3rd Grade Creative Writing Centers

Ready to give your students a spook-tacular writing experience? These 10 Halloween-themed story starters are designed to spark imagination and creativity in your classroom. Perfect for grades 4 and up, these engaging prompts are open-ended, allowing students to create their own spooky, mysterious, or magical tales.

Use these story starters as:

• Bell ringers to jumpstart creative writing sessions
• Writing centers or stations for independent work
• Extension activities when students need an extra challenge
• Fun, seasonal writing prompts for October or Halloween-themed lessons

Included Story Starters:

• “As I walked through the dark forest, I saw a glowing jack-o’-lantern with a note attached. The note said…”
• “One rainy Halloween night, I heard a mysterious knock at the door. When I opened it, there was a box with something moving inside.”
• “While trick-or-treating, I came across a house that no one ever visits. The door creaked open by itself, and I decided to…”
• And 7 more eerie and thrilling prompts!

Why You’ll Love This Resource:

Easy to Use: Just print and go! No prep needed.
Engaging & Fun: Each prompt invites students to explore their creativity with a Halloween twist.
Flexible Use: Great for writing centers, independent work, or creative group activities.
Perfect for Fall: Bring the spooky season into your classroom with these seasonal story starters.

Don’t miss out on this FREE Halloween resource that will keep your students’ creativity brewing all month long! Download today and let the spooky storytelling begin!

FREE!!! 21 journal prompts and/or discussion starters with Thanksgiving themed prompts and visuals for ELA and history/social studies. .

These finish the story writing prompt papers will help bring writing to life during the spring season! These no-prep narrative writing prompts are perfect for easy writing activities, writing centers, writer's workshop, early finisher activities, daily journaling, morning work and more! These prompts are great for first grade, second grade, third grade and fourth grade students! Students will love using the story starter prompts to creatively write an ending to their own story.

**⭐**Save 30% with the Finish the Story Year Long Bundle!⭐

What's included:

• 3 spring themed finish the story writing prompts
• 2 versions per prompt (one with a space for a picture + one with lines only)

Finish the Story Example:

• I like to look at different kinds of bugs. I think of how they all have their own tiny worlds. One day I was sitting in the grass with my magnifying glass. Suddenly, I heard a tiny voice. "Hey, down here!" I looked down only to find...

More Writing Resources:

Spring Finish the Story Writing Prompts

Summer Finish the Story Writing Prompts

More Spring Resources:

Spring Zoomed In

Spring Would You Rather

Spring Guess the Emoji Phrase

Spring Mega Activity Bundle

*Note this product may be used in brick and mortar classes as well as virtual systems like Outschool

This packet includes 2 essay templates that are useful for students who are just beginning to write an essay or for students who are going to write a rough draft after brainstorming.

If you download this product and like it, please leave me a quick positive review! :)

This FREE Sample of the Pull a Prompt activity uses the novelty of a pull tab flier but with 10 fun narrative writing prompts, all based on a single character. It’s low-prep, easy for new teachers and subs, fun for elementary kids, and allows for student choice. Included are a PDF file with the Maddy & Sam the Superheroes story characters (includes color and B&W versions) with 10 writing prompts, 2 Word Bank levels with 20 words per level, and a Google Slide that includes the color version of the character, a setting, and a song to help set the mood.

To use, teachers print out the character flier in either color or B&W and cut apart the prompts. If desired, print out the word banks and cut apart. Then students team up, select which prompt they want to write about and a word bank, and that’s it! To really help set the mood, display the character Google Slide on the board and crank the volume up. 

In my own 5th grade classroom, I asked my students to pair up in 10 teams, which meant I had teams of 2s and 3s. Ahead of time, I’d printed out a single copy of the flier and cut the strips apart, and printed a few of each of the word banks. Each team came up, selected a prompt to tear off the page and a word bank, and then got to work. On my interactive TV, I displayed the image and let the music play on a loop. While the kids discussed the prompt with their partners, they cut the words apart and determined which words they would use and how/when. Kids collaborated and wrote for nearly an hour and still begged for more time.

This resources includes:

• 1 Character flier (included both in color and a similar photo in B&W) with 10 different writing prompts for students to choose from.

• Word banks: 2 different levels of word banks with 20 words per bank.

• Google slideshow with 1 slide that include the color character image , a background setting image, and a song or soundtrack to help set the mood.

If you like this sample, you may like the full product:

Pull a Writing Prompt

You may also like: (links to similar products)

• FREE Picture Writing Prompt Sampler
• Picture Writing Prompts: Set 1
• Picture Writing Prompts: Set 2
• Picture Writing Prompts: Set 3
• Picture Writing Prompts with Word Banks

I'd love to hear how you use this resource in your classroom! Feel free to email me at iteachiwrite@yahoo.com with any questions or suggestions you may have. And don't forget to rate this product in order to earn TeachShare Credits for future purchases!

Copyright © iTeach & iWrite by Betsy Newmeyer.

All rights reserved by the author.

Permission to use for single classroom use only.

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Four creative writing prompts with winter coloring pictures. Promotes writing skills, creative thinking, and on-demand prompt writing. Use with mini-lessons to teach basic skills or for assessment of writing skills. Share in small or whole group settings and display students' writings for all to read.

This packet includes 4 paragraph templates that are useful for students who are just beginning to write a paragraph. 4 templates are included to fit the length of each student's paragraph.

If you download this product and like it, please leave me a quick positive review! :)