Writing Prompts for Primary Students

“I think I can, I think I can.” You’ve embarked upon quite a journey in attempting to teach your pre-emergent and emergent writers. In order to get to the other side of the mountain, you’ve established your writing environment. Your little authors-to-be write every day. You set the example by writing when they write. You read-aloud everyday, publish and celebrate. But when it’s time to think of yet another “perfect” writing prompt to inspire, the puff-puff, puffing and chug, chug chugging begins.

Don’t strain yourself needlessly. Primary students will write most elaborately about what they know best… themselves! Your job is to open their eyes to the extent of their own knowledge. Until these young writers have acquired adequate writing skills and a confidence to match, they should not be asked to write to a prompt without at least some element of freedom. Use the following tips as fuel for your little writing engines:

1. Create personalized writing topic lists with students to keep in their writing folders:
   1. My Family
   2. My Friends
   3. My Favorites Places I’ve Been
2. Provide rich experiences so students will have the background knowledge to write about a topic. Encourage talking to enhance elaboration in writing.
   1. Elicit students’ feelings about their topic before they write.
   2. Share with a classmate what matters most about their topic.
   3. Share with their teacher how that topic makes them feel.
3. Drawing or writing their most important idea or feeling can jump start writing. Use visual aids and activities to help kids “see” what they want to write. Picture prompted writing can guide children toward a theme, while still giving room for free choice.
   1. Drawing
   2. Painting
   3. Cutting out pictures from magazines
   4. Using digital pictures of shared experiences
   5. Using sequences of clip-art
4. Trigger memories and writing ideas through the powerful sense of smell.
   1. Lemons
   2. Cinnamon
   3. Cut grass
   4. Pine Needles
   5. Perfume

Source: Freeman, Marcia. Teaching the Youngest Writers, Maupin House, c1998

visit other tips for writing prompts: