Story Starters Teaching Resources
Explore story starters for kids and printable worksheets created by teachers to spark your elementary and middle school students' imaginations as they learn all about narrative writing.
This collection of curriculum-aligned teaching resources has been carefully reviewed by our expert teaching team to make sure every resource is classroom-ready — so we can make your lesson planning easier!
New to using story starters in the classroom, or just looking for new ways to engage your students? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!
What Are Story Starters?
A story starter is a great tool to help students begin a narrative writing piece! These prompts can help your students unlock their creativity and inspire them to explore more graphic elements in their writing — everything from imagery to figurative language.
For new writers, a blank page can be daunting, and it's easy to get frustrated or develop a serious case of writer's block when you're not sure where to begin. Using a story starter can prevent that frustration from setting in and help your students develop their writing skills.
What Are Good Story Starters for Kids?
The key to a good story starter for students is relatability! Story starters that can inspire kids to put pencil to paper are age-appropriate and relatable to their experiences. After all — the goal is to make writing easier for kids, not present new challenges.
A good story starter for kids can be anything from a question, a statement or even an interesting image such as a photograph. It should be open-ended and allow for multiple interpretations. This encourages your students to think critically and creatively.
You also want to be mindful that the story starter you're presenting should capture kids' attention — simply being relatable isn't enough if it bores them! The more engaging the starter, the more engaged your student and the more engaging they can make the resulting piece of writing.
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Kids' Christmas Craft and Holiday Writing Prompts
Build an eye-catching Christmas bulletin board with holiday writing templates for your elementary students.
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Spring Writing Prompts for Beginning Writers
Celebrate Spring and encourage creativity with Spring writing worksheets for Kindergarten and first grade.
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Write With Your Senses: Daily Descriptive Writing Prompts
Inspire your students to write descriptively using our 20 daily descriptive writing prompts slide deck and graphic organizer.
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Christmas Paper Bag Puppets
Make paper bag puppets for Christmas fun with a printable paper bag puppet template.
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Roll to Create a Thanksgiving Feast - Creative Writing Prompts for Kids
A fun, hands-on Thanksgiving activity using a die and a chart to create a narrative text.
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Disguise a Turkey — Thanksgiving Activity
Save Tom the Turkey with a Disguise a Turkey project template for Thanksgiving time in the classroom.
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Write a Spooky Story - Scaffolded Writing Project
Inspire your struggling writers to write spooky stories that contain all of the story elements with a set of scaffolded writing activities and final draft paper.
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Ocean Writing Center
Build stronger vocabulary and writing skills with an ocean-themed writing center.
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Labor Day Vocabulary Cards and Writing Center
Learn about Labor Day and write sentences using academic vocabulary with a Labor Day word wall and printable writing templates.
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My Dream Story - Writing Prompt Template
Dream up some great stories using this creative story-writing prompt.
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Build a Sandcastle-Writing and Craft Activity
Excite your students for the upcoming summer with a narrative writing and craft activity.
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Spring Writing Prompts Worksheet
Explore creative writing in your classroom with these 3 fun story writing prompts for Spring.
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My Nobel Peace Prize – Upper Grades
Encourage students to think about how they could make the world a better place with our Nobel Peace Prize writing template.
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Mysterious Story Setting Background Posters
A set of 3 mysterious story setting posters for students to use in a variety of ways.
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"If I Was an Astronaut ..." – Writing Template
A writing prompt template for students to write what they would do if they were an astronaut.
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Curious Creatures Character Spinner
A curious creature character spinner to use in a variety of ways.
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'Pick Three' Writing Inspiration Worksheet
A worksheet to use when students need writing inspiration for a narrative piece.
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New Year's Flip Book Template
Celebrate the coming of a new year by creating this flipbook with your students.
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Imagine This! Story Template
A template to use as a fun writing activity.
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Narrative Setting Craft Templates
A set of circular diorama templates that combine to create three scenes.
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My Ideal World – Writing Template
A template for students to use when writing about their ideal world.
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What Happened Next? – Little Red Riding Hood Writing Template
A template for students to finish the story of Little Red Riding Hood in their own, unique way.
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What Happened Next? – Jack and the Beanstalk Writing Template
A template for students to finish the story of Jack and the Beanstalk in their own, unique way.
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What Happened Next? – The Gingerbread Man Writing Template
A template for students to finish the story of The Gingerbread Man in their own, unique way.
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What Happened Next? – The Three Little Pigs Writing Template
A template for students to finish the story of The Three Little Pigs in their own, unique way.
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What Happened Next? – Cinderella Writing Template
A template for students to finish the story of CInderella in their own, unique way.
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What Happened Next? – Alice in Wonderland Writing Template
A template for students to finish the story of Alice in Wonderland in their own, unique way.
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Writing Prompt Jar – Cut and Assemble Kit
A set of labels and prompts to create a writing prompt jar.
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Super Sentence Starter Sack
Choose a sentence starter from the Super Sentence Sack to start your students off and writing.
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Assorted Writing Prompts Grid
A writing grid with 20 writing prompts.
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Narrative Sentence Starter Cards
Thirty sentence starter cards for narratives.
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Pirate Posters - Captain Calloway and Pirate Pearl B&W
A set of two black and white posters with amazing illustrations of fictitious pirate characters.