Inspire Writing with Engaging Narrative Paragraph Topic Starters

A well-chosen narrative paragraph topic sparks imagination, provides focus and gives young writers the confidence to put pen to paper.

To inspire and engage your young writers, Teach Starter has created this comprehensive set of narrative writing topic sentence ideas. Each slide contains a different topic sentence for an imaginative narrative paragraph. Some examples include:

• Deep under the ocean lives a city that is made entirely of seashells.
• My mission was to sneak into the alien spaceship and save the planet.
• Last night, I dreamed that I shrunk down to the size of an ant!
• There was a loud knock at the door, but no one was there.
• And many more!

This resource downloads as a Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation. Students can type directly into the slides or use them as a springboard for handwritten work in their books. Teachers can also use the slides for whole-class modelling, making it easy to jointly construct narrative paragraphs with students.

Use These Narrative Paragraph Topic Ideas in Multiple Ways

Sometimes, all students need to transform a blank page into an exciting story is a creative spark! This resource delivers 20 ready-to-use narrative paragraph topic ideas that can be used in a variety of fun and flexible ways:

1. Oral Storytelling Game – Have your students sit or stand in a circle. Choose one of the narrative paragraph topic sentences from the resource. Going around the circle, have students add one sentence at a time to build a paragraph based on the prompt. After five or so students have added a sentence, choose a new prompt and repeat the process. 
2. Art Integration – Combine this narrative writing activity with visual arts by having students create an engaging visual to accompany their paragraph. Students could present their paragraph along with their visual to the class, or these could be used to create a class display of student writing and artwork.
3. Extended Writing – Once students have written their paragraphs using the selected topic sentence, have them extend their writing by constructing an entire narrative text on the topic containing an orientation, complication and resolution.

Download These Narrative Paragraph Starters Today!

Use the Download button above to select your chosen file format. Should you choose the Google Slides file, please note that you will be prompted to make a local copy before accessing.

Whether you’re introducing narrative writing or looking to extend your students’ skills, this resource is ready to be put to good use!

This resource was created by Lindsey Phillips, a teacher and Teach Starter collaborator.

More Narrative Writing Resources From Teach Starter

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