Writing Prompts for Kids: An indoor activity for kids

To help kids keep up their penmanship and work on their storytelling skills, we’ve put together a few amusement park-inspired writing prompts for them to try at home. Once a day, have them sit down in a quiet place and write about one of the scenarios here!

For children in elementary school, remind them to use these narrative structures:

• Opening sentence
• Story progression with “First…/ Then…/ Next…/ Finally…”
• Closing sentence

Don’t forget the fun details!

For older kids who could turn these into fictional narratives, have them consider their key story elements: 

• What’s the setting? (Time, season, place?)
• Who are the characters? (How many and what are their characteristics?)
• What’s the problem? (How will the characters solve the problem and will they change?)

WRITING PROMPTS

1. You’ve been asked to design a ride for California’s Great America. What kind of ride will you create? What will it look like and how will it work? What will it be made of? What will it be called?
2. You’ve just won a major prize: You get to have California’s Great America all to yourself for a day. Who will you bring? What will you do? Describe your adventure. 
3. You come to the park one day and pick up a park map at the entrance. Only you discover it’s a very special map – a treasure map, and the treasure is here at California’s Great America! X marks the spot. Where is it and what do you do? Is someone else looking for this treasure too?
4. What’s your best memory of California’s Great America? What happened, when was it and who was there? Why is it your best memory? 
5. You’ve found a time machine that can travel back or forth in time! You can choose to travel back to 2000 or forward to 2040. What would you choose, and what would California’s Great America be like?
6. A sorcerer has come to California’s Great America and turned your favorite ride into a live creature. It can only communicate with you. What do you do? What is the creature like?
7. Write a story combining these elements: RailBlazer, funnel cakes and Snoopy.
8. What’s your favorite ride at California’s Great America and why? What does it feel like to ride it? Were you ever scared to ride it? How did you overcome your fear?
9. You just won a prize at one of the games at California’s Great America. It’s a funny-looking magic lamp! When you rub it, a genie appears and says he’ll grant you three wishes! What do you wish for?
10. You've been asked to be a guest author for the California’s Great America blog. Write a blog entry with your insider tips on how to have the BEST DAY EVER at the park.