25 Free Printable Writing Prompts for April

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March’s writing prompts were such a hit, that I’m going to continue making them. These writing prompts for April are sure to delight your young writer. My daughter had a blast making all her lists, writing in her notebook, and getting creative.

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You get 25 unique writing prompts in this download. These prompts are perfect for early elementary writers who are creative, but still tire easily when writing. My daughter is in second grade and they are perfect for her. She loves the idea of writing, but still gets frustrated with spelling and has pretty low writing stamina. These free printable writing prompts have been great for really getting her motivated to write and complete the entire assignment.

Last month one of the writing prompts was about the Iditarod sled dog race and my daughter loved learning about the race to write her journal prompt. So, this month I have included a few more prompts based on real-life events! I love bringing different subjects into writing. Here are a few things you’ll write about in these printable April writing prompts for elementary students:

• the Pony Express
• the importance of playing outside
• National Wildlife Week
• the American flag
• foreign countries
• taking care of our country
• sibling appreciation(!!!)
• George Washington
• historical/current public figures

What is a Writing Prompt?

Put simply, a writing prompt is a short intro to get children focused on what to write. Have you ever seen the look on a child’s face when you tell them “Just write about whatever you want.” ?!?

They have no idea what to write about!

When you use writing prompts, also called journal prompts, you help children narrow their focus and writing suddenly becomes less overwhelming. Even if you narrow the topic from “whatever they want” to “something about Spring” the topic is still too vague.

What if you said “Write about a rainstorm from the point of view of an ant”?

See how specific that is? They can immediately focus on what they are writing about without having to narrow it down further.

This is where writing prompts come in. These daily writing prompts for April make it easier for you to provide your child with a new, unique writing prompt for each school day! By narrowing their focus and making it more manageable, you are actually fostering their creativity!

Using Writing Prompts to Teach Language Arts

Writing prompts are also a great opportunity to incorporate language arts lessons. Language arts is simply the art of writing and all it encompasses: grammar, mechanics, writing, vocabulary, story structure, etc.

Writing prompts can teach all of these things!

Writing: I mean, well, they’ll be writing! You can work on intros, endings, climax, hooks, and so much more!

Grammar: Let your child write his or her daily prompt and then help them go back through and correct any grammar errors.

Spelling: Same process as grammar – write it and then go back and revise.

Vocabulary: Challenge your child to include so many of certain parts of speech. Or, give them a word bank and challenge them to use as many words as they can from it. Suggest that they use the most recent vocabulary words they have been learning.

Story Structure: Help your child map out their story. Think about the beginning, middle, and end. What is the problem? How is the problem overcome? You can still do all of this with a very short story. My daughter and I did it with one of the writing prompts from last month and her story was about five sentences!

Ideas for Using Using Writing Prompts

There are lots of ways that you can use these free printable journal prompts in your homeschool. I’ll just mention a few. If you have more ideas, please leave them in the comments to share with others!

Daily Journaling. Use the writing prompts as starters for a daily writing journal. Research shows that daily writing, even if just for a few minutes, is a great way to improve writing stamina and creativity. It also improves self-discipline, spelling, and more.

Write 3 times per week. If your little writer is just starting, then maybe just do it a few times each week. A couple years ago my oldest daughter just had no writing stamina. She couldn’t spell very well and writing was just….hard. So, we didn’t write that much. It’s OK if you don’t use all the writing prompts each month!

Write in Order. You can use the prompts in order and just check them off as you go. This is great if your child just loves to write and is always eager to do it.

BINGO. If your child is sometimes reluctant to write, then let them choose which prompt they want to start with. You could challenge him or her to complete a row or column (thus, BINGO).

Or, you can just skip around and choose whichever prompts strike your child’s fancy on a given day. That is totally acceptable. Just because you like a prompt doesn’t mean your child will. I mean, I wrote the prompts and my daughter doesn’t like them all!

Another fun idea is to let your child illustrate their journals. I had a friend who assembled a 3-ring binder for her son. She put a piece of plain printer paper, then lined paper, so he could draw on the blank paper and write his story on the same “spread”. Then, as your son or daughter writes more entries, they are creating a sort of portfolio or booklet that they can show friends and family.

Have Fun with It!

When it comes to writing in elementary school, the most important thing to do is…just write. Your child might only write three or four sentences and that’s OK!

As writing becomes easier for them, they’ll write more. This is one reason I’ve included lists and “write 5 facts” type of prompts so often. Kids at this age tire easily when it comes to writing. If you shorten the assignments to let them experience success they will grow their stamina and become better writers in time. So, for now, just enjoy their responses and encourage them in their creativity!

Looking for more? You can find May’s writing prompts here.

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