Writing prompts are so helpful to inspire creativity. They can be simple prompts for a single writing exercise, or a series of prompts to use in journaling. If you’d like a free Winter Writing Prompts resource, keep reading! Or see this blog post for more information on teaching creative writing.
Journaling is a wonderful way to let your students express their creativity. Even very young students can be introduced to the concept of keeping a journal or doing daily writing. In fact, Common Core Standards require that first grade students be able to produce many different kinds of writing. Focusing on a topic and answering questions by using prompts and keeping a journal can help your students reach this standard.
ideas for using writing prompts
- Writing is often a very personal creative activity. Help your students invest in their writing by letting them create and/or decorate their own journals. Using fun pens, stickers, and pictures to decorate their journals or writing pages lets them personalize their writing and is likely to encourage them to write more.
- Daily journal writing can be a quick writing exercise, or it can be more involved and require more time. For very young writers, keep the daily writing short. The idea is to introduce them to the idea of getting their thoughts on paper and to get a bit of daily writing practice in.
- Use journals to extend learning. Having students reflect on a previous lesson will help deepen their understanding. Offering prompts to help will encourage young writers to get started and focus. Some examples of prompts you could use:
What was the most fun part about today’s activity?
Explain what you learned today to someone who’s not in our class.
What was the hardest part of today’s lesson?
Think about our lesson today. What do you think our next lesson will be about?
- Encourage your students to illustrate their writing. This will add an extra layer of creativity to their journal.
- Set aside specific times for journaling. Make it seem more important to students by doing your best to keep this time special. Play soft music, pass out quiet snacks or use special lighting to highlight that this time is for writing and reflecting.
free writing resource
As mentioned above, I have a Free Winter Writing Prompts resource for you to download!
This free resource contains four open-ended writing prompts about different winter topics. Write a list of words describing a penguin! Describe what it would be like to live in a beautiful winter cabin, or talk about their favorite winter sport! Describe how to build the perfect snowman! There’s also a fun journal cover for students to color and personalize.
This activity would be perfect as part of a daily journal writing exercise, or as part of a more structured, guided writing exercise.
If you like this resource, it’s part of a larger resource containing 30 winter writing prompts! These writing pages will take you through the months of December, January and February. Filled with engaging prompts, these activities can be used in multiple ways … as homework, writing centers during the winter months, morning work or early finishers. Or offer students a choice of what kind of writing to do and what topic to write about – a perfect way to get them more involved and interested in their writing! They’re suitable for first, second and third grades.
I’ve also created similar resources for all sorts of topics … for specific months, all four seasons separately and as a bundle. There are enough prompts to keep your students engaged and writing for the entire year!
I’d love to hear how these are working in your classroom!
