Story Starters Teaching Resources
Explore story starters for kids created by teachers for teachers like you to encourage creative writing in the primary classroom.
This collection of narrative prompts has been designed by the Teach Starter teacher team to help you help your students as they perfect their narrative story writing skills. Aligned with the Australian literacy curriculum, the collection is packed with options for starting sentences and stories, as well as writing stimulus sheets you can use to encourage young writers to unleash their creativity!
Is this your first year teaching writing lessons? Or maybe you're just looking for some fresh ideas to incorporate story starters into your lesson plans? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!
What Are Story Starters?
The name may say it all — or maybe not! A story starter is a sentence or a short phrase that's created to spark the imaginations of your students and help them kick off a story.
These short bits of text provide students with an example of how to begin their story. They stimulate students' imaginations and help beat back writer's block!
They also go by a number of other names, including:
- Narrative starters
- Narrative prompts
- Story prompts
- Story openers
Is a Story Starter the Same as a Writing Prompt?
Story starters can be considered writing prompts. After all, these phrases or sentences work to prompt a student to continue the narrative.
But not every writing prompt is a story starter! A writing prompt provides our students with ideas that they can use to begin writing, but the words of the prompt do not have to appear within the actual text of the story.
A good story starter, on the other hand, will actually function as the first few words or sentences of a story.
What Makes a Good Story Starter?
When our teaching team sits down to craft a good story starter to add to our collection — and for you to add to your lesson plans — we have a few criteria in mind.
- The story starter should hint at the theme of the story.
- The story opener should not provide students with too much information — the goal is to leave it to students to craft major story details using their own imaginations!
- The story starter should hook the reader by revealing an intriguing element of the story.
Some of the elements we like to include in our story starters include:
- Questions
- An introduction to a particular character or characters
- Descriptions of the setting
- Dialogue
- Action
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Spring Writing Prompts
Celebrate Spring with Spring writing worksheets for the early years.
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Farm-Themed Flashcards and Writing Prompts
Build vocabulary and writing skills with this ocean-themed writing activity.
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What Happened Next? Jack and the Beanstalk Writing Template
Finish the Jack and the Beanstalk story in your own words.
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Narrative Writing Poster
A poster to encourage your students to think about narrative writing.
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Haunted House Worksheets - Descriptive Writing Activity
Draw and write about scary Halloween houses with a printable Halloween descriptive writing activity pack.
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Halloween Writing Template - Big Mouth Mummy Craft
Inspire spooky story writing with a printable ‘Big-Mouth Mummy’ Halloween writing craft.
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Roll to Create a Silly Book Title – Differentiated Writing Activity
Print a differentiated literacy activity using dice and a chart to create a silly book title and storybook.
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Fairy Tale Setting and Book Characters Classroom Display
Teach fairy tales and narrative structure with a printable fairy tale setting poster and book characters for a classroom display.
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Novel Study - Alternate Story Ending Worksheet
A worksheet which encourages students to write an alternate ending to a shared class story.
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What Happened Next? The Three Little Pigs Writing Template
Finish The Three Little Pigs story in your own words.
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Halloween Creative Writing Prompts - Year 4 and Year 5
Develop narrative writing skills this Halloween season with a set of Halloween creative writing prompts for Year 4 and Year 5.
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Grandparents' Day Writing Prompt - The Very Best Day
Surprise Grandma and Grandpa with a special story telling about the Best Day Ever with a Grandparents’ Day writing prompt.
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Halloween Narrative Writing Prompts — Finish the Story Writing Activity
Use this printable 'Finish the Story' writing prompt and craft to develop narrative writing skills this Halloween season.
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The Relief Teacher Monster - Halloween Craft and Write
This Halloween, inspire your struggling writers to write toe-curling tales of a day spent with a Relief Teacher Monster!
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Objects in the Sky – Writing Prompts
Describe objects in the sky, such as the clouds, moon and sun, with this set of 8 space science writing prompts.
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What Happened Next? Alice in Wonderland Writing Template
Finish the Alice in Wonderland story in your own words.
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'Pick Three' Writing Inspiration Worksheet
A worksheet to use when students need writing inspiration for a narrative piece.
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What Happened Next? Little Red Riding Hood Writing Template
Finish the Little Red Riding Hood story in your own words.
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What Happened Next? The Gingerbread Man Writing Template
Finish The Gingerbread Man story in your own words.
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What Happened Next? Cinderella Writing Template
Finish the Cinderella story in your own words.
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Pirate Themed Mini Story Book Template
Students can use this template to create their own pirate themed mini story book.
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Story Leads To Hook Your Readers
How to hook your reader: 11 techniques to open your story with a bang and grab your reader's attention!
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Plan Your Own Adventure - Writing Template
Students use a template to help them plan stories with alternative pathways for their friends to read.
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Halloween Words - Vocabulary and Writing Centre
Stretch your students’ vocabulary and writing skills with a devilishly-delightful Halloween Vocabulary and Writing Centre.
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Write About Halloween Costumes! Year 1 Worksheets
Differentiate writing instruction in early years with a group of levelled Halloween writing prompts about Halloween costumes.
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Easter Writing Prompts - Story Starters
Create Easter-themed stories using these Easter writing prompt cards.
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Easter Diary Writing Activity
A cute diary entry writing activity.
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Halloween Writing Prompts - Bats
Differentiated writing activity using bats as a writing prompt.
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Insect-Themed Flashcards and Writing Prompts
Inspire young entomologists to read and write about insects with minibeast writing prompts and word wall cards.
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Valentine's Day Vocabulary Cards and Writing Center
Build a Valentine’s Day writing station with a printable word wall and writing prompt worksheets.
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Grandparents Day Writing Prompts
Combine your writing lessons and Grandparents Day with this set of writing prompt worksheets.
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Easter Writing Prompts Worksheet
Explore imaginative writing in your classroom with these 3 fun story writing prompts for Easter.