Story Starters Teaching Resources
Explore story starters for kids and printable worksheets created by teachers to spark your elementary and middle school students' imaginations as they learn all about narrative writing.
This collection of curriculum-aligned teaching resources has been carefully reviewed by our expert teaching team to make sure every resource is classroom-ready — so we can make your lesson planning easier!
New to using story starters in the classroom, or just looking for new ways to engage your students? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!
What Are Story Starters?
A story starter is a great tool to help students begin a narrative writing piece! These prompts can help your students unlock their creativity and inspire them to explore more graphic elements in their writing — everything from imagery to figurative language.
For new writers, a blank page can be daunting, and it's easy to get frustrated or develop a serious case of writer's block when you're not sure where to begin. Using a story starter can prevent that frustration from setting in and help your students develop their writing skills.
What Are Good Story Starters for Kids?
The key to a good story starter for students is relatability! Story starters that can inspire kids to put pencil to paper are age-appropriate and relatable to their experiences. After all — the goal is to make writing easier for kids, not present new challenges.
A good story starter for kids can be anything from a question, a statement or even an interesting image such as a photograph. It should be open-ended and allow for multiple interpretations. This encourages your students to think critically and creatively.
You also want to be mindful that the story starter you're presenting should capture kids' attention — simply being relatable isn't enough if it bores them! The more engaging the starter, the more engaged your student and the more engaging they can make the resulting piece of writing.
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Roll to Create a Haunted House Halloween Activity
Have some spooky Halloween fun with a Roll-to-Create Halloween Art activity.
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Halloween Narrative Writing Prompts — Finish the Story Writing Activity
Develop narrative writing skills this Halloween season with a printable “Finish the Story” writing prompt and craft.
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Halloween Writing Template - Big Mouth Mummy
Inspire spooky story writing with a printable ‘Big-Mouth Mummy’ Halloween writing craft.
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Roll to Create a Halloween Writing Prompt
Inspire some spooktacular Halloween writing with a roll-to-create Halloween Writing Prompt creator.
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Narrative Story Starter Worksheets - Writing Prompts
Use our printable narrative writing prompt worksheets to boost your students' imaginative writing skills.
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Write a Spooky Story - Scaffolded Writing Project
Inspire your struggling writers to write spooky stories that contain all of the story elements with a set of scaffolded writing activities and final draft paper.
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Bloom's Taxonomy Fast Finisher Task Cards - Upper Grades
44 Bloom's Taxonomy fast finisher activity cards.
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Halloween Creative Writing Prompts - 4th and 5th Grade
Develop narrative writing skills this Halloween season with a set of printable Halloween writing prompts for 4th graders and 5th graders.
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Disguise a Turkey — Thanksgiving Activity
Save Tom the Turkey with a Disguise a Turkey project template for Thanksgiving time in the classroom.
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Genre of the Month - Writing Prompt Grids (Upper)
Introduce your students to a variety of writing genres with our printable genre-specific writing prompt grids.
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Monthly Writing Prompt Calendars - Lower Grades
Encourage your little learners to write with fun writing prompts for kids in early elementary school.
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My Dream Story - Writing Prompt Template
Dream up some great stories using this creative story-writing prompt.
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My Monster Story Template
Use this simple story template to get your students writing simple narratives based on a sequence of events.
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Summer Santa on Vacation - Christmas Writing Prompts
Inspire hilarious Christmas narratives with a printable set of Santa on Vacation writing prompt worksheets.
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Roll to Create a Christmas Story - Writing Prompt
Roll the die to generate a fun Christmas writing activity with a roll-to-create Christmas worksheet.
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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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Christmas Writing - December Writing Prompts
Inspire your students to write creatively with a set of 30 Christmas writing prompts for kids.
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Write With Your Senses: Daily Descriptive Writing Prompts
Inspire your students to write descriptively using our 20 daily descriptive writing prompts slide deck and graphic organizer.
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My Ideal World – Writing Template
A template for students to use when writing about their ideal world.
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Goldilocks and The Three Bears - Finish the Story Writing Prompt
Finish the Goldilocks and the Three Bears story in your own words.
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Daily Writing Prompts Calendars - Upper Grades
Inspire your students and encourage them to write regularly with a set of printable Daily Writing Prompts in calendar format!
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Bloom's Taxonomy Sentence Starters and Activities Posters
A set of six posters examining Bloom's Taxonomy.
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Choose Your Own Destiny - Writing Template
Students use a template to help them write stories with alternative pathways for their friends to read.
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Narrative Writing Poster
A poster to encourage your students to think about narrative writing.
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Story Ideas - Character, Setting, and Complication Cards
Help your students choose a topic to write about with this set of 36 character, setting and compilation task cards.
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Magical Story Starters Task Cards
Get your students writing magical stories with this set of story starter task cards.
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Inspiring Story Starters - Task Cards
Get your students writing during Read Across America week with this set of inspirational narrative story starter task cards.
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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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Easter Writing Prompts - Dear Diary
Encourage imagination with a fun set of Easter writing prompts!
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Easter Writing Prompts- Story Starters
Create Easter-themed stories using these Easter writing prompt cards.
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April Fools' Day Writing Prompts
Celebrate April Fools' Day in the classroom with these fun writing prompt worksheets.
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Sloth Story Starters - Animal Writing Prompts
Help students get over writers’ block with these cute sloth-themed writing prompts.