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Whether you’re a classroom teacher looking for writing prompts for kids, or you’re a mom or dad looking for interesting subjects for your child to write about, writing prompts serve an important purpose in overcoming one of the largest psychological obstacles of writing for many kids. Often, coming up with an idea to write is an overwhelming task, not only because the child doesn’t have a large number of life experiences to draw from, but also because they are often very shy and afraid of being ridiculed for their ideas.

By providing students (or your children) with writing prompts, you can spark their creativity and avoid the initial difficulty of coming up with ideas. Often, writing prompts generate some of the most amazing and insightful writing from children!

Coming Up With Writing Prompts for Kids

If you’re unsure about what writing prompts for kids that you should use, always think simple. Some people make use of longer writing prompts, actually providing a couple of sentences to start a story or an event in the child’s mind. However, doing so can limit children and create a scenario that’s too narrow. Instead, provide only one sentence or even only part of a sentence, and then watch the creative sparks fly.

The short list below comes from the writing prompt powerhouse CanTeach. I’ve selected the best writing prompts from the long list, but if you want to see them all, make sure to visit the site and browse the entire page.

The Top 25 Writing Prompts for Kids

1. What is the best way to treat meddlesome people?
2. What is the meaning of “He laughs best who laughs last”?
3. What is something that really bugs you?
4. What would happen if you could fly whenever you wanted? When would you use this ability?
5. What would happen if there were no television? Why would this be good? bad?
6. What if cows gave root beer instead of milk?
7. What would happen if everyone wore the same clothes?
8. What would happen if you threw a piece of trash on the ground? What if everyone did?
9. What would happen if you grew taller than trees? How would this change your life?
10. What would happen if you found gold in your backyard?
11. What would you do if a bully bothered you on your way home?
12. What would you do if you saw little bugs in your salad?
13. What would you do if you woke up in another country and no one could understand you?
14. What would you do if someone said you did something wrong and you didn’t?
15. What do you think about ghosts?
16. What do you think about when you can’t fall asleep?
17. What do you think courage means?
18. What does “Have your cake and eat it too” mean to you?
19. What does “There are two sides to every coin” mean to you?
20. What are you afraid of? Why?
21. What would you invent to make life better?
22. I wish I had a million… Then I would…
23. I wish I had enough money to……
24. I wish everyone had…..
25. I wish there were no more…..

One liners are always the best writing prompts for children, and the ones above are sure to generate some of the most entertaining, interesting and intriguing writing from your kids and your students. Make sure to come back and let us know what sort of amazing stories came from these ideas in the comments section below!