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50 Story Prompts for Kids to Spark Imagination

How often do you use story prompts for kids? If the answer is rarely, you’re missing a tool that helps a lot. Whether teaching elementary or middle school students, prompts can spark imagination and interaction.

Read on to discover various story ideas for kids that can make learning enjoyable and meaningful. 

Key points:

• Children’s story prompts are simple ideas and cues that help with starting a personal narrative.
• With them, children explore characters, the world, and reflect on everyday moments. 
• The story prompt ideas cover a wide range of topics, from fantasy and mystery to animals and friendship.

What are story prompts for kids?

Story prompts for kids are simple cues, ideas, or story starters that give children a point from which to begin their story. They can have different goals, but the main ones include sparking imagination, organizing thoughts, and practising writing.

Besides, they fit for multiple uses:

• For teachers, they are great for encouraging class stories.
• For parents, these ideas help improve writing and storytelling, whether it’s homework time or bedtime.

What are some good story prompts?

• Funny prompts for kids
• Adventure and fantasy prompts
• Animal and nature prompts 
• Friendship and everyday life prompts
• Science and mystery prompts 

Funny story prompts for kids

First of all, kids of any age love funny or absurd situations. So prompts about something that is out of the ordinary can engage them and spark imagination. 

Let’s start with story ideas prompts that can reflect an ordinary day: 

• Your lunchbox suddenly starts telling jokes to everyone at school. What will it say to your friends, and will it affect your time there?
• You wake up one day and find your hair turned into spaghetti/cereals? Will it change your day?
• You went out to school, and your sneakers make you dance whenever someone plays music. Where do you think your feet take you?
• You switch places with your pet? What funny situations and stories will happen to you?

Here, you have options, as short story writing prompts for kids can be about a pet, a friend, or even a sibling. Personalize them to make stories more relevant. 

Connect funny story starters to an event or holiday, let’s say Halloween:

• You put on a costume of a favorite superhero, and suddenly, you have a new identity. How will you trick or prank your friends?
• Imagine it’s your birthday, and a birthday cake starts giving you advice. What will it tell you and make you feel?
• Your snowman comes alive during the winter holidays. How will you spend them?
• A Thanksgiving turkey escapes from the kitchen. What will happen next?

What are other absurd and funny story prompts for kids?  

• Your grandma/grandad learns to skateboard overnight. Where will you go to skate?
• Your toys are revolting and start singing. Why are they doing it? How to bring peace back?

How Brighterly helps kids learn reading and writing in a fun way

The Brighterly math and reading platform offers personalized lessons with interaction and fun activities at its core. Its reading tutors mix theory and practice using games and personalized prompts, so creating a memorable experience and long-term memorization.

Importantly, Brighterly reading program is customised to kids’ needs and grades; it helps to improve comprehension, confidence, and critical thinking. There, story prompts are important parts to engage kids and motivate them to learn.

Adventure and fantasy story starters for kids

You can’t help but associate adventure and fantasy with the journeys to new worlds and experiences. Isn’t it the way to develop your kids’ creativity and imagination?

Your prompts are likely to have dragons, treasure hunts, talking creatures, and magical objects. In this case, what are some good story ideas for kids?

• You came across a treasure map hidden in library books. Where will it lead you, what will you discover?
• You meet a dragon on a journey/quest, and he agrees to help you if you solve a riddle. What is the riddle about, and how will you approach it?
• You get superpowers after mixing some substances in a school lab. What are they, and how will you use them for good?
• You enter a game world through the TV. Who will wait for you there? What is the game? How will you win?

These writing story prompts are useful if you want your kid to better visualize, imagine different worlds, and learn the concept of setting. 

But what about fantasy kids story prompts? These help introduce a character and understand roles:

• You build a robot that comes alive after midnight. What will it do in the morning, and will it be your friend?
• You find a genie lamp, the genie appears, and grants you three wishes. What wishes will you make, and what will the genie ask in return?
• Your friend turns into a wizard and fights another wizard. What spells does he/she know and how will he/she use them to win?

And these children story ideas can help you develop kids’ thinking and train them to find solutions:

• You sail on a space pirate ship to the Moon to find a treasure. How will you get there? What can go wrong?
• A mysterious letter invites you to a castle in the clouds. What will you take with you, and how will you get inside the castle?
• You go home after classes, and an enchanted forest appears in your schoolyard. Whom will you meet there, and how will you get back home?

Animal and nature story prompts for kids

Children love animals. They also love being outdoors. Considering this, kids story ideas about nature and creatures can push them to investigate certain species. 

It’s what Disney does in its films, portraying creatures and ecosystems. So, you can even share the starters after an animated film about the ocean and see how they react.

Let’s look at short story prompts for kids that can encourage them to learn more about animals:

• A rare bird builds a nest on your balcony, and it talks to you, asking for help. How do you take care of it, and how will you protect it from others?
• You discover a hidden trail in the park that appears only in the spring. Each time a different animal appears. Whom will you find there? What will it teach you?
• You fall asleep in a camp and wake up hearing a meeting of animals. Who are they? What are they discussing? Will you help them?
• You turn into an ant for one day. What adventures will you have, what will you learn about life in the grasslands? 

In the same manner, use short story prompts to make kids think about nature and the environment:

• You turn into an animal, and a rainstorm washes you down a river to a jungle. How will you survive and get home safe?
• You discover a tiny village under a mushroom. Are there other cities/mushrooms? What happens when you become friends with their mayor? 
• A rainstorm washes you down to the jungle. Who rescues you, and how do you get home?
• A colony of bees invites you to their hive. What do they show you? Write a poem or a story.

If a kid has a pet or lives on a farm, they can creatively share feelings alongside learning with such short story writing prompts for kids:

• Your pet (dog or cat) learns to speak human language. What will it tell you about its secret life, your house, or you?
• You and your friend become animals for a day. Which animals do you turn into, and how do you spend your time together?
• One day, you ride a horse to school. What happens when it takes you on an unexpected detour?

As animals are often characters in reading stories, you can easily combine story prompts with reading worksheets and boost comprehension of a certain topic.

Story starters for kids about friendship, family, and everyday routine

What is more relatable for a kid than a family, school, and friends? These are the things kids experience every day. 

So, ask children to continue the story prompts and help practice writing or storytelling. 

• You and your best friend open a detective agency in your neighborhood. What mysteries will you solve, and how?
• You build a secret society or club. Who is in it, and what is the main rule?
• You agree to swap places with a sibling for a day. How does it feel to live in their shoes?
• Your class is planning a space trip. What is your role on the ship?
• You decide to put on a puppet show in the living room. What story do you perform, and who is your audience?

Simultaneously, the story prompts below can be a tool to explore emotions and perspectives by simply turning upside down a daily routine: 

• A magic notebook writes down everything that happens around its carrier. What will you do with a book? Will you keep it a secret?
• You accidentally say exactly what’s on your mind for the whole day. What surprise can it bring you and your peers?
• A new kid shares a secret talent with you. What is it? Will you be friends with them?
• You and your friends go 20 years into the future/past. What does the world look like?
• Everything in your house switches roles. TV wants to be a microwave, and a microwave wants to be a table. Discover why? Will you be persuasive to switch back?

Science and mystery story prompts for kids

What is a good idea for curious kids who love science? To build prompts around science projects or secret inventions. 

Here are some story prompts and examples you can use:

• Your science project accidentally opens a tiny portal on your desk. What creatures can you see peeking through? What do they say?
• You find glasses that see other dimensions. How do they work? How will you interact with them?
• You create a machine that makes everything smaller. You do it to your teacher. What would you do to fix it?
• A mysterious doctor leaves a box on your doorstep. It says “Do not shake”. But you shake it. What happens next?
• Your toy turns into a robot and starts building something in a yard. What is it creating and why?

The children story prompts about science can help you build kids’ vocabulary and explore some subjects. 

However, if you add a grain of mystery or puzzle, it can make them even more excited to finish the story prompts. 

• You walk into your room and find a huge elephant and a script. What happened? Who is responsible? What will you do next?
• Someone steals squirrels from a neighborhood. You’re a detective on a case. Will you solve it?
• Your notebook starts writing riddles and acrostic poems about treasure, but you didn’t put them there. What is a secret? Who is behind it?
• You hear a strange radio signal. You decode it. Somebody called for help. Who is it? What will you do?
• You come to a new town and find a ghost who pranks everyone. Why does he do it? Will you help him?

What topics are kids most interested in?

Kids are most interested in the topics that spark imagination, open new worlds, and keep them excited. They often refer to magical characters, mysteries, and fantasies. 

Here are the kids’ favorite topics to follow when creating a story prompt:

• Detectives and explorers. Kids enjoy puzzles and discoveries, while the stories build on curiosity. 
• Animals, dragons, and dinosaurs. Sometimes children are obsessed with animals AND dragons, so keep them in mind for your story prompts.
• Fantasy and fiction. Magic, powers, and imaginary worlds inspire younger writers, allowing them to think beyond ordinary life.
• Inventions. Building, testing, imagining how things work. Stories about these activities are loved.
• Time travel. Kids love different eras and alternate futures, and see how one choice can change things.

Conclusion: Story writing prompts for kids do matter

So, a story prompt is a great tool if you are a parent teaching your kid at home. Kid story ideas make learning fun and spark imagination. Thus, they’re so helpful in reading, storytelling, and writing practice. The reason is that children love absurd situations, fantasy worlds, and mysteries.

Yet, if you’re still in doubt or need somebody else’s professional help? Book free reading lesson to try Brighterly’s personalized approach.