Free Writing Prompts

Are you out of ideas for writing assignments? Or maybe you let your children pick their own topics, and they have writer’s block. Either way, these free writing prompts are a great way to get started. You’ll find prompts for journal writing, creative writing, essays, and more.

Free Writing Prompts

The websites listed below offer free writing prompts for a wide range of ages.

Easy Teacher Worksheets

Easy Teacher Worksheets has printable writing prompts for every grade level. The prompts are grouped by grade range and type. The website offers prompts for descriptive, expository, friendly letter, narrative, persuasive, poetry, literary analysis, sequential, and technical writing.

Englishlinx.com

At Englishlinx.com, you’ll find printable narrative, informative, expository, argumentative, persuasive, research, and warm up writing prompt worksheets for 1st through 8th grade.  The worksheets are grouped by prompt type.

Journal Buddies

Journal Buddies offers an extensive collection of writing prompts for all ages. The prompts are organized by grade level and topic. They have journal prompts, story starters, essay ideas, creative writing prompts, seasonal-themed prompts, and more.

Kids Play and Create

This post at Kids Play and Create shares 75 creative writing prompts for elementary students. The list includes prompts for fun writing, journaling, short stories, and more. There are also links to other posts on their website offering additional writing prompts.

K12 Reader

K12 Reader has creative, informative, and opinion writing prompt worksheets for all grade levels. Each worksheet’s description includes its recommended grade range. They also offer a collection of creative writing worksheets specifically for kindergartners.

Miniature Masterminds

In addition to the typical planner and calendar pages, Miniature Masterminds’ printable student planner includes 180 pages of daily journal writing prompts. The prompts are suitable for a wide range of ages.

Prodigy

Prodigy’s list of 225 writing prompts for all ages includes creative, fun, and persuasive prompts grouped by elementary, middle school, and high school levels. They also have social and emotional journal prompts and math writing prompts that are not grouped by grade level but should work with a wide range of ages.

Spencer Education

Spencer Education has writing prompts for 6th through 8th grades. To download the writing prompts, you will need to enter your email address. The download includes 100 prompts in both PDF and PowerPoint slide formats. There are also an additional 30 video-based writing prompts in the download.

Squarehead Teachers

Squarehead Teachers provides a list of 30 fun writing prompts for elementary-aged kids. The prompts include story starters, descriptive writing, and more.

Story Writing Academy

At Story Writing Academy, you’ll find a list of 100 story writing prompts for middle and high school students. There are prompts for various types of stories and prompts that ask “what if?” If you would prefer the prompts in a printable format, you can enter your email address to receive them as a PDF.

Student Handouts

For lower elementary, Student Handouts offers printable writing prompts for creative writing, social studies, health, science, personal reflection, and holidays, as well as image-based writing prompts. The site also offers image-based prompts for upper elementary through high school.

Superstar Worksheets

Superstar Worksheets provides a large collection of writing prompts for elementary-aged students. The prompts are organized by grade level or type of writing. The website has prompts for creative, opinion, narrative, informative, and comparative writing. There are also journal prompts and seasonal-themed prompts.

The Teacher’s Corner

The Teacher’s Corner has writing prompts for every day of the year related to what happened on that day in history and other topics. The prompts are organized by month and date.  While many free prompts are available, some are only available to premium users. Also, each day’s free prompts are made available to premium users sooner than those using the site for free.

We Are Teachers

We Are Teachers provides a collection of 100 writing prompts for high school students. The collection includes journal, creative, fun, narrative, and essay writing prompts. There are also Google Slides of the writing prompts available for download. To download the slides, you will need to provide your email address.

Write Bonnie Rose

Write Bonnie Rose offers 100 history-based writing prompts for teenagers. To receive the writing prompts, you will need to sign up for their newsletter by entering your name and email address.

Writing Exercises

Writing Exercises randomly generates story titles, plot ideas, characters, news headlines, and more for students to write about. The site can also display random pictures for students to describe.

123 Homeschool 4 Me

At 123 Homeschool 4 Me, you’ll find over 500 writing prompts for kindergarten through 4th grade. The printable writing prompt worksheets are organized by monthly and seasonal themes.

Related Posts

• Free References and Tools for Writers
• Free Composition Curriculum
• Free Complete Language Arts Curriculum

Note: This post was originally published on September 2, 2020 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.