creative writing stimulus ks2

• Image Prompts

85+ Picture Writing Prompts For Kids (+ Free Printable)

A picture is worth a thousand words. So how many words can you write for these 85 picture writing prompts for kids and grow-ups alike! Pictures, whether something as simple as an apple or as complex as an action scene can spark the imagination in more ways than one.

Of course, when looking at pictures you can take the literal route, and describe whatever you see in front of you. Or you can explore your imagination, and think about the ‘What Ifs..’ of a picture. What if that person is actually upset? What if this picture is of a broken family? What if the world looked like this years ago? A picture can have so many hidden meanings and can hide so many secrets. The slightest detail could mean everything. Just imagine you’re a detective solving a crime from one picture alone. Examine every detail, write it down and think why? Only then can you fully understand a picture.

For more inspiration take part in our daily picture writing prompt challenge . Each day you will be given a new picture prompt to write about.

Picture Prompt Generator

In this post, we have included a mix of simple pictures, story picture prompts, photographs, fantasy images and even some action-packed images.

You can find the complete list of our picture writing prompts below. We’ve also created a smaller PDF version that includes 30 random picture prompts. Download the printable PDF here .

You might also be interested in the following posts:

• 30 Christmas Pictures To Get You Writing ‘Tis Jolly Season
• 25+ Halloween Image Prompts For Mastering Horror Stories
• How to Use Image prompts To Inspire You

150 Picture Prompts To Inspire

Over 85 picture prompts for creative writing, story-telling and descriptive writing assignments:

How to Use these Prompts

Picture prompts are the perfect writing stimulus especially when you hit writer’s block . Here are a number of ways you can use these picture writing prompts to spark your imagination:

• Descriptive Writing: Directly describe everything you see in extreme detail. You could even go beyond the physical appearance of things, and explore your other senses, such as smell, hear, feel and taste.
• Story-Telling: Pick just one image, and tell a whole story based on this one image.
• Story Starter: Similarly you can pick one image, and use it as the starting place of your story.
• Collaborative Story-Telling: In a group of 5 – 7 students, each student can have a random picture. The first student uses their picture as the story starter, and then the next student continues the story based on their own image. Keep going until the final student ends the story.
• Idea Generation: Pick one image and try to think of at least 3 story ideas related to that one image. 
• Daily Writing Challenge: Give your students 7 images, and tell them to write a description for each image every day. 

These are just some ways to use images as writing prompts. You can also check our post on 8 fun story-telling games using image prompts for more ideas.  Did you find our picture writing prompts useful? Let us know in the comments below!

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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The Character Collection

These are my favourite character images (it was a tough choice!) – use them to work on character description (including grammar objectives such as expanded noun phrases and relative clauses) or for character ideas for writing.

Try this activity – 20 questions to get to know a character – to fully explore and understand a character before writing.

THE JAR WIZARD

Credit: Sean Andrew Murray

Show the image without the title first.

• Who do you think this is?
• Why is he carrying all of those jars? What’s inside them? Why are they attached to his clothing? Couldn’t he just carry them in a bag?
• Why is he wearing this clothing?
• Is he going to open the blue jar? Why?
• Why is his other fist clenched?
• What does his body language tell you about his thoughts and feelings?
• Choose 3 words to describe this character. Justify your choices and explain why your words are better than anyone else’s! [You could vote on the best words and debate why they are the best; repeat for the ‘worst’/least appropriate.]

Share the title.

• Did you think that this man was a wizard? Why/why not?
• Is he what you imagine a wizard should look like? Compare him with other wizards from literature.
• Since he is a wizard, does that mean the contents of the jars are magical?
• Does he need a magic wand?
• Help! The Jar Wizard’s jars are all missing their labels! Please write labels naming the contents, detailing what it is and what it can be used for. Be sure to include any necessary safety warnings too!
• Read this description of The Jar Wizard, written by Sean Andrew Murray himself:

He held many secrets in those enchanted jars of his: mysterious crystals, odd nick-knacks from unknown cultures, ancient coins from civilizations long dead, and the preserved remains of creatures believed to be long extinct. But there was one jar, smaller and rounder than the rest, that contained a dark liquid that he seemed most proud of. “This,” he said with an unsettling gleam in his eye, “is the blood of one of the Original Fish, the creators of all magic. I pray I never have cause to use it….”

• Have you learnt anything else about The Jar Wizard?
• What happens if he uses the blood of one of the Original Fish?
• What does ‘I pray I never have cause to use it…’ mean? What does it tell you about the substance?

Credit: Anthony Browne From Gorilla, 1983

• What do you notice about this room? What is familiar to you? What is unexpected or unfamiliar?
• What has happened to the wallpaper?
• What is the girl doing?
• What is she watching? Is she enjoying it?
• Why isn’t there any other furniture in the room?
• Why is there only a small patch of light?
• Does she live here? Who with?
• Is she happy?

THE ROBOT MAKER

Credit: Goro Fujita

• What does this robot do?
• Is the man building it or repairing it?
• How does he feel about it? Is this one special?
• Do you think he’s been a robot maker for a long time?
• Is he good at his job?
• What kind of person do you think he is? What are his likes/dislikes? Do you think he prefers to be around people, or be alone? Get in role as this man and answer these questions: 20 questions to get to know a character . Try to explain each choice you make.

THE LADY’S TREASURE

Credit: Daniela Volpari

• Who is this woman?
• What do you know about her? What can you infer?
• How old is she? Where is she from? What has her life been like?
• Why is she looking back (without turning around)?
• Would you trust her?
• Where did the treasure chest come from?
• Does it belong to her?
• What is she going to do with the treasure?
• How will she stop someone else stealing it?

Credit: Matt Dixon

• Meet Cliff. What would you say to him? What might he say to you?
• What is Cliff like (his personality, his voice, his behaviour)?
• What does Cliff enjoy doing? Does he like to travel? Does he have any friends?
• Has Cliff changed over time?/How was Cliff created?  [link to Science/rocks]
• What events has Cliff seen?  [link to History]
• Why is Cliff a good name for this character?
• Can you create and illustrate any other characters following this theme? (e.g. a girl named ‘River’, a lady named ‘Willow’…)

Credit: Matt Rockefeller

• What is the woman doing?
• Where is she?
• Why is she lying on the floor? How is she feeling? Why?
• What happened to her clothes? What happened to the building?
• Why is the TV off air?
• Are the leaves and acorns important? Is the house in the distance important?
• What does ‘adrift’ mean? Why is that the title of this picture?
• Explain what happened here as a TV news report, or write a first person account (choose whose perspective).

THE MONSTER’S RING

© Tony DiTerlizzi (Cover to ‘The Monster’s Ring’ by Bruce Coville, 2002)

• What is ‘The Monster’s Ring’?
• Is the boy wearing it?
• What is special about it?
• What has happened to the boy?
• Which change happened first?
• Will he always be this way?
• How is he feeling?
• What might he be thinking?

THAT JAR LIFE

Credit: Little Oil/  Jhao-Yu Shih

• Why is the girl inside the jar?
• How did she get there?
• Can she get out? Does she want to?
• Does she have everything she needs inside the jar?
• Why is the cat looking at her? Are they communicating? Are they friends?
• Write in first person. Choose whether you want to write from the girl’s perspective, or the cat’s.
• Imagine a world where animals keep humans as pets. Would anything be similar to our world as it is? What would be different?

MORITURI NOLUMUS MORI

Credit: Paul Kidby

• Who are these men?
• What do they do? How do you know?
• What do you think they are going to do?
• How are they feeling?
• The words behind them (written in Latin) say ‘morituri nolumus mori’, which means ‘We who are about to die don’t want to’. What is their story? Why are they about to die? What mission are they being sent on? Who is sending them? Can they refuse?

Credit: Tyler Carter

• Why is she holding the book like that? What does her body language suggest?
• Why isn’t she wearing shoes?
• Why is the book glowing? Is it a normal book? What power does it have?
• How do the colours in this picture make you feel? Is there a safe place in this scene? An unsafe/dangerous place?
• Is she attacking or defending herself?
• Who else is in this scene (unseen by us)?
• Tell the before and after of this picture.

WOLF VON BIG BADEN

Credit: Tony DiTerlizzi (From ‘Once Upon A Fairy Tale’, 2000)

• Who is this?
• What kind of character is it? What is his/her personality like?
• What do you think of the slippers?
• What is the wolf thinking as it looks in the mirror?
• Is this the wolf’s ‘home sweet home’?
• Whose are the teeth on the bedside table? What is the bottle on the floor?
• What do you think of the title for the image – ‘Wolf Von Big Baden’ – ? What does that mean?

Credit: Jungho Le

• Who is the old lady?
• What is she doing?
• What is the shadow? Why isn’t it the same silhouette as her?
• How does she feel as she’s looking at this shadow? What might she be remembering?
• Why is it in a book?
• Why did Jungho Le call this picture ‘Fall’?
• What world events has she lived through?
• What changes has she seen?
• What was her childhood like?
• Is she alone now? Has she always been alone? Was she ever married? Did she have children?
• What are her favourite memories?
• What’s her personality like? How will you show this through the writing?
• How might you structure your story?

GNOME COMFORTS

• Tell me about this character.
• Where do you think he lives? Why?
• What kind of personality do you think he has?
• Why does he have a dragon?
• Is the dragon his pet? How do you know?
• What do you think this character values?
• If you met him, what would you say? What do you think he would say?

THE INVISIBLE GIRL

Credit: Pascal Campion

• Is the girl really invisible?
• Why isn’t anyone looking at her or speaking to her?
• What might she be saying?
• Where do you think this is?
• Why is she alone?
• Where does she live? Draw what you think her house/bedroom looks like. Explain your choices.
• What is going to happen to her? Predict her future.
• For older children, this image could be compared to the Disney short film, ‘The Little Matchgirl’.

LORD DOWNEY

Credit: Paul Kidby

• What do you know about this man? What evidence do you have?
• What is he holding in the bag? Why is it glowing?
• Why is he wearing gloves?
• Where is he?
• What is his job?
• Does he remind you of anyone?
• Would you like to meet him? Why?

SOMETHING FAMILIAR

Credit: Peter de Sève

• Why is the black cat the only cat looking at the witch?
• Why did the witch come here? Was she just passing or did she come to the shop for a reason?
• What is the ‘something familiar’? Why?
• Do the witch and the cat already know each other?
• What do you think is going to happen? Tell this story.

CAPTAIN HOOK

Credit: Jirka Väätäinen

• Who is this? How do you know?
• What does his appearance show you about his personality?
• What do you think he is looking at? Why is he smiling? Do you think he’s happy?
• What would you say to him?

Credit: Kate Parker

• Where is this?
• Why is the girl there? How did she get there?
• Does anyone know that she’s there?
• What is she doing? What is she looking at?
• What time of day is it?
• How is she feeling? Why is she feeling this way?
• Tell the ‘before and after’ of this picture – will you write in 3rd person, from the girl’s perspective, or from the point of view of another character?
• Science prompt: (The girl is wondering) ‘What makes leaves green?’

THIMBLETACK

Credit: Tony DiTerlizzi (‘Common House Brownie’ from ‘Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You’)

• Literal questions (retrieval) – What is this Brownie’s name? Where does he live? What did he use to make his pants?
• Would you like to meet Thimbletack? Why?
• Do you think there are other Brownies like him? Do they live in groups?
• What do you think he eats? What makes you think this?
• Why isn’t he wearing any shoes?
• How do you think he walks? Show me.
• Describe Thimbletack in three words.
• Teach – noun phrases, similes, active vs. passive voice

70 Picture Prompts for Creative Writing (with Free Slides)

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Visual writing prompts help young writers generate new ideas and overcome writer’s block. We’ve put together 70 picture prompts for creative writing that you can use for morning work or in your writing centers or lesson plans to get your students’ creative juices flowing.

The Benefits of Using Visual Writing Prompts

Writers of all ages and experience levels can get stuck thinking about what to write. Writer’s block is not just a challenge for reluctant writers. Even professional writers have days when they feel less than inspired.

Visual prompts can result in a vast array of story ideas. A single image viewed by ten writers will result in ten completely different short stories. Even if you use verbal cues to get students thinking about the picture, each student will still write a unique response to the image.

Visual creative writing prompts are fantastic for elementary school because younger students often relate more to a pictorial prompt than a written one, but don’t shy away from using these with high school and middle school students as well. Pictures make a fun alternative to your typical writing prompts and story starters and can help shake up your regular English language arts routine.

How to Use Picture Prompts for Creative Writing

There’s no limit to the ways you can use writing prompts. Here are some of our favorite ways to incorporate image prompts into your weekly lesson plans .

• Writing Center. Print cards or writing pages with these images on them and put them in a writing center for your students to discover at their own pace.
• Specific Skills. Use story picture prompts to help kids work on specific writing skills. For example, you could work on descriptive writing by having them describe the setting of the picture in detail, character development by having them make up a history for a person (or animal) in the picture, or narrative writing by having them make up a story based on the picture.
• Warm-up Activity: Download the slides that accompany this post and project an image on a screen or whiteboard for the first fifteen minutes of class and have students work on a short story as soon as they enter. This helps jumpstart the creative process before you move into your regular writing program.
• Independent Work: If you need a fun activity for kids to do when they’ve completed their assignment and are waiting for other students’ to finish, keep a supply of these images on hand and challenge them to write flash fiction of 250 words or less while they wait.
• Sub binders: Want to have some easy, no-prep projects on hand for those days when you’re unexpectedly away? Elementary picture writing prompts are perfect for substitute teachers to do with your students in your absence.
• Distance learning: If you are working with students whom you don’t see face-to-face, picture writing prompts are a great way to inspire them. You can use them in a virtual lesson to kickstart a discussion on brainstorming story ideas or post a few of these images to your learning management system and let students select the one they want to write about.

No matter how you decide to use them—whether at home or in the classroom—photographic writing prompts are a great way to cultivate a daily writing habit and encourage kids to explore new topics.

Picture Writing Prompts for Kids

We’ve selected 70 of the most interesting pictures we could find for this exercise. When choosing photos for writing prompts, we look for high-quality photos with intriguing subject matter, but we try to go beyond that. We want to share images that suggest a story, that make the viewer ask questions and wonder why things are the way they are.

We want to feel propelled to explore questions like, What happened before the photo that led to this moment? What are we witnessing in this photo? What’s about to happen?

A photo doesn’t make much of a story starter if it doesn’t suggest that there might be a bigger picture lurking beneath the surface.

We hope you and your students love these picture prompts for creative writing as much as we do. If you love them, go ahead and fill out the form below to grab your own copy.

Sign Up for Your FREE Picture Writing Prompt Slides

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We’ve included a couple of questions with each picture that you could use to spark pre-writing conversations in your classroom, which can be helpful when working with younger students who might need a little more direction.

Bear in mind though that some kids really struggle with these types of questions that ask them to make inferences about details that they can’t possibly know the ‘answer’ to. When you ask them things like, “What was the author probably trying to do?” they have no idea and won’t dare to hazard a guess. If you are working with kids who feel paralyzed by these questions, now is not the time to push them. Ignore the questions completely and have them simply focus on the picture.

It could be a good idea to write a few short stories yourself based on a single picture to show demonstrate how there are no wrong answers in this exercise—only endless possibilities.

70 Picture for Story Writing with Guiding Questions

• Whose cat is this? What is he looking at? Where is he?

2. What is the owl thinking about? Is he alone? What does he hope to eat for dinner?

3. Who are these frogs? What is their relationship with each other? Why are they taking photos?

4. How did the dog get a phone? Why is he taking selfies? What is he doing with the pictures he takes?

5. This cat doesn’t look too happy. What’s bugging him? Did he get too many phone calls or is he waiting on an important call that’s taking too long to come?

6. What do these chicks think of the dog? What does the dog think of the chicks? Do you think they can communicate with each other? If so, what would they say?

7. Where do these lemurs live? What are they looking at? What is something unusual that might happen to them?

8. What is this fox doing? Is he yawning and stretching or is he trying to scare someone away? What kind of mischief does he like to get up to?

9. Is this wolf alone? If not, who is with him? What is he planning to do? Does he have a family to feed or protect?

10. What is this child doing on the laptop? Can he actually read and type or is he just playing? If he can read and type, how did he learn that at such a young age? What other cool things can he do?

11. Where is this woman? Is she lost? How did she get to this street? What interesting things might she discover as she explores this new city?

12. Why is the dog wearing glasses? Can he see through them? What are he and the girl doing? How does he feel about it?

13. Who are these two little boys? What is their relationship with each other? What is the teddy bear’s story?

14. Who are these children? Why are they running? Is it a race or are they playing a game? Who’s going to win?

15. Whose horse is this? Does the little boy own it or does he just visit it? Can the horse talk? How does the boy feel when he’s with the horse?

16. What is this boy reading? Does the book have a magical power? Does the boy? Do the stories in the book become real or does something else special happen?

17. Where is this man? How did he get there? What is he looking for?

18. Who is walking over the bridge? What’s on the other side? Is it worth the risk?

19. What are these people doing on the elephant? Where are they? Are they tourists or is the elephant their pet? What would life with an elephant be like?

20. Who made this map? It looks old. Has it been hidden away for a long time? Who discovered it and how? What does it lead to?

21. Whose typewriter is this? What important or secretive thing might they be working on? What could happen if the wrong person finds their work?

22. Who are these three stuffed animals? Are they living? What is their story?

23. Whose ukulele is this? Why did they leave it here? Who might find it?

24. Where is the owner of the bike? Where does this path lead? What if the bike’s not there when the owner returns?

25. Whose shoes are these? Why did they leave them here? Why are they so dirty?

26. Who was reading the newspaper? What was the most interesting thing they read? Where have they disappeared to?

27. Who put this sign on the old truck? What do you think of it? How did the truck end up in its current condition and location?

28. Who set the table? Who are they expecting? What special occasion are they celebrating? What could go wrong?

29. Whose birthday cake is this? Are they having a party? Who is there? Who did they want to have there that didn’t show up?

30. Who lives here? How do they access their home? What is their life like?

31. Who built the igloo? Where is it? How does it feel to spend the night inside it?

32. What is the history of this castle? Who lives in it now? Does it have any special or magical features?

33. Is this barn abandoned or do people live on the property? What kind of animals might live here? How do they keep themselves entertained?

34. What is it like living on a houseboat? What kind of community do you think forms among the neighbors? Imagine you live on one of these boats and think about how your daily life might change. What interesting things could you do if you lived here? What would you miss the most?

35. Where is this hut? Who lives here? What mystery might unfold if a stranger came knocking at their door?

36. What is this lighthouse called? Who runs it? How often do they leave? What is the most memorable experience they’ve had as a lighthouse operator?

37. How did this house get here? Does anyone live in it? What would life be like here?

38. Where is this festive street? Are the people there celebrating something? Where is everybody?

39. Who lives here? How did they build this house? Are they hiding from something? What does it look like inside?

40. Whose notebook is this? Why did they leave it here? What’s written in it and how might it change the life of the person who finds it?

41. What are these women doing? What are they supposed to be doing? Will they be in trouble if they get caught?

42. Who might be represented in this statue? Why is she being pulled by lions? What amazing things might she have done to deserve a statue in this prominent place?

43. Where is this? Who is riding in the hot air balloons? Where are they going and why?

44. How old is this large tree? Where is it? What are some of the most fascinating stories it could tell?

45. Where is this carousel? Who is riding it? Can you think of a special or strange story about how it came to exist in this particular place?

46. What are these people thinking about? What’s at stake for them? What happens if one of them sneezes?

47. Where are these penguins? What are they talking about? Which one of them is the leader?

48. What is this place? Was it designed to be open like this or was it once part of someone’s home or a public building? How have people’s opinions of this place changed over time?

49. Who are these kids? Is this what they’re supposed to be doing? What happens when their teacher sees them?

50. Who is supposed to ride in this boat? Where are they going? Will they make it there?

51. Is this plane special to someone? What did they have to do to get it/build it? Where will they fly to in it?

52. Who decorated this train car? Which passengers will fill it up? What will they talk about?

53. Whose skis are these? Why are they sticking out of the snow? How did their owner get down the mountain without them?

54. Where does this gondola go? Who rides it? How does it feel to ride it?

55. Who’s driving the monster truck? Why is it at the beach? What is it going to crush? Who is watching?

56. Where is the boat going? Who is on it? What is their mission?

57. What city is the helicopter flying over? Why? Is the driver looking for something specific or do they have a special delivery?

58. What’s the little boy doing in the boat? Is he alone or is someone with him? Where is he trying to go?

59. Who is in the sub? What’s it like inside? What are they doing?

60. Whose book is this? What’s it about? What’s happening to it?

61. How did that piece of land with the house on it break off from the rest of the world? Why? Where is it going? Is anyone in the house?

62. Who is this girl? Where is she? Who is she shooting at?

63. Where does this scene take place? Is the lizard/dragon good or bad? What is its relationship with the girl?

64. What do these books represent? What kind of world is this? What (or who) is inside the books?

65. What are these dinosaurs discussing? Where are they? What do they do for fun?

66. Whose cottage is this? Do they still live there? If not, where have they gone? If so, what do they do there?

67. What is the moth thinking about? Is it alone? What’s the biggest challenge it faces in this moment?

68. Who is the owl looking at? Has it read these books? What is its greatest talent?

69. Where are these trees? Why are they pink? Do they have any special powers or features?

70. What are these best friends thinking about? Do they have something to hide? What adventures do they go on together?

What do you think? Which kind of pictures do you like best for creative writing prompts ? Let us know in the comments.

Thursday 18th of July 2024

This was fun

Thursday 9th of May 2024

I love this website because I was using it with my kindergartners and it work so so so well!!!!

Monday 20th of May 2024

That's wonderful. Thanks for sharing!

Tuesday 5th of March 2024

I LOVE these! My daughter has always struggled with written story prompts and an internet search this week convinced me of the value of picture prompts for reluctant readers/writers (https://youcanjournal.com/journal-picture-prompts/ if you're interested!). I'll definitely be using these to help improve her writing skills. Thanks so much!

Tuesday 26th of December 2023

I think the idea of using picture prompts is a great idea. It initiates oral language thus building vocabulary. It allows lends itself to students working in small groups to stimulate new ideas. The prompts engage the students and gives the teacher the opportunity to focus on specific writing skills.

luke elford

Wednesday 13th of December 2023

Privacy Overview

Literacy with Miss P

Inspiring writing: props & stimulus.

Sometimes, the best writing starts with just a little inspiration.

“Books, in and of themselves, are magical doorways. Opening a book is as simple as opening a door in the real world, but often much more rewarding! Doorways within books are something special. A character who passes through a magical doorway into a world of adventure mirrors the adventure of the reader themselves. They charm and intrigue us as readers. They tempt us into imagining that it’s possible to open an ordinary door one day and find ourselves in a real-life adventure.”

(Rose Moore, Blogger )

I was considering using doors and portals as a story writing theme for my class and began thinking about potential stimulus to engage children and generate creative ideas for writing. Whilst I have previously used ‘fairy doors’ on trees with younger years, I wanted something else for UKS2. Something that would spark their imaginations with limitless possibilities…

Objects and Visual Stimulus

I began by looking for visual stimulus online and came across a wide range of excellent visuals, particularly on Pobble 365 (try Doors , The Tree Door , Opening Doors , The Mysterious Door and The Tomb for starters!). I also found an excellent website called The Secret Door , whereby children can click on the door to reveal different settings and unusual places. For children struggling to come up with an idea for a fantasy world, they could use this to stimulate ideas further.

I also dug out a very large set of decorative keys that I picked up at a vintage market a while back and this sparked another idea. I started Googling sets of vintage keys and – low and behold – eBay appeared to be a goldmine for this sort of thing! Five minutes later, I had bagged myself a mixed pack of 40 vintage, rustic keys for under a fiver.

Whatever the purpose, these vintage keys, partnered with a collection of visual stimulus, are guaranteed to help children generate ideas and write their own fantasy fiction. Of course, the prompts could also be used to lead to any genre of writing – for example, creating poetry or a mystery story about finding the key, or a diary entry or letter for instance. This is precisely why I liked the keys as prompts – they present endless possibilities for writing.

Our Purpose and Audience: To write a fictional story for KS2 pupils to read and enjoy.

For the end goal of publishing to a wider audience, I had in mind something along the lines of this display idea from Clare Bradley , except the children could design their own doors linked to their stories. Alternatively, it could be published as a ‘flaps’ book with a different door to open on each page with each child’s story inside (which could be kept in the class book corner or school library for instance). Just a few ideas.

Writing Out Loud

The idea was simply to present the keys to the class and ask, “Where would these keys take you?” then allow some time for them to explore the various keys on their tables. Teachers could even model this talk for writing first, for example:

“This key would take me d eep under the sea, it’s the key to a palace of Mermaids.”

“ This is the key to the door in the cloud where Angels keep the time that is allocated to each human lifetime. “

You could then present the children with the various images of doors and ask: “What would be behind these doors?”

• What would the door in your story look like?
• If you pressed your ear against it, what might you hear? What noise would it make if the door opened?
• Does your door give any clues about what might be behind it?
• Where might your door lead?

Any voiced thoughts, ideas or anecdotes that arise from the objects are definitely the sort of thing that is worth writing down.

Mind Mapping Initial Ideas

“Mindmaps can be used to generate ideas and to help children organise their thinking. When someone has lots of ideas buzzing around their head, it often helps if they get them down on paper in a clear and memorable form. That way, they can start to see patterns and links, which in turn generates more ideas.”

(Pie Corbett, Jumpstart! Literacy, 2006)

Before you ask the children to mind map their initial ideas, perhaps do a whole-class example and model this on the flipchart/whiteboard to show them how it’s done. For example, in this exercise, it could be a simple ‘Story ideas’ mind map. From there, they can draw lines out to the main ideas such as possible settings, characters, dilemmas etc.

Draw it: Visualisation

Information and ideas become much more memorable if they are drawn, allowing the child to visualise their new setting or character. It allows time for children to think as they draw, perhaps participating in casual conversations about what their character will be like and generating ideas about what will happen in their story.

“Playful exploration and frequent ongoing conversations about writing can help involve and engage young writers, enabling them to focus on what they might want to say, to whom and for what purpose.”

(Cremin and Myhill, Writing Voices, 2012)

Here is an example of one way that this could be visualised. Once the inital ideas are drawn on the page, encourage scribbled words or phrases that children have thought about. You could even make a little folded door (like the one pictured) and ask the children to draw their door on the folded flaps, then draw their fantasy world and/or character on the inside.

Reading quality texts

Children also need opportunities to develop the craft of writing through exposure to a range of quality texts. Opportunities to discuss a range of doorway and portal extracts, to discuss their language, features and forms, to identify particularly effective writing techniques and to imitate these can help young writers understand how to construct and develop their own ideas and writing. Here’s a list of ideas of great texts that include portals or doors, which I gathered with help from teachers on Twitter:

• The Nowhere Emporium, Ross MacKenzie
• Grandad’s Island, Benji Davies
• The Song from Somewhere Else, AF Harrold
• The Journey, Aaron Becker (picture book)
• Through the Magic Mirror, Anthony Browne (picture book)
• The Dark Materials trilogy , Philip Pullman
• Mr Benn, David McKee
• The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, CS Lewis
• Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
• The Door, Miroslav Holub (poem)
• The House with Chicken Leg, Sophie Anderson (the doorway into which Baba Yaga guides the souls of the dead)
• The Land of Road, Jenny McLachlan
• Leon and the Place Between, Angela McAllister
• The Narnian library portal in The Lost Magician, Piers Torday
• Stone Age Boy, Satoshi Kitamura (although illustrative)
• The Viewer, Shaun Tan and Gary Crew (picture book)
• Tom’s Midnight Garden, Philippa Pearce
• The statue in Moondial, Helen Cresswell
• A Chase in Time by Sally Nicholas (time travel through a mirror)
• Descriptosaurus Fantasy has a chapter on portals
• Elidor, Alan Garner
• The Door in the Wall,  HG Wells
• The Time Travel Diarie, Caroline Lawrence
• You can also view Rose Moore’s fantastic list of the most magical doorways in literature here .

Using text exemplars, modelling writing and demonstrating different features is really valuable, but don’t be tempted to overuse these teaching strategies. Allowing creativity to flow freely and not being too restrictive is crucial. The idea is to ensure that they are in control of their own writing, using their imagination to make up fantasy worlds and inventing their own characters that live there. We want to give them freedom and the power to take their story wherever they want to.

Finally, once plenty of time has been allowed for idea generation, discussion, reading and visualisation, allow sufficient time for children to draft, revise, edit and publish their stories.

I hope you found this blog post useful.

If you liked this blog, you may also like…   Literacy Shed’s Prop Shed!

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5-Minute Film Festival: 7 Video Writing Prompts for Young Authors

Looking for a new way to spark creativity in your students’ writing? Try these video writing prompts.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is coming up, but the time is always ripe for encouraging students of every age to write. And how better to pique their interest and power up their pencils (or keyboards!) than with a video writing prompt? Just about any short, intriguing video can be made into a great writing prompt with the addition of a choice question or two, but I've put together a list of favorites discovered around the web. Happy writing!

Video Playlist: Video Writing Prompts for the Classroom

Watch the first video below, or watch the whole playlist on YouTube .

Short student films can provide ample fodder for creative work as illustrated by this whimsical thesis animation by Yezi Xue . Plus, it's free of dialogue, so students can write their own!

Arts educator Denise Cassano creates short films filled with ambiguous images meant to encourage critical thinking. Check out this worksheet of questions to accompany her illustrations and this article she wrote for Edutopia about using art to inspire creative writing .

RSA Shorts are animated snapshots of big ideas from speakers that pose big questions. This one, from education luminary Sir Ken Robinson , is a particular favorite of mine. Ask your high school students: What would enable you to find your passion?

Chris Van Allsburg's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick is a classic source for visual writing prompts. Check out this student-produced video that describes why these timeless, eerie illustrations provide such fertile ground for young writers.

Popular advertisements, like this cell phone ad out of Thailand with more than 20 million views, can be great for writing prompts if they get kids thinking. This one has a twist that tugs on the heartstrings.

John Spencer is a professor and author who is passionate about creativity in the classroom, and he also makes sketch videos, including this list of nine animated writing prompts to use with students.

TeachHUB offers a bounty of video writing prompts and accompanying lesson ideas by grade band for recent movie trailers, videos about current events and holidays, and even popular ads. Here are lesson ideas to go with Education Is .

More Resources to Encourage Creative Writing

The list above shows that you can turn almost any short video into a solid writing prompt. Of course, video is only one of hundreds of ways you can motivate and inspire young writers. I've gathered a few resources below if you need fresh ideas for videos and beyond. What are your favorite ways to engage kids in creative writing? Share in the comments section below.

• Resources for Educators via NaNoWriMo
• 30 Ideas for Teaching Writing via National Writing Project
• Twenty-Five Ways to Motivate Young Authors via TeacherVision
• Video Writing Prompts via TeachHUB
• Writing Prompts for Video Viewing via Channel One News
• Video Writing Prompts: Keeping Kids Engaged in Those "Between Units and Right Before Vacation Days" via Two Writing Teachers

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Creative writing task KS2 with picture stimulus

Subject: English

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Worksheet/Activity

Last updated

5 April 2018

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Creative writing task KS2 with picture stimulus included on sheet.

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I like the idea of an empty beach but I asked my students to come up with something a bit more exciting than an alien spaceship. One boy had a submarine surfacing and one of the girls had a parachutist landing on the photographer!

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