The Magic of Story Starters: Getting Your Kids to Write!

We are all familiar with the groan, "What Will I Write About?" or the blank face that seems devoid of ideas. Children have creative and cute stories inside them. Often the way to get that pen or pencil moving is to provide them with a "Story Starter."

A Story Starter is an opening sentence that the child will have to finish. The wilder and sillier your creative pitch, the more likely he or she will laugh and start getting some fun ideas of their own. You can write the first sentence on paper and present it to your young writer, encouraging them to draw a picture to illustrate their story with. I have seen this work in mainstream classrooms as well as RSP programs.{ I usually put the sentence on the board, but homeschoolers and parents can make the process cosier and less daunting a task.}

Some examples of Story Starters are as follows:

1. Once Upon A Time, there was a lonely princess whose bestfriend was a bear..

2. I woke up on another planet and saw a creepy alien floating to my space capsule..

3. The Night I threw the pizza on the roof, Mom got really mad..

4. I dreamed I was caught in a spider's web, and when I awoke I saw..(I got some really wild stuff with this one).

5. I tried to help my little sister, but I accidentally turned her hair blue with the food coloring..

6. Mom told me to clean up my room, but a monster stopped me and said..

7. The roller coaster flew off the track and we went flying through the air into space..

8. A new dog moved into our neighborhood and started digging down to China.

9. I went to school and everything was upsidedown!

10. The new student looked liked an alien from Space. Oneday (he or she) said...

Often getting a child to laugh, relax and enjoy writing is the key to co-operation. You can illustrate story starters with pictures taken from magazines and pasted on top of the paper, with the sentence below. If you have a creative bent and like to draw, you can color one yourself. Corrections should be done after the child is finished, as to not interrupt the flow.Read your child's little story outloud and make writing time something they look forward to!