There are three types of story starters:

1. General Story Starters – black and white drawings

2. Cartoon Story Starters – black and white cartoon drawings

3. Canadian Story Starters – full colour photographs

1. General Story Starters

This collection of 58 engaging and detailed illustrations will inspire students’ creative writing. Images of varying complexities are included so that students with a wide range of critical thinking and writing abilities may engage meaningfully with them. The illustrations may be used as “starters” for a variety of forms of writing, and can be used to augment any writing program. Or, use them as a meaningful “filler” activity when students have extra classroom time.

Divided into four sections based on the primary theme of the illustrations:

1. General Fiction

2. Adventure

3. Fantasy

4. Animal Stories

Each story starter worksheet includes an illustration and corresponding word list, a blank line for the story’s title, and numbered blank lines for the story itself. The word list includes key words related to the illustration to help the students begin to think about their overall impression of the image. They should read the word list before writing to stimulate their creative thinking, and you may wish to have them include the list words in their story. The blank lines are numbered so that you may easily give students instructions on how long their creative writing piece should be.

A blank lined page is included and may be used to write a story outline, or to continue writing the story itself if the student needs extra space.

Students may be given the Writing Checklist after writing a story. The checklist is a useful guide to help them edit and proofread their stories.

2. Cartoon Story Starters Curriculum Map

This collection of engaging and hilarious illustrations will inspire students’ creative writing. Images of varying complexity are included so that students with a wide range of critical thinking and writing abilities may be engaged meaningfully. The illustrations may be used as “starters” for a variety of forms of writing, and can be used to augment any writing program. Or, use them as a meaningful “filler” activity when students have extra classroom time.

Organization

Divided into five sections based on the primary theme of the illustrations:

1. Adventure

2. Animals

3. Fantasy

4. General Fiction

5. Sports

Each story starter worksheet includes an illustration and corresponding word list, a blank line for the story’s title, and numbered blank lines for the story itself.

For easy reference, the story genre and illustration number are listed at the top of each page. The cartoons are balanced for gender and race. The grade level of each word list is also included. These are arranged in order of increasing complexity within each section.

The word list includes key words related to the illustration to help the students begin to think about their overall impression of the image. They should read the word list before writing to stimulate their creative thinking, and you may wish to have them include the list words in their story. The blank lines are numbered so that you may easily give students instructions on how long their creative writing piece should be.

Students may be given the Writing Checklist (page 5) after writing a story. The checklist is a useful guide to help them edit and proofread their stories.

3. Canadian Story Starters Curriculum Map

This collection of 58 engaging and detailed photographs will inspire students’ creative writing. Images of varying complexities are included so that students with a wide range of critical thinking and writing abilities may engage meaningfully with them. The photographs may be used as “starters” for a variety of forms of writing and can be used to augment any writing program or used as a meaningful “filler” activity when students have extra classroom time.

Organization

Divided into five sections based on the primary theme of the photographs:

1. Nature

2. Seasons and Special Days

3. Canadian Symbols and Places

4. People

5. Sports

For easy reference, the story genre and photograph number are listed at the bottom of each page.

Each story starter worksheet includes a photograph and corresponding word list, a blank line for the story’s title, and numbered blank lines for the story itself. The word list includes key words related to the photograph to help the students begin to think about their overall impression of the image. They should read the word list before writing to stimulate their creative thinking, and you may wish to have them include the list words in their story. The blank lines are numbered so that you may easily give students instructions on how long their creative writing piece should be.

A blank lined page may be used to write a story outline, or to continue writing the story itself if the student needs extra space.

Students may be given the Writing Checklist (page 5) after writing a story. The checklist is a useful guide to help them edit and proofread their stories.

How to Use the Photographs

The story starters may be used as springboards for a variety of forms of creative writing. The most straightforward use is for a simple narrative or short story.

Students who would benefit from other writing challenges may enjoy using the story starters to write any of the following:

• Poetry

• A letter to a character

• Diary or journal entry

• Expressing a point of view

• Expressing feelings

• Telling what happened before

• Predicting what may happen next

• And many other forms of writing!

Start saving TIME today!

We give you 100's of NO PREP! lessons to download so you can do what you love! TEACH! 

Take the leap and join today!