Story-writing can be so much fun! Using your imagination, predicting what will happen next, and using descriptions to help your readers “see” the story are all part of the challenge. But before any of those things can be done, you have to start your story with an idea. That’s where story starters come in!
Young students may have a more difficult time with story-writing. After all, they haven’t really lived long enough to have much life experience! But the ability to write stories is a skill that will serve your students well as they move up in their school careers. Organizing a story, predicting the scenarios, and communicating through written words will provide better understanding when they read other peoples’ stories.
use story starters to spark imagination
A fun and easy way to help young students write a story is to give them some written or visual prompts to help them start to think of ideas.
A good way to start is to read stories with your students. Try to find a story that has information about the author on the jacket, or do a little research of your own about the author. The point here is to help students understand that “this person” actually wrote the story. He/she had to start with an idea, plan out what would happen, and then write it down.
Since predicting is a necessary skill for story-writing stop at various points in the story and ask what they think will happen next. Doing this will help students to understand how stories work and how they understand stories. Ask some questions that will help them focus on the various story parts. For example, where does it take place? Who are the characters and what do they do?
A next step might be to ask the student to write a story that’s similar to one that they really enjoyed. If they really liked a story about a puppy, see if they can come up with their own story about a puppy or some other pet.
You could also give students a writing prompt. See this earlier blog post about winter writing prompts. Try to make it something fun that they can relate to. For example, ” My grandma came to visit me on my birthday.” Then help them think about what might happen next.
other story-writing ideas
Making story starters funny for your students can help them see story-writing as a fun exercise instead of a chore.
One idea is to name three unrelated items … such as a lamp, a horse, and a tree and ask them to make up one story about all of them. Another idea is to ask your students about a memory that has meaning for them and write a story about the memory.
If students are struggling to start a story, have them start out by drawing pictures of the events instead. They can draw them on sticky notes or regular paper and then put the pictures in the order that they would like the events to happen. Once the drawings are in the order that the student wants them, ask them to to write out one or two sentence captions for each drawing. Then you can help them fill in any gaps, such as timing or character movement.
Story starters writing center activity
If you’re searching for a resource to help your students with story-writing, I invite you to take a look at my Story Starters Set 1 Writing Center Activity. This is a writing center that will enable your students to write creative stories, either individually or in small groups.
The resource consists of a series of engaging prompt cards for all the different story parts, along with a spinner and a cube for throwing. Students spin the spinner (or throw the cube) and match the color with a prompt card. What makes these so much fun is that they will end up with some really humorous story starting combinations!
Included in the resource are notes for the teacher, a center layout, various sizes of writing pages, and a writing help mat.
The best thing about this resource is that it can be used all year long! There are endless combinations of prompt cards, leading to many different stories.
There are 3 more sets of these writing centers. Your students would never run out of fun stories to write!
Do you have an interesting way to help your students write stories? Please share it with us!
