Narrative Writing Prompts to Inspire Young Writers

Narrative writing is a cornerstone of literacy development in elementary school. It helps students build essential skills in creativity, sequencing and language use. When children learn to craft stories, they’re not just writing, they’re also learning to think critically, empathize with characters and express ideas clearly. The trouble is… where do these ideas come from? This is sometimes to most challenging part of storywriting for our students!

If your students sometimes need a little help when it comes to generating ideas for exciting and imaginative stories, then you need to get your hands on this set of narrative writing prompts! This resource features five engaging visual prompts designed to stimulate your students’ creative ideas. Each image acts as a springboard for inspiration, helping students visualize settings, characters and possible plots. To support structured writing, the resource also includes planning worksheets that guide students through the follow key elements of storytelling:

• Setting – Where the story takes place
• Characters – Who is involved
• Plot – What happens and why
• Language Choices – Words and phrases to make the story come alive

The five narrative writing prompts contained within this resource are:

• The Animal Games
• Ducks in Space
• The Fishes Market
• The Elegant Express
• The Secret Society of Vegetable Venerators

This resource downloads as a color PDF or editable Google Slides file. While the resource can be printed in grayscale if necessary, the color is intended to help students when planning and writing their stories. If you’d like to save on color printing, we recommend projecting the visual prompts onto your interactive whiteboard. 

Using Short Story Prompts in the Classroom

This resource has been designed to provide your students with everything they need to plan, draft, write and edit a creative and original narrative based on an exciting and colorful visual prompt. Here’s how you might build a lesson (or several lessons) around this resource:

1. Introduce the Visual Prompts – Display the five narrative writing prompts and invite students to share their observations about each. Encourage them to choose the prompt that most inspires them as a stimulus for their own story.
2. Brainstorm and Planning – Have the students use the planning sheets to establish a setting, characters and plot for their story. Have them also brainstorm sensory language to use for descriptions, such as nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs.
3. Independent Writing Time – Allow students to write their own stories using the prompt and their plan. Be mindful that some students may write more than others! Encourage the students to edit their work when they have finished using the checklist provided.
4. Share and Reflect – Invite the students to read their stories aloud or swap with a partner for feedback. This process is an important step, as it reinforces to students that writing is for a specific purpose and intended audience.

Download These Creative Writing Prompts 

Download these creative writing prompt worksheets instantly and start transforming your writing lessons! Use the Download button above to access your preferred version of this resource. Please note that Google users will need to make a personal copy of the file before accessing it.

With clear instructions and scaffolded activities, this resource is designed to slot easily into your existing ELA curriculum and provide ongoing value across multiple lessons.

Complement These Writing Prompts for Stories with More Great Resources

Click below to explore more teacher-created, curriculum-aligned resources to use alongside these narrative prompts. You’ll be glad you did!

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