They say a picture is worth a thousand words. What better way to encourage kids to use words than with picture prompts. Just give them a photograph and invite them to write about the image. Picture prompts inspire creativity.
Picture prompts can spark more writing ideas from your kids than a verbal prompt, like “write about your weekend.” If kids see a photograph of their day at the lake with their friends, they’ll probably remember details of their experience and have lots to say about it.
How to Use Picture Prompts
Choose
Provide a basket of images and let your children choose ones that interest them.
Glue
Have kids glue the picture at the top of their writing paper or in their writing journal.
Look & Think
Tell your kids to examine the picture carefully, paying attention to little details. What is the main focus? What’s in the background? Encourage them to use their senses to think about what it feels like, sounds like, etc.
Write
Have your children start writing down words that come to mind as they look at the picture. They can start with a list of words or phrases that eventually lead into a creative story or poem.
Share
If all of your children are participating, they’ll be curious to find out what writing ideas their siblings came up with based on their pictures. (To emphasize how we all have unique writing ideas, have everyone use the same image.) Allow some time at the end to share and compliment each other.
Repeat
Picture prompts can be used on a daily basis to kick-start writing time with your kids. In just 5-10 minutes you can build energy and spark creativity for writing.
If that’s too much, try devoting one writing time per week to picture prompts and see how your kids respond. Or, just use picture prompts when you feel you need to change up your writing time to give it new energy.
Where to Find Picture Prompts
Hard Copy Pictures
- Magazines
- Newspapers
- Art postcards
- Greeting cards
Digital Pictures
- Personal images from your cell phone
- Free online stock images
- New York Times Picture Prompts
- Visual Writing Prompts with Ideas, Questions and Suggestions
- Denise Cassano’s Illustrated Picture Prompts
Ways to Write Using Picture Prompts
Picture prompts can be useful for all genres of writing and writing exercises. If you use personal photos from your phone, those will lend themselves to narrative or journal writing. A piece of art might spark an idea for a poem.
Although it’s best to give kids freedom to decide what type of writing they want to craft, you may still need to do some verbal prompting to help them get started. Here are some ways your child write using picture prompts:
- Tell what happened before the picture was taken.
- Describe the image or scene using your five senses.
- How does the picture make you feel? Explain why.
- Brainstorm possible titles for the picture.
- Imagine you are in the picture. Tell what you are doing.
- What would you change about the picture?
- Come up with a problem based on the picture and write about it.
- Write about everything you know about the main subject in the picture.
- Write a story from the point of view of something in the picture.
- What will happen next?
- Write a news report about the picture.
- Write a poem about the picture.
- Write about an experience in your life that the picture reminds you of.
- Answer Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How about the picture.
Conclusion
If you want an easy writing activity to inspire new ideas for your kids, then gather up some pictures and use them as writing prompts. When you hear complaints of not knowing what to write or that writing time is boring, it’s time to pull out your basket of picture prompts to inspire fun and inspiration.
