When your kids become third graders, their writing skills move from the mechanics of writing, towards learning how to express themselves. We have put together a huge list of creative writing prompts 3rd grade kids will love, to help your young writers improve their writing skills in a fun way!

HSG Hub Page: Free Writing Prompts

The best thing about giving your reluctant writers creative writing prompts is that the writing process doesn’t seem as daunting or overwhelming. When they can just write as a creative outlet, instead of worrying about perfect punctuation, they start to gain a deeper understanding of how stories can be created.

We encourage you to bookmark this HSG Hub Resource page in order to quickly grab a writing prompt printable as any additions or updates to our list will be shown here.  And because this resource page intentionally has a lot of content, we’ve added a table of contents to allow you to jump directly to the section you need:

What are Creative Writing Prompts?

Creative writing prompts are imaginative cues or ideas that inspire children to write creatively. These can be simple phrases, or a question designed to spark storytelling. Using writing prompts encourages your child to explore their creativity, develop writing skills, and express themselves through their words.

What are the benefits of writing prompts?

• They allow your child to think creatively.
• It takes the stress out of writing, and make writing fun and enjoyable.
• Helps in practicing writing skills like grammar, vocabulary, and structure.
• Improves handwriting and gives extra handwriting practice.
• Encourages experimentation with a different variety of writing genres.
• Fosters imaginative thinking and story telling abilities.
• Boosts self confidence in your children.

Creative Writing Prompts for 3rd Grade Kids

Writing prompts are an excellent way to get elementary students excited about writing stories. Some of these third grade writing prompts will make your children stop and think which develops critical thinking skills. Other writing prompts are just down right silly and fun, which helps them to cut loose and express themselves.

We have broken these third grade writing prompts into categories. As you give your children the prompts, explain to them what genre and type of prompts they are. This will help them to better understand many different writing styles.

Descriptive Writing Prompts

Descriptive writing prompts are tools to help your child practice creating vivid, detailed scenes in their writing. They encourage writing about sensory details like sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Using these descriptive words will help your child develop the ability to paint a clear picture with their words.

1. You walk into an enchanted forest, describe what you can see, hear, touch, and smell. If there are magical creatures in this forest, explain what they look like.

2. Can you tell me about what your bedroom looks like? Explain what you can see when you walk into the door.

3. What does the house smell like when your mom is cooking your favorite food?

4. Describe your dream job. What would you do every day at that job, and where would you work at?

5. You have invented a brand new card game. Explain what the game looks like and what the rules of the game would be.

6. Describe how to make your favorite sandwich. What would you do first, and what does the sandwich look and taste like.

Personal Narrative Writing Prompts

Personal narrative writing prompts direct your child to write stories from their own life, focusing on personal experiences and feelings. They guide your child to share meaningful moments from their life, which encourages reflection and helps build storytelling skills.

7. Tell a story about the funniest thing that has happened to you.

8. What is the grossest thing you have ever eaten and why was it gross?

9. Write about a moment that made you happy, and why it made you so happy.

10. What is your favorite thing to do in the summer time?

11. What is your favorite food? If you had the choice, how many times a week would you eat it?

12. Who is your best friend and why do they mean so much to you?

13. If your shoes could talk, what would they have to say about where you have been?

Opinion Writing Prompts

Opinion writing prompts encourage your child to express their viewpoints on various topics. These prompts help them practice forming arguments, and articulating their thoughts clearly. This enhances their critical thinking, persuasive writing, and communication skills.

14. If you could be a famous person for the day who would you choose to be? Why did you choose that person? What would your day look like if you were that person?

15. What is the best candy? Explain why it is better than other candies.

16. Pancakes or waffles? Explain which one is better and why it is the best choice for breakfast.

17. Which is the best pet and why? Cats or Dogs?

18. What is your favorite book and why should everyone read this book? Who is your favorite character in the book and why are they your favorite?

19. Would you rather go to the beach or the mountains? Explain your choice.

20. Imagine you wake up to find you have been turned into your favorite animal.  What would you do and where would you go?

21. On a rainy day, would you rather be inside of your house or outside in the rain?

Story Starters

Story starters are writing prompts that provide the beginning of a story to inspire your child’s creative writing. They help jumpstart their imagination, giving them a starting point to develop their own plot, characters, and setting. These story starters will help build their creativity, storytelling skills and give them more confidence in their writing.

22. One day you wake up with a letter in the mail box. It tells you that there is a hidden treasure somewhere in your neighborhood. How are you going to find it?

23. You find yourself at the very top of a tree house in the woods. How did you get there and how are you going to get out?

24. Pretend you are writing the beginning of an adventure story, how would your story begin?

25. On a vacation to paradise, something unexpected happens. What happens on the way to your vacation?

26. You have just invented a time machine. Where will you take it? Did you choose the future or the past? What happened when you got there?

Emotion Writing Prompts

Emotion writing prompts encourage your child to explore and express feelings through writing. These writing prompts focus on emotions like happiness, anger, or sadness. It is a great way to help them understand and and express emotional experiences through writing.

27. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? How would you feel with that new change?

28. Tell a story about a time that you felt sad. Why were you sad? What happened?

29. Describe your favorite memory of when you were little. What happened, and how did you feel during that moment?

30. If you and your best friend were laughing about something, what were you laughing about and why was it funny?

31. Write about a mistake you have made. What was the mistake, how did it make you feel and what did you learn from your mistake?

Informative Writing Prompts

Informative writing prompts guide your child to write clear and factual pieces about a specific topic. They help your children to learn how to explain a concept in a straightforward manner. This builds the skill of being able to explain knowledge and develop structured writing.

32. Choose a planet in our solar system and gather information about that planet and write about it.

33. Explain how cell phones work and what you can do with them, other than talking on the phone.

34. Write a review of your favorite movie. Why is it your favorite, and why should other people watch this movie with their family.

35. Explain in great detail how to make your bed. What do you do first, and what is the last thing you need to do to complete this task?

36. What is the life cycle of a butterfly? What happens first, and what happens last when a butterfly is made?

Fun Writing Prompts

Fun writing prompts are an excellent way to make writing enjoyable for reluctant writers. Kids love fun and humorous stories, and the chance to create their own. They inspire creativity and imaginative thinking, which makes writing more exciting and less daunting.

37. If you could be the parent for the day, what would your day look like and what would you do?

38. You are a superhero for the day? What would your outfit look like and what villain would you fight?

39. Pretend that you have an imaginary friend. What is their name and what do they look like?

40. Would you rather fly to outer space in a rocket ship, or be taken there by aliens?

41. Pretend you got trapped inside of a Walmart overnight. What would you do?

42. If you could design a video game, what type of video game would it be?

43. What would happen outside if it really started raining cats and dogs?

Animal Writing Prompts

Kids love animals, and giving them animal writing prompts is the best way to encourage them to write about what they love. These writing prompts are great for sparking your child’s interest in wildlife. They can help to build your child’s knowledge of zoology and wildlife while developing writing skills.

44. Pretend that you are in a forest and you come across a fork in the road. One path has a bear standing on it, the other path has a skunk. Which path would you choose and why?

45. Imagine you can communicate with your family dog, cat or other pet like Dr. Doolittle.  Write in your journal about the latest adventure you went on together.

46. If you could come across any wild animal in the jungle, and have a conversation with it, which animal would you choose?

47. Do you ever wonder what giraffes do all day?  Write a paragraph about a day in the life of a young giraffe.

48. Create a story about a lion cub and a hyena cub that become friends.  How do they become friends and how do they overcome the fact that their parents don’t like each other?

49. Write a story about a curious kangaroo joey who hops away from his mom to explore the Australian outback.  What exciting and/or scary things happen to him before his mom finds him again.

50. Imagine you are a penguin living in Antarctica.  What type of penguin would you want to be?  What adventures would you go on?

51. Draw a picture of a mysterious animal that only comes out at night.  Write a poem or story about what it does at night and what sound it might make.

52. Write a letter from a squirrel to a bird asking for flying lessons. Why would the squirrel want to learn to fly?  What could the squirrel teach the bird?

Are these Writing Prompts just for 3rd Graders? 

Writing prompts are normally introduced in the third grade when children are really beginning to learn how to write on their own. It is the foundational age, after they learn to read and write basic words that the story telling and creative writing process begins.

The majority of our writing prompts will work great for that age group. However, our writing prompts can be used for older elementary, middle school and even high school students depending on the student’s writing needs and skills.

In addition to the 50+ creative writing prompts we’ve listed above, we also 21+ printable packs for you below….

More Animal Writing Prompts

My girls love animals so much, and we always made a point to incorporate them into our homeschool lessons. If your kids love animals as much as mine, then be sure to check out our brand new printable with 40 fun writing prompts about animals.

HSG Free Writing Prompt Printable Packs

We’ve organized 21+ packs of our FREE writing prompt posts from our posts. We recommend bookmarking this HSG Hub page so you can quickly add a writing prompt to any of your lesson plans. Now on to the printables…..