The Story Starter is a great resource for writing prompts. When you see a child who is having a hard time getting started on a writing assignment, you can connect to this site and generate a random prompt. You may also want to print some out and keep them in a box on your desk so students can access them easily.
Of course you can also give your students the option of either thinking of their own story or using one of the generated prompts. Once they see some of the fun choices, however, don’t be surprised if most want to pick off the site. Who can resist prompts such as “The retired handwriting expert wrote a story in the vault to wake up the President” or “The confused violinist created a Twitter account in an attic for the killer bees.”
And check out Story Starter Jr. for for younger students- spark the imagination of your early elementary students with simpler prompts like “The superhero was singing in the backyard.”
Keep in mind that some students who are just learning about story grammar might need choices for story endings too so this is a support you as the teacher might offer or it might be one provided by a peer.
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