Expository Writing Prompts for Upper Elementary Students

Have you been studying expository writing with your students this term? Are you ready to see how well your students can write a report on a topic of their choice? If so, Teach Starter’s expository writing prompts could be exactly the resource you are looking for!

This resource has been designed as an assessment tool that can be used at the end of your expository writing unit. Your students should be very familiar with the structure and language features of report writing before engaging with this resource.

Each writing prompt in this set focuses on a different topic. The five topics included are:

• The Material World
• Places and Spaces
• The Natural World
• The Animal Kingdom
• Out and About

Students are encouraged to come up with their own ideas based on the broad topics above. For example, a student might choose the “Out and About…” prompt and then write a report about a local festival. Another might choose the same prompt, but write a report about a religious celebration.

Teachers may wish to use one prompt for all students, or alternatively, students could choose whichever prompt they prefer.

Suggested Use for These Expository Writing Prompts

You might like to follow the process below when using these report writing prompts with your class:

1. Distribute the Prompt – Distribute the chosen prompt to your students. Read through it as a class and answer any questions about the upcoming task.
2. Planning Time – Provide students with time to plan their piece of writing. Ten minutes should be sufficient.
3. Writing Time – Provide students with an uninterrupted period of sustained writing time to complete their reports.
4. Editing Time – Provide at least five minutes at the end of the writing period for students to read over and make adjustments to their writing.

Download to Access These Writing Stimulus Sheets

This resource downloads as a full-color PDF, a black-and-white PDF and an editable Google Slides file containing both the full-color and black-and-white versions. Click on the Download button to access your preferred version.

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