Funny Writing Prompts for Kids (Updated in 2024)

Looking for funny writing prompts for kids, middle-schoolers, or high school students? You’ve come to the right place!

A pirate who can’t swim. Or what if your pets could talk, what would they say about your eating habit? Or write about a werewolf who decides to be a vegetarian! Start scrolling for more hilarious prompts that will get your kids excited to write.

Table of Contents

Why Kids Should Write
Funny Writing Prompts for Kids
More?

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Why Kids Should Write

Do you know that the Institute of Education Sciences suggests that kindergarteners spend at least 30 minutes a day writing, and first graders 60 minutes? There are so many reasons why writing is beneficial for kids. Here are a few of them:

1. Writing activates both the left and the right hemispheres of the brain. It also improves memory and increases IQ since the more someone writes, the more neural connections are formed within the brain.

2. Writing is therapeutic, encourages self-expression and increases dopamine as well as introspection, which results in better psychological health.

3. Writing allows for an exploration of a variety of topics in a safe and controlled environment, and hence, increases resilience.

4. Writing is a life skill, something that we all need throughout life beyond our academic years, a valuable skill in both the workplace and social life in general. Furthermore, it’s linked to many other skills such as communication skill, problem solving skill, critical thinking and organizational skill, which are all important skills in life.

Funny Writing Prompts for Kids

What’s better than some funny prompts to encourage your kids to write? Read on for prompts like a dragon who nests inside of a bank vault, or fairies and nymphs who migrate to public parks due to deforestation!

Please note that the genders in these prompts are just placeholders and are not meant to enforce any hurtful stereotypes nor offend anyone.

Fantasy

The sky (and beyond!) is the limit when it comes to fantasy. Here are some ideas:

1. A dragon who nests inside of a bank’s vault. (Originally appeared in my post Dragon Story Ideas.)

2. A boy with a penchant for littering in the forest whenever he goes on a hike returns home with a curse: every time he sneezes, tiny plants burst out of his mouth in lieu of droplets. (Originally appeared in my post Enchanted Forest Story Ideas.)

3. A werewolf who provides service as a professional tracker, from missing things to missing people to missing pets. Imagine a werewolf detective who’s trying hard to focus on the task at hand but he keeps getting distracted by a ball! (Originally appeared in my post Enchanted Forest Story Ideas.)

4. Due to rapid deforestation, the fairies and nymphs have migrated to urban zoos, indoor gardens, and public parks. Are those a pair of wings you see sprouting from the back of an old lady who sits on that park bench? (Originally appeared in my post Urban Fantasy Writing Prompts.)

5. When the merpeople decided to start a business offering underwater tours to humans, what kind of mayhem follows? (Originally appeared in my post Alluring Mermaid Story Prompts and Ideas.)

6. Write about a mermaid singing competition deep underwater that triggers a tsunami. (Originally appeared in my post Alluring Mermaid Story Prompts and Ideas.)

7. Write about a pirate who can’t swim, or prone to seasickness. (Originally appeared in my post Thrilling Pirate Writing Prompts.)

8. Write about a werewolf who decides to be a vegetarian.

9. Write about The Wandering Academy: a school that travels through magical realms, never staying in one place for too long. (Originally appeared in my post Crafting Captivating Tales: Magic School Story Ideas (2023))

10. A bison reads today’s newspaper. What would be its reaction?

What-Ifs

There’s a ton of fun in inserting a hypothetical situation into an otherwise mundane daily routine. Here are some ideas:

1. What if your pets could speak? What will they say about your eating, sleeping, and showering habits?

2. What if you dog really ate your homework, and now you have to explain it to your teacher?

3. What if eating chili or other spicy food made someone unable to tell lies? (Originally appeared in my post Magical Realism Writing Prompts.)

4. What if one of your mom’s plant turned out to be a camouflaging alien in hiding? (Originally appeared in my post Imaginative Alien Writing Prompts.)

5. What if dragons exist, only that they’re small and very stealthy, and the reason for the mysterious disappearances of all the coins and small, shiny trinkets in the house?

Picture Prompts

Here are some picture prompts you can use, because, a picture speaks a thousand words! Below are some image prompts as well as some prompt ideas to accompany each.

(Please click on the image for more information.)

1. Write about a werewolf that changes into an elephant whenever the full moon is over.

2. If elephants could talk, what would they tell you?

(Please click on the image for more information.)

1. Turn the black crow and white crow into comical weather reporters delivering bird-centric forecasts.

2. Craft a comedic mystery where the black crow and white crow become amateur detectives investigating the mysterious disappearance of shiny objects in the crow community.

More?

Alternatively, there are many writing prompts books out there that you can purchase to encourage your kids to write. Here are some of them.

1. Writing Prompts for Kids: A Creative Writing Workbook To Inspire Young Writers ($12.99)

Packed with inventive prompts, this book has something for everyone, from Potter-heads to science geeks to little Marvel enthusiasts. Moreover, this guide provides tons of practical advice on how to plan, structure, and polish a story.

Designed for writers in grades 3-5, each writing prompt comes with a drawing space and a fun doodle or illustration. Left-handed kids friendly!