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Creative writing prompts – Best activities and resources for KS1 and KS2 English
Fed up of reading 'and then…', 'and then…' in your children's writing? Try these story starters, structures, worksheets and other fun writing prompt resources for primary pupils…
Jump to section:
- Writing with choice and freedom
Creative writing resources for the classroom
Creative writing prompts.
- Improving creative writing
- Overcoming the fear of creative writing
What is creative writing?
According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, ‘creative’ is ‘producing or using original and unusual ideas’, yet I would argue that in writing there’s no such thing as an original idea – all stories are reincarnations of ones that have gone before.
As writers we learn to be expert magpies – selecting the shiny words, phrases and ideas from other stories and taking them for our own.
Interestingly, the primary national curriculum does not mention creative writing or writing for pleasure at all and is focused on the skill of writing.
Therefore, if writing creatively and for pleasure is important in your school, it must be woven into your vision for English.
“Interestingly, the Primary National Curriculum does not mention creative writing or writing for pleasure at all”
Creative writing in primary schools can be broken into two parts:
- writing with choice and freedom
- developing story writing
Writing with choice and freedom allows children to write about what interests and inspires them.
Developing story writing provides children with the skills they need to write creatively. In primary schools this is often taught in a very structured way and, particularly in the formative years, can lack opportunities for children to be creative.
Children are often told to retell a story in their own words or tweak a detail such as the setting or the main character.
Below you’ll find plenty of creative writing prompts, suggestions and resources to help develop both writing for choice and freedom and developing story writing in your classroom.
How to develop opportunities for writing with choice and freedom
Here’s an interesting question to consider: if the curriculum disappeared but children still had the skills to write, would they?
I believe so – they’d still have ideas they wanted to convey and stories they wanted to share.
One of my children enjoys writing and the other is more reluctant to mark make when asked to, but both choose to write. They write notes for friends, song lyrics, stories and even business plans.
So how can we develop opportunities to write with choice and freedom in our classrooms?
Early Years classrooms are full of opportunities for children to write about what interests them, but it’s a rarer sight in KS1 and 2.
Ask children what they want to write about
Reading for pleasure has quite rightly been prioritised in schools and the impact is clear. Many of the wonderful ideas from The Open University’s Reading For Pleasure site can be used and adapted for writing too.
For example, ask children to create a ‘writing river’ where they record the writing they choose to do across a week.
If pupils like writing about a specific thing, consider creating a short burst writing activity linked to this. The below Harry Potter creative writing activity , where children create a new character and write a paragraph about them, is an example of this approach.
If you have a spare 20 minutes, listen to the below conversation with Lucy and Jonathan from HeadteacherChat and Alex from LinkyThinks . They discuss the importance of knowing about children’s interests but also about being a writer yourself.
'The confidence Crisis in Creative Writing.' Lucy and Jonathan chat with Alex from @LinkyThinks https://t.co/VClYxiQhcf — HeadteacherChat 🙋🏻♂️ 👂 (@Headteacherchat) August 9, 2022
Plan in time to pursue personal writing projects
There are lots of fantastic ideas for developing writing for pleasure in your classrooms on The Writing For Pleasure Centre’s website .
One suggestion is assigning time to pursue personal writing projects. The Meadows Primary School in Madeley Heath, Staffordshire, does this termly and provides scaffolds for children who may find the choice daunting.
Give children a choice about writing implements and paper
Sometimes the fun is in the novelty. Are there opportunities within your week to give pupils some choices about the materials they use? Ideas could include:
- little notebooks
- a roll of paper
- felt tip pens
- gel pens
Write for real audiences
This is a great way to develop children’s motivation to write and is easy to do.
It could be a blog, a class newsletter or pen pals. Look around in your community for opportunities to write – the local supermarket, a nearby nursing home or the library are often all good starting points.
Have a go yourself
The most successful teachers of story writing write fiction themselves.
Many adults do not write creatively and trying to teach something you have not done yourself in a long time can be difficult. By having a go you can identify the areas of difficulty alongside the thought processes required.
Treat every child as an author
Time is always a premium in the classroom but equally, we’re all fully aware of the impact of verbal feedback.
One-to-one writing conferences have gained in popularity in primary classrooms and it’s well-worth giving these a go if you haven’t already.
Set aside time to speak to each child about the writing they’re currently constructing. Discuss what’s going well and what they could develop.
If possible, timetable these one-to-one discussions with the whole class throughout the year (ideally more often, if possible).
Free KS2 virtual visit and resources
Bring best-selling children’s authors directly into your classroom with Author In Your Classroom. It’s a brilliant free podcast series made especially for schools, and there’s loads of free resources to download too.
More than 20 authors have recorded episodes so far, including:
- Sir Michael Morpurgo
- Dame Jacqueline Wilson
- Michael Rosen
- Joseph Coelho
- Lauren Child
- Frank Cottrell-Boyce
- Benjamin Zephaniah
- Cressida Cowell
- Robin Stevens
Creative writing exercises
Use these inspiring writing templates from Rachel Clarke to inspire pupils who find it difficult to get their thoughts down on the page. The structured creative writing prompts and activities, which range from writing a ‘through the portal story’ to a character creation activity that involves making your own Top Trumps style cards, will help inexperienced writers to get started.
Storyboard templates and story structures
Whether it’s short stories, comic strips or filmmaking, every tale needs the right structure to be told well. This storyboard template resource will help your children develop the skills required to add that foundation to their creative writing.
Ten-minute activities
The idea of fitting another thing into the school day can feel overwhelming, so start with small creative writing activities once a fortnight. Below are a few ideas that have endless possibilities.
Character capers
You need a 1-6 dice for this activity. Roll it three to find out who your character is, what their personality is and what job they do, then think about the following:
- Can you draw them?
- What questions would you ask them if you met them?
- What might their answers be?
- If they were the main character in a story, what might happen?
Download our character capers worksheet .
Setting soup
In this activity pupils Look at the four photos and fill in a mind map for one of the settings, focusing on what they’d see, hear, feel, smell and feel in that location. They then write an ingredients list for their setting, such as:
- A dollop of calmness
- A drizzle of a beautiful sunset
- A generous helping of a still ocean
- Copious amounts of smooth sand
- A spattering of lush, green palm trees
Download our setting soup worksheet .
Use consequences to generate story ideas
Start with a game of drawing consequences – this is a great way of building a new character.
Next, play a similar game but write a story. Here’s an example . Download our free writing consequences template to get started.
Roll and write a story
For this quick activity, children roll a dice three times to choose a setting and two characters – for example, a theme park, an explorer and a mythical creature. They then use the results to create an outline for a story.
Got more than ten minutes? Use the outline to write a complete story. Alternatively, use the results to create a book cover and blurb or, with a younger group of children, do the activity as a class then draw or write about the outcome.
Download our roll and write a story worksheet .
Scavenger hunt
Give children something to hide and tell them they have to write five clues in pairs, taking another pair from one clue to the next until the 5th clue leads them to the hidden item.
For a challenge, the clues could be riddles.
Set up pen pals. This might be with children in another country or school, or it could simply be with another class.
What do pupils want to say or share? It might be a letter, but it could be a comic strip, poem or pop-up book.
You need a log-in to access Authorfy’s content but it’s free. The website is crammed with every children’s author imaginable, talking about their books and inspirations and setting writing challenges. It’s a great tool to inspire and enthuse.
There are lots of great resources and videos on Oxford Owl which are free to access and will provide children with quick bursts of creativity.
Creative writing ideas for KS2
This free Pie Corbett Ultimate KS2 fiction collection is packed with original short stories from the man himself, and a selection of teaching resources he’s created to accompany each one.
Each creative writing activity will help every young writer get their creative juices flowing and overcome writer’s block.
WAGOLL text types
Support pupils when writing across a whole range of text types and genres with these engaging writing packs from Plazoom , differentiated for KS1, LKS2 and UKS2.
They feature:
- model texts (demonstrating WAGOLL for learners)
- planning guides
- writing templates
- themed paper
Each one focuses on a particular kind of text, encouraging children to make appropriate vocabulary, register and layout choices, and produce the very best writing of which they are capable, which can be used for evidence of progress.
If you teach KS2, start off by exploring fairy tales with a twist , or choose from 50+ other options .
Scaffolds and plot types
A great way to support children with planning stories with structures, this creative writing scaffolds and plot types resource pack contains five story summaries, each covering a different plot type, which they can use as a story idea.
It has often been suggested that there are only seven basic plots a story can use, and here you’ll find text summaries for five of these:
- Overcoming the monster
- Rags to riches
- Voyage and return
After familiarising themselves with these texts, children can adapt and change these stories to create tales of their own.
Use story starters
If some children still need a bit of a push in the right direction, check out our 6 superb story starters to develop creative writing skills . This list features a range of free story starter resources, including animations (like the one above) and even the odd iguana…
Use word mats to inspire
Help pupils to write independently by providing them with helpful vocabulary sheets that they can pick and choose from when doing their own creative writing.
Download our free creative writing word mats here , including:
- Create a spooky atmosphere
- Write an adventure story
- Describe a character’s appearance
- Describe a character’s personality
- Describe how a character moves
- Describe how a character speaks
- Describe a mythical beast
Creative writing pictures
Using images as writing prompts is nothing new, but it’s fun and effective.
Pobble 365 has an inspiring photo for every day of the year. These are great inspiration for ten-minute free writing activities. You need to log in to Pobble but access to Pobble 365 (the pictures) is free.
Choose two pictures as prompts (you can access every picture for the year in the calendar) or provide children with a range of starter prompts.
For example, with the photo above you might ask children to complete one of the following activities:
- Continue the story using the story starters on Pobble.
- Write down what your dream day would include.
- Create a superhero called Dolphin Dude.
- If you didn’t need to breath when swimming underwater, what would you do? Write about your dream day. It might include rivers, lakes, swimming pools, the seas or oceans.
- If you had a super power, what would it be and why?
The Literacy Shed
Website The Literacy Shed has a page dedicated to interesting pictures for creative writing . There are winter scenes, abandoned places, landscapes, woodlands, pathways, statues and even flying houses.
The Literacy Shed also hosts video clips for inspiring writing and is choc-full of ways to use them. The Night Zookeeper Shed is well worth a visit. There are short videos, activities and resources to inspire creative writing.
Once Upon a Picture
Once Upon a Picture is another site packed with creative writing picture prompts , but its focus is more on illustrations than photography, so its offering is great for letting little imaginations soar.
Each one comes with questions for kids to consider, or activities to carry out.
How to improve creative writing
Developing story writing .
If you decided to climb a mountain, in order to be successful you’d need to be well-equipped and you’d need to have practised with smaller climbs first.
The same is true of creative writing: to be successful you need to be well-equipped with the skills of writing and have had plenty of opportunities to practise.
As a teachers you need to plan with this in mind – develop a writing journey which allows children to learn the art of story writing by studying stories of a similar style, focusing on how effects are created and scaffolding children’s writing activities so they achieve success.
- Choose a focus When planning, consider what skill you want to embed for children and have that as your focus throughout the sequence of learning. For example, if you teach Y4 you might decide to focus on integrating speech into stories. When your class looks at a similar story, draw their attention to how the author uses speech and discuss how it advances the action and shows you more about the characters. During the sequence, your class can practise the technical side of writing speech (new line/new speaker, end punctuation, etc). When they come to write their own story, your success criteria will be focused on using speech effectively. By doing this, the skill of using speech is embedded. If you chose to focus on ALL the elements of story writing that a Y4 child should be using (fronted adverbials, conjunctions, expanded noun phrases, etc), this might lead to cognitive overload.
- Plan in chances to be creative Often teachers plan three writing opportunities: one where children retell the story, one with a slight difference (eg a different main character) and a final one where children invent their own story. However, in my experience, the third piece of writing often never happens because children have lost interest or time has run out. If we equip children with the skills, we must allow them time to use them.
- Utilise paired writing Children love to collaborate and by working in pairs it actually helps develop independence. Give it a go!
- Find opportunities for real audiences Nothing is more motivating than knowing you will get to share your story with another class, a parent or the local nursing home.
- Use high-quality stimuli If your focus is speech, find a great novel for kids that uses speech effectively. There are so many excellent children’s stories available that there’s no need to write your own.
- Use magpie books This is somewhere where children can note down any great words or phrases they find from their reading. It will get them reading as a writer.
Below is a rough outline of a planning format that leads to successful writing opportunities.
This sequence of learning takes around three weeks but may be longer or shorter, depending on the writing type.
Before planning out the learning, decide on up to three key focuses for the sequence. Think about the potential learning opportunities that the stimuli supports (eg don’t focus on direct speech if you’re writing non-chronological reports).
Ways to overcome fear of creative writing
Many children are inhibited in their writing for a variety of reasons. These include the all-too-familiar ‘fear of the blank page’ (“I can’t think of anything to write about!” is a common lament), trying to get all the technical aspects right as they compose their work (a sense of being ‘overwhelmed’), and the fact that much of children’s success in school is underpinned by an ethos of competitiveness and comparison, which can lead to a fear of failure and a lack of desire to try.
Any steps we can take to diminish these anxieties means that children will feel increasingly motivated to write, and so enjoy their writing more. This in turn will lead to the development of skills in all areas of writing, with the broader benefits this brings more generally in children’s education.
Here are some easily applied and simple ideas from author and school workshop provider Steve Bowkett for boosting self-confidence in writing.
- Keep it creative Make creative writing a regular activity. High priority is given to spelling, punctuation and grammar, but these need a context to be properly understood. Teaching the technicalities of language without giving children meaningful opportunities to apply them is like telling people the names of a car engine’s parts without helping them learn to drive.
- Model the behaviour In other words, when you want your class to write a story or poem, have a go yourself and be upfront about the difficulties you encounter in trying to translate your thoughts into words.
- Go easy on the grammar Encourage children to write without them necessarily trying to remember and apply a raft of grammatical rules. An old saying has it that we should ‘learn the rules well and then forget them’. Learning how to use punctuation, for instance, is necessary and valuable, but when children try and apply the rules consciously and laboriously as they go along, the creative flow can be stifled. Consideration of rules should, however, be an important element of the editing process.
- Keep assessment focused Where you do require children to focus on rules during composition, pick just one or two they can bear in mind as they write. Explain that you will mark for these without necessarily correcting other areas of GaPS. Not only will this save you time, but also children will be spared the demotivating sight of their writing covered in corrections (which many are unlikely to read).
- Value effort If a child tries hard but produces work that is technically poor, celebrate his achievement in making an effort and apply the old ‘three stars and a wish’ technique to the work by finding three points you can praise followed by noting one area where improvements can be made.
- Leave room for improvement Make clear that it’s fine for children to change their minds, and that there is no expectation for them to ‘get it all right’ first time. Show the class before and after drafts from the work of well-known poets and extracts from stories. Where these have been hand written, they are often untidy and peppered with crossings out and other annotations as the writers tried to clarify their thoughts. If you have the facilities, invite children to word process their stories using the ‘track changes’ facility. Encourage children to show their workings out, as you would do in maths.
- Don’t strive for perfection Slay the ‘practice makes perfect’ dragon. It’s a glib phrase and also an inaccurate one. Telling children that practice makes better is a sound piece of advice. But how could we ever say that a story or poem is perfect? Even highly experienced authors strive to improve.
- Come back later Leave some time – a couple of days will do – between children writing a piece and editing or redrafting it. This is often known as the ‘cooling off’ period. Many children will find that they come back to their work with fresh eyes that enable them to pick out more errors, and with new ideas for improving the piece structurally.
- Try diamond 9 Use the diamond ranking tool to help children assess their own work. Give each child some scraps of paper or card and have them write on each an aspect of their writing, such as creating strong characters, controlling pace and tension, describing places and things, using ‘punchy’ verbs etc. Supply these elements as necessary, but allow children some leeway to think of examples of their own. Now ask each child to physically arrange these scraps according to how effectively they were used in the latest piece of work. So two writing elements that a child thinks are equally strong will be placed side by side, while an aspect of the work a child is pleased with will be placed above one that he / she is not so happy with.
- Keep it varied Vary the writing tasks. By this I mean it’s not necessary to ask children always to write a complete story. Get them to create just an opening scene for example, or a vivid character description, or an exciting story climax. If more-reluctant writers think they haven’t got to write much they might be more motivated to have a go. Varying the tasks also helps to keep the process of writing fresh, while the results can form resource banks (of characters, scenes, etc) for future use.
- Help each other Highlight the idea that everyone in the class, including yourself, forms a community of writers. Here, difficulties can be aired, advice can be shared and successes can be celebrated as we all strive to ‘dare to do it and do our best’.
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Creative Writing Tasks for KS1 Students
Subject: Creative writing
Age range: 5-7
Resource type: Worksheet/Activity
I am a teacher, blogger, and teacher trainer with more than 30 years of experience in education. I like to explore new possibilities to engage learners and enhance their learning experiences. I am the author of the blog, Learning and Leading in the 21st Century http://aysinalp.edublogs.org / where I share my reflections and insights on learning and technology.
Last updated
7 March 2016
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Fun Writing Activities for KS1
Looking for some ideas to engage children in writing? Check out some of our favourite, fun writing activities for KS1 children!
Salt Tray Fun
Salt trays are a great alternative to writing on the traditional pencil and paper and supports early writers in letter formation. Start by laying out some trays on a table, then line each tray with coloured paper and cover with a generous layer of salt.
Lay out letters or words on the table for children to choose and challenge them to write the words in their salt tray. These word cards could be linked to a particular subject or topic, or even tricky words that children need to practise.
An easy but fun activity that will get children active and moving around the classroom. Choose the words you would like children to find, these could be words that when used together can make a sentence or link to the genre of writing you are teaching at the time, such as time conjunctions for instruction writing.
Hide the words around the classroom and set children to work. Can they collect words and use them to form a sentence?
Story Dice
Give children different story dice to support them in writing their own story, including where the story is set and what characters they might come across.
Give children different settings such as the rainforest, Santa's grotto, a fairground or a swimming pool. Ask children to describe the scene and write what they would see, hear, smell, feel or touch in the setting. Children could be challenged to guess which setting the person next to them chose based on their senses description.
Character swap
What would happen if Winnie the Pooh entered the story of the Gruffalo? Or if Winnie the Witch entered the story of Peter Rabbit? Think of some stories that are familiar to the children and tell them that the characters have wandered into the wrong storylines! Can children write an alternative storyline for each character?
What would you do?
Give children a variety of scenarios and ask them to write a description of what they would do in each situation. What would you do if you found an alien under your bed? What would you do if your cat started talking to you? What would you do if you bumped into the Queen in Tesco?
Nonsense poems
Ask children to write a poem with rhyming words that make no sense.
I had a cat who ate a hat
upon a mat inside my flat
with my tall rat who swung a bat...
Ask children to think of their favourite book character. Challenge them to write an invitation asking them to come to tea. Children’s invitations should include when and where the tea party will take place, what they might eat and activities they might do together.
For more writing activities check out this FREE KS1 writing activity bundle !
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Creative writing prompts for kids
What happens when you ask your child to write a story? It’s a common homework task for primary school kids, and a key part of the English National Curriculum , but while some children are overflowing with inspiration, others find it hard to come up with ideas. That’s where creative writing prompts – any tool that is used to kickstart the writing process, such as a picture, an opening sentence or a piece of music – can come in useful.
Download a FREE Creative Writing toolkit!
- KS1 & KS2 workbooks
- Bursting with fill-in prompt sheets and inspiring ideas
- Story structure tips, style guides and editing suggestions
‘Creative writing prompts can be anything that gets children thinking outside the box,’ explains Julia Skinner, founder of the 100 Word Challenge writing programme and The Head’s Office blog. ‘Some children find it hard to get going with creative writing, and really benefit from having a more thought-provoking starting point.’
Creative writing prompts: the benefits
Often, children are given a creative writing task based on a set title, such as: ‘Write a story about a dragon’. ‘This might not be a problem for a child who has lots of imagination, but it can be a challenge for those who find it difficult to come up with ideas and don’t consider themselves to be very creative,’ says Julia.
A creative writing prompt such as a picture or opening sentence can help to fire this creative process. ‘It gives children both the freedom and encouragement to develop their ideas by thinking beyond the obvious and immediate,’ Julia explains. ‘Giving them something specific and concrete can help them to develop their ideas in ways that they would usually struggle with.’
Prompts can help children to come up with a far more diverse set of ideas than they might usually. ‘If you give a whole class a set title, you tend to get a very generic response,’ says Julia. ‘But if they have a prompt, they can use it to take their story in any direction they choose.’
Using prompts also encourages children to use all their senses to inspire their writing. Giving them a title alone is likely to inspire a one-dimensional response, whereas showing them a picture can help them to imagine themselves in the scene and use all five senses to explore what their characters might see, hear, smell, taste and touch.
How to use a creative writing prompt
The key to using a creative writing prompt, says Julia, is to not just put it in front of your child but to spend some time exploring it together before they put pen to paper . ‘Creative writing shouldn’t be something where you leave your child to their own devices,’ Julia explains. ‘It really needs some input to draw out your child’s ideas. Set aside 20 minutes to discuss the story, starting with the prompt and asking questions to build on what your child suggests.’
It’s important to make sure your child knows that there are no boundaries where creative writing is concerned. ‘The testing culture in schools has led children to think that there is always one answer to aim for, but in creative writing, there is no right or wrong,’ says Julia. ‘We need to build children’s confidence to write about whatever they’re seeing or thinking, and prompts are a great way to encourage this.’
It’s also essential to let your child write freely when they’re using a writing prompt, without getting too caught up in spelling, punctuation and grammar. ‘Children need to be able to write creatively and without restriction,’ Julia agrees. ‘They need to feel free to express themselves, knowing that they can come back and put in the capital letters and full stops later.’
Six of the best creative writing prompts
Pictures Pictures are probably the most obvious creative writing prompt. You can use any sort of picture – a cartoon, a photo, a piece of classic artwork – to inspire children’s imagination. ‘One of my favourite picture prompts is a photo of a smashed chocolate egg, surrounded by tiny model workmen,’ Julia says. You can either leave the picture blank, or add a caption to encourage children along the right lines: for example, a speech bubble on a person saying, ‘Where am I going?’
We love Coram Beanstalk's Make Your Own Story Dice (illustrated by Nick Sharratt) – you can download the templates for free, then colour in, stick together and use for endless storytelling!
Sentences Another good prompt is to give children a sentence – typically the opening sentence of a story – to build their writing on. Giving them a starter such as, ‘How was the dragon going to tell his father what he had done?’ can prompt a huge and varied range of storylines, from adventure to comedy to tragedy.
A page from a book A picture is said to be worth a thousand words, so taking a page from a children’s picture book and removing the text is a great way to kickstart a piece of creative writing.
Music Using music as a prompt can help your child to think about how they use their senses in their writing. Typically, instrumental pieces work best, otherwise the lyrics put words in your child’s mouth, but you can use any genre, from classical to rap. Encourage them to think about how the music makes them feel; what they think is happening; what sort of character would play that music, and so on .
A feely bag Put a selection of small, tactile objects into a bag (for instance, a golf ball, a fork, a comb…) and ask your child to pick one out at random. Use this as the starting point for their piece of writing, building a plot around it.
Challenges For children who are motivated by rewards, taking part in a writing challenge can help to prompt them to write. The 100 Word Challenge, run in association with Night Zookeeper , gives children a weekly writing prompt; they then put together a piece in 100 words and can upload it to the website where other children can read and comment on their, giving them extra motivation to write.
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FOR ALL AGES
25 Creative Writing Prompts For KS1 And KS2
Sarah Hallam
on 13 May 2020
on 18 October 2022
6 mins to read
Published on May 13, 2020
Kidadl Article Fact-checking Standards
At Kidadl we pride ourselves on offering families original ideas to make the most of time spent together at home or out and about, wherever you are in the world. We strive to recommend the very best things that are suggested by our community and are things we would do ourselves - our aim is to be the trusted friend to parents.
We try our very best, but cannot guarantee perfection. We will always aim to give you accurate information at the date of publication - however, information does change, so it’s important you do your own research, double-check and make the decision that is right for your family.
Kidadl provides inspiration to entertain and educate your children. We recognise that not all activities and ideas are appropriate and suitable for all children and families or in all circumstances. Our recommended activities are based on age but these are a guide. We recommend that these ideas are used as inspiration, that ideas are undertaken with appropriate adult supervision, and that each adult uses their own discretion and knowledge of their children to consider the safety and suitability.
Kidadl cannot accept liability for the execution of these ideas, and parental supervision is advised at all times, as safety is paramount. Anyone using the information provided by Kidadl does so at their own risk and we can not accept liability if things go wrong.
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While they may not be in the classroom currently, teaching children the benefits of learning to write creatively is a fantastic way to boost their confidence, and help them develop reading and problem-solving skills. These resources and prompts are aimed to help children come up with new and exciting ideas for stories and to consider all the different elements of storytelling. So, kids can head over to heir home study space , wherever it may be, and experiment to their heart's content with these fun writing prompts.
Top Tip: Why not check out this post written by a real children's author, with many more tips on how children can write their very own storybooks?
Writing Ideas For Key Stage One Children (Ages 5-7)
With KS1 children, it's a great idea to use their interests and surroundings as inspiration for their creative writing. Coming up with a whole new story can be a big challenge, so the ideas and activities are aimed to help KS1 children to consider one or two things they are really interested in writing, before they create their stories:
- Imagine your favourite toy came to life! What would a day in their life look like? Where would they go and what would they get up to? What would their favourite meals be, and what would their voice sound like?
- Describe the place you live as if you were talking to an alien from another planet. How can you recognise where it is? What is inside? What are all the different things used for and what are some funny human habits that aliens would find interesting?
- Write about the best day out ever. It can be real or just a fantasy day out that you would love to do in the future.
- Imagine a monster came over for dinner. What would they look like? What is their name? What would they eat and how would they eat it?
- Write a letter to your favourite character. Whether it's from a movie, TV show, book or play, imagine what you would write if they were your pen pal.
- Design your own animal, and write a short description about it. Maybe it has lots of fangs, or pink fur. Perhaps it's a mixture of lots of other animals. Draw out a picture of your animal, and then write a short paragraph to describe what it's called, where it lives, what it eats and what it does for fun!
- Think about your favourite book character. Write a short story about what they got up to after the end of the book.
Develop these ideas further by:
-Incorporating the creatures you've invented into a new story.
-Making illustrations to accompany your description of your day out.
-Storyboarding your ideas, to make a cartoon-like sequence of events with images and text.
Writing Ideas For Key Stage 2 Children (Ages 7-11)
Even if English isn't their favourite subject, there are lots of ways to help KS2 aged children get interested in storytelling and creative writing. By allowing kids to select their own books to read away from the classroom, they can figure out which genres and writing styles they enjoy the most. Exposing children to new ideas and techniques through encouraging reading books, will also, in turn, help their writing abilities to blossom. A good way to prepare children for these activities is to search online for books they enjoy, and let them pick one or two to read. This will allow them to get familiar with the type of writing they enjoy. The following ideas are suggestions intended to aid creative thinking and spark inspiration for whatever direction children want to take their stories in:
- What would a day on Earth be like if mythical creatures existed? What would day-to-day be life if dragons, unicorns, mermaids and fairies wandered the streets? Write a short story about a day in your life, if mythical creatures were around.
- Imagine you were small as a bug. Describe the world from your new perspective. Do you have interactions with people? Insects or animals? Where do you go? Do you discover you have any insect-like abilities?
- Imagine you woke up one day with a superpower. What is it? Are you able to turn invisible, read minds, or fly? What is the first thing you would do with your new power and what would a day in your life look like?
- Write a diary entry as if you had travelled to another period of time. Is it Victorian England, Ancient Egypt or perhaps the Middle Ages? How do you blend in, and what new things do you learn?
- A rocket launches you to an unknown planet. You find a civilisation of aliens have already made it their own and they welcome you. Describe your experience, what you see, and what happens next. Write a short story about your adventures.
The following prompts are suggestions of an opening line that kids can use at the beginning of their story, and continue on from:
- 'The dark figure began to emerge from the mist. She could see the outline of a human-like figure as it started to get closer...'
- 'Simon did his homework, liked skateboarding and his favourite food was pizza. He thought he was an ordinary boy, until...'
- 'Deep beneath the North Sea, hidden away from human eyes, lies a great secret...'
- 'The door was painted white, with cracked paint and a small golden handle. I couldn't help but wonder what was inside...'
- 'The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the street outside was hot and quiet. But everything was about to change...
Develop these ideas by:
-Creating illustrations to go alongside your story. Show what your characters and landscapes would look like, and make them correspond with the story.
-Thinking about other books you've been reading. How would the character you've written interact with a character from one of your favourite books?
-Making a character profile of the characters in your stories. What are their interests and hobbies? What do they like to wear? What books and films do they like? Create a drawing of your character in the middle of the page, and label different things about them in a profile down the side.
-Doing a character swap. Imagine your character found themselves in the world of another book, or vice versa. What would happen next?
-Design a front and back cover for your book. Consider the title, blurb and cover illustrations. Perhaps even make an author profile too!
For five quick and easy creative writing tasks, download your prompt sheet below!
Sarah was born and raised in the North West. Her love of art and culture brought her to study in London and she never left! She can be found teaching painting classes, trying out new recipes, or drawing with a cup of tea.
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