Record your Summer in a Journal!
Summer is finally here! Families are enjoying the warm weather and slower pace of life. But summer can also be an enjoyable time to learn. Summer is prime memory-making season, and writing is a good way to encourage your children to record those memories and practice writing skills at the same time.
Read on to view our list of writing prompts for children of all ages, specially curated for your family.
But first, the GRPS Family and Community Engagement office has a special offer for you: a FREE LEATHER-BOUND JOURNAL for each of your students!
We want to show our appreciation to our loyal Power Parent Magazine readers. To come claim your FREE family journals, contact josephk@grps.org and ask how we can coordinate a time to get your journal. Valid anytime in May, 2022!
Here’s a list of summer-themed writing prompts that are appropriate for children of almost any age (source: Life with LoveBugs):
1. What do you want to do the most this summer?
2. Take a walk outside, then write about what you experienced with your 5 senses.
3. What is the most interesting thing you learned about in school this year?
4. If you could go anywhere on vacation, where would you go? Why?
5. What are your favorite things to do outside during the summer?
6. July is National Ice Cream Month. If you could do anything to celebrate, what would you do?
7. If I were a butterfly, I would…
8. Imagine you are going to build the world’s largest sandcastle. What would it look like? Who would you ask to help you?
9. If you were a tour guide for your city, where would you take visitors? Places, restaurants, parks, museums, etc.
10.Do you miss going to school during the summer? Why or why not?
11.Describe the perfect summer camp. What would you do? Where would it be?
12.You have been granted 3 wishes to make this summer the best ever, what do you wish for? Why?
13.If the power went out during summer, what would you do? How would you
stay cool? What would you do without tv/electronics?
14.Describe what life would be like if you lived on a deserted island.
15.If you were in the Summer Olympics, which sport(s) would you participate in? Why?
16.What would you do if you were trapped in a zoo overnight?
17.Plan the perfect picnic with your family and friends. Where would you go? What will you eat? Do you have activities planned?
18.What super power would make your summer better? Why?
19.You’ve been hired to build a water park. What will it look like? Describe the
rides, shows, food, etc.
20. When school starts again, what will you miss the most about summer?
Have a middle- or high-schooler at home this summer? Here’s a list of prompts that may be a bit more up their alley (source: Small World at Home):
- Attach an image (photo, magazine, etc.) to a notebook page and write about it.
- What things will people in the future say about how we live now? (Examples: They ate that? They believed that?)
- Pick one from each list to make a creature and animal combination. Now write a short story or scene in which this creature appears.
List 1 List 2
Vampire porcupine
Ninja armadillo
Zombie pig
Pirate goat
Mummy lobster
Clown possum
Banshee shark
Wraith moray eel
4. Imagine a future in which we each have a personalized robot servant. What would yours be like? What would it do? What features would it have?
5. What does your name mean? Free write about names: names you like, names you don’t, how a name can affect a person’s life, how you feel about your own name, why your parents chose your name, etc.
6. Create a brand new holiday with its own traditions, rituals, foods, and activities.
7. What road-trip would you take if you suddenly could? Write about it.
8. List six true sentences that begin with the words “I’ll never forget…”
9. Imagine that we lost all electricity, water, and gas for a month without any time to prepare. Write about how your life would change and how you would survive.
10. Make your bucket list for the next 5 years, the next 10 years, and for life.
11. Tell this story: “Well, I thought it was going to be a regular summer doing all our regular things…”
12. List 10 places in the world that you would most like to visit, 10 places you’ve been, and 10 places you would never want to go.
13. Think about hospitality in your family. What’s it like to have guests in your house? Do you prefer to have friends to your house or to go to a friend’s house?
14. Pick a family member of two and write about his or her reputation in your family, or tell a family legend.
15. A guitar pick, a red balloon, and a wicker basket. Write a scene or a poem that includes these three objects.
16. What animal would judge us the most? Write a scene (based on truth or fiction) where two or more people are doing something silly, and they’re being observed and criticized by animals.
17. Write about your own worst family vacation memory.
18. Write about your best family vacation memory.
19. Imagine that someone says to you, “Because that’s how we’ve always done it!” Write this out as a scene. (Think: Who said it, what were the circumstances, how did you respond, etc.)
20. What do you think about when you can’t sleep? Turn it into a piece of writing.
21. What traditions does your family have? List all of them or just pick one and write about it.
22. Think about your strongest emotion right now (irritation, boredom, happiness, contentment, etc.) and find five quotes about this emotion.
23. What do you struggle with the most? Write about it.
24. Write a self-portrait.
- What can we learn from contrast? Write a description of something very dark (like a crow) in a very light place (like a field of snow). Make the dark thing seem innocent and the light thing seem ominous.
- Write about someone who has no enemies. Is it even possible?
- Think of a person from your past who really deserved a good scolding but never got one. Write a fictional piece where you tell that person off intelligently.
- Can honesty honestly be bad? Write about someone, fact or fiction, who gets in trouble for being too truthful.
- The word “fat” carries a negative connotation. Write a story or observation where something fat is celebrated.
- What animal lives beneath your human skin? A mouse? A cougar? Or what? Explain with writing.
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- Write about the best piece of advice you ever received.
- Write about the best piece of advice you ever received.
- Remember a favorite book from your childhood. Write a scene that includes you and an old copy of that book you find somewhere.
- “I was so mortified, I wanted to crawl in a hole!” Write a short narrative (fiction or nonfiction) where this is your first sentence. Illustrate it if you want.34. Should books ever be banned? Discuss. If no, explain why. You might want to look at a least of commonly banned books. If yes, explain under what circumstances.
- Ernest Hemingway said to “write hard and clear about what hurts.” Write about something that hurts, whether it’s an emotional, physical, or phantom pain.36. What if everyone had to wear a shirt with his or her Myers-Briggs personality type on it? What would this change? How would this affect the way people interact with each other? Would you like this or hate it? (If you don’t know your “type,” try this site.)
- William Shakespeare wrote that: “Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood.” Write your thoughts about conversation, or make up dialogue between two characters who are meeting each other for the first time in an unexpected place.38. Tell this story: “There it was, finally. Our island. Our very own island. It looked beautiful above the waves of fog, but there was still one question to be answered: why had they sold it to us for only five dollars?”
39. Maya Angelou said “I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way s/he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.” Tell a story in which a character has to deal with one, two, or all three of these scenarios. How does your character respond?
- You have a chance to go back and completely re-do an event in your life. What is it, and how to you change it? What is the outcome? This can be a real or fictional event.
- Pick two characters from different books you’ve read this year and have them get in an argument about something (e.g., who has suffered more, who has had a happier life, etc.).42. The one shoe in the road: why is it there? Write a story about the circumstances that led to one shoe in the middle of the road.43. You get to guest star on a TV show. What show is it? What happens in this particular episode?
- What would you pack in your suitcase if you could not go home again?
- You can only use 20 words for the rest of your life. You can repeat them as often as you wish, but you can only use these words. What are they?
- What current fashion in clothing do you particularly like or dislike? Why?
- Choose five symbols or objects that represent you. Why did you choose these things?
- “When I stepped outside, the whole world smelled like…” Write a scene that starts with that line.
- Write a poem entitled “Hitchhiking on a Saturday Afternoon.”
- Use these two lines of dialogue in a story: “What’s in your hand?” “It’s mine. I found it.”
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- Write a scene that happens in a parking lot between a teenager and a man in a convertible.
- If you only had one window to look out of for the next six months, what would you want to see on the other side? Describe the view. How would it change?
- Write a story for children. Start with “Once upon a time” or “Long ago in a land far away.” Include a dragon, a deadly flower, and a mask.
- “Did she actually just say that?” Write a scene that includes this line.
- “Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.” — Jane Howard. Write what comes to mind when you read this quote.
- List five things you want in a relationship.
- List ten favorite lines from movies.
- Write about the biggest mistake you made this week. Now write about the best thing you did this week.
- What is the very first memory that you have? Write about it.
- What if your pet could only talk to you at midnight for an hour?