play with it?
- What is the best silly food combination you can think of? Would you ever try it? Do you think other people would like it?
- Like “Flat Stanley,” what if you could be put in a package and mailed somewhere? Where would you want to go and why? What would you expect to see?
- What is your favorite part of the school day? Why do you like it better than the rest of the day?
- What would it be like if chocolate tasted like potatoes, and potatoes tasted like chocolate? What would dinner be like?
- If the day was cold and snowy outside, would you rather go sledding or build a snowman?
- What is your favorite thing to do during the summer? Do you get to do it frequently?
- What do you usually do when you’re feeling sick? Do your parents do anything special to make you feel better?
- If you got an extra week off of school for a school break, would you rather it be a hot and sunny week or a cold and snowy week?
- If you could choose to be a cat or a dog for a day, which would you choose to be? Why?
- What would be the most exciting job you could have? Why would you choose it?
- What is your favorite sport to watch? What do you like about it?
- Write about something in your house that no one else knows about.
- What would it be like if we lived in a world without water? What would replace the oceans? What would we drink?
- What is the most important quality for a friend to have?
- Write about your favorite sound in the world. It can be a song, someone’s voice, the wind, etc. Why is this sound so special to you?
- What is your earliest memory? Write about every detail from the experience you can remember—what you saw, who was there, and what you did.
- Write about the best party you’ve ever attended. What made it so much fun?
- If you could only read three books for the rest of your life, which books would you pick? Would you ever get tired of them?
- Write about a time when you made up your own game or activity. Where did you get your inspiration? Do you ever still play the game? What do you like about it?
- Write about your most recent good dream that you can remember. What happened in it? Was it realistic? Would you ever want it to happen in real life?
- Imagine that you are going to join the circus. Which act would you perform and why?
- What is your favorite thing about yourself? Write about why this quality makes you special and unique.
I hope you enjoyed these opinion writing prompts for 2nd grade. Oh, and as an added bonus, perhaps you could use these topics for free writes with your kids.
Of course, if you need more writing and/or journal prompts for your second graders, perhaps you want to check out our list of 30 Narrative Writing prompts for second graders or this list of 36 Opinion Writing Prompts.
Even More Resources
- 2nd Grade Writing Prompts, Printables, and Journal Pages
- Opinion Writing Resources
- 51 Sentence Starters
- Free Opinion Writing Unit of Study
- 25 2nd Grade Anchor Charts That Will Make Teaching Easier
- What is a writer’s workshop (includes instruction and components)
- 6 Strong opinion writing anchor chart ideas
I hope you use these writing ideas with your kids this whole year. I think you’ll be glad you did!
Until next time, write on…
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I appreciate it!
Sincerely,
Jill
journalbuddies.com
creator and curator
