Need some journal writing topics you could give to students to help them practice their writing? I’ve got all sorts of fun ideas for you! If you want to get students to write for you you must give them interesting topics or generate prompts for them in a fun way. I’ve got a couple of ways I do this with my students in different grade levels. There’s going to be something that you can use, so keep reading!
I have found that some students write easily, and you barely have to prompt them at all. Other students are really reluctant, scared to, or too lazy to start. So the key is to have them write about topics that are familiar so that they feel like they won’t make mistakes. Or trick them into thinking they’re doing something fun instead of a chore. And there are ways, believe me!
Before you keep reading, do you need a comprehensive guide to choosing fun journal writing topics, year-round? Grab my free Topic Picker Cheat Sheet to help you spark conversation or ome up with writing prompts by clicking here!
Fun journal writing prompts
Here are my go to journal writing activities I use with my students to get them to practice their writing:
- Roll-the-dice writing prompt sheets
- Emoji prompts
- Object prompts
- Picture prompts
- Story dice
- Discussion cards with questions or statements
- Sentence prompts
Let me tell you some more about these each of these journal writing examples
Roll-the-dice writing prompt sheets: These are sheets that contain 6 prompts in a variety of categories, which correspond with each number on dice. For example, category one could be ‘character’, two could be ‘setting’, three is ‘object’ and four is ‘exclamation’. Students must roll dice to get one prompt from each category, and with those prompts, they must write a story. This exercise creates movement, which is proven to help with learning. Plus it’s fun to roll dice!
I have a set of roll-the-dice sheets for different times of year or just random ones up in my store! Click here to check them out!
Emoji prompts: Innovative Teaching Ideas creates emoji prompts that students can use to base their stories on. They use the given emojis, as well as the sentence prompt to create a story with. Click here to check these out on TPT!
Object prompts: Bring a bunch of fun objects to class and have students write a piece of text around that. They could pretend this inanimate object is suddenly alive and have it tell a story about its day and what it’s thinking. Or they could simply describe the object in detail. They could write any text type about it, really, like a news article that features it, or a brochure or ad to sell it. Some movement is created here too, as students pick out their object and get to touch it.
And some more ideas..
Picture prompts: Give students a picture to write a story around. This could be a picture from the internet, but I also have a set of postcards I lay out that students can pick out and bring to their desk and then write about. The added benefit of this is again the movement bit, but also the visual aspect.
Story dice: These are great for giving prompts too! Story dice are dice that contain pictures on each side instead of numbers. And students have to roll the set (of 9) to get their prompts they must use in their story. Another great exercise for movement creation and it’s fun to see them surprised by the outcome. Click here to check out some story dice for sale on Amazon!*
Discussion cards with questions or statements: This one is more simple. I like to give my small groups sets of discussion cards around the same overall topic, and they can pick the card they want to use. They must answer the question in detail or argue for or against the statement that’s on there. Movement here too, as they must sift through and pick their card. I have a bundle of discussion cards sets I use in my store. Check out the bundle or the separate sets by clicking here!
Sentence prompts: Give students a sentence to start of their story or other piece of text with. Very simple, but you must come up with an interesting sentence. Like ‘It was a dark and stormy night, and suddenly I was face to face with…’ 🙂
Daily writing prompt journal
Most of these activities take some time to organize and for students to start writing. However, it might be fun to give students a writing prompt each day as a set thing you do. Sometimes you could go for the easier prompts, like showing them a picture or giving them a sentence prompt, and other times you could go big with the roll-the-dice sheet or the object. Regardless, these are really good ways to prompt students into writing, and it’s so important for them to practice their writing!
So give these ways to get journal writing topics a chance! Let me know what you think!
* This is an affiliate link, but I have bought several sets of these myself, so I love them 🙂
Related articles:
Why flip books are such a cool tool for writing practice
How journal writing works wonder for improving writing skills
