A story prompt a day, printed with the lines already on the page

The blank page is the enemy. Hand a seven-year-old a sheet that already says "Pretend a small animal followed you home from the park. What animal is it? What will you name it? Where will it sleep?" and the questions do the starting for her. All she has to do is answer them in order, and that turns out to be a story.

What the sheet looks like

The story writing prompts generator picks a prompt from one of three pools: Easy for kindergarten and first grade, Standard for second and third, Challenge for fourth to sixth. Each prompt has a short kicker title, "Magic Backpack" or "Tiny Me," and two or three guiding questions. Layout is one prompt per page with a big writing space and an optional drawing box, or four prompt cards on one sheet. Writing lines are primary with a dashed midline or standard ruled.

Why it works

• The prompts end in questions, not instructions. "What looks scary now that used to be safe?" hands a child a plot in one sentence.
• The drawing box goes above the lines. For a five- or six-year-old, drawing the scene first is the outline; the writing describes what is already on the page.
• Four cards on one sheet means the child chooses. A prompt they picked gets written; a prompt they were given gets argued about.

Who it suits

Five- and six-year-olds need Easy, the drawing box and primary lines, and often a scribe. Ten- to twelve-year-olds take Challenge on standard ruled lines, or four cards to pick from. These are story starters only; there are no persuasive or report prompts here. For a child not yet writing full paragraphs, the sentence completion sheet is the step before.

Date every page. By June the stack is the best record of the year's writing you will have.