One of the most entertaining school tasks that Ali and I attempt is what we call writing prompts. The idea is to encourage her to think outside of hard facts, which can be challenging. This exercise isn’t about correct spelling, proper penmanship, writing paragraphs or even proper sentences – its purpose is to practice creativity and thought, and the ability to get those down on paper.
We don’t do this every day, but we have a notebook that we’ve kept for Kindergarten and First Grade containing many pages of my questions and her answers. I usually give her about six questions, expecting a short answer in return. And at the bottom of the page, I write “Ask Mommy Anything!”, where she has the chance to try and “stump” me. Her answers are not always what I expect, nor do they even answer the question in the way that I meant it to be understood, making the entire exercise much more fascinating.
It’s just as difficult for me to come up with new questions as it is for her to think of answers, so I decided that I would share some of my past prompts for you to use (albeit some will need to be modified to your family), along with her answers (spelling in tact) for you to enjoy.
1. If I could go anywhere in space, I would
Go back to irth
2. One day, I want to name my daughter
Bela
3. One day, I want to name my son
Danyl
4. Next time we go on vacation, I hope I get to
Swim
5. If I could fly, I would fly to
The oshin
6. I think the world would be a better place if
It wod hav no bad gis in it
7. If I were president, I would
Do wut I’m told
8. If Rapunzel was president, she would
Obay Flin
9. If I could create a holiday, I would call it
Holiday av min
10. We would celebrate my holiday by
Having a parti
11. If I could have any pet in the world, I would get
A elafint
12. If I had 50 kids, I would
Tack them altsid
13. If I had 50 brothers and 50 sisters, I would
Play apstars {upstairs} with them.
14. If I got to meet Sofia the First, I would tell her
Abalt my lif
15. When I’m 60 years old, I want to
Go swimig
16. If I wrote a book, it would be about
Fary Sofia the First
17. If I had been on Noah’s Ark with all those animals, I would have
Fun
18. When I grow up, I will
be a backr {baker}
19. If I could be an animal, I would choose to be
A elafint
20. I bet that living in China would be
Danjaris
21. If I designed clothes, I would make them all
Shirts.
22. I can’t wait for Spring, because
Piking flawirs it’s my favrit
23. If I had a thousand Mommies, I would
Go altsid
24. If I could be a princess, my favorite part would be
Waring a dres
25. When I grow up, I want to drive a
Flex
26. I would love to visit this country:
Washigtin
27. If I could be a cartoon character, I would be
A helpr for Dora
28. I think that boys are
Speshl
29. My favorite place to eat is
Silvrtron!
30. My favorite adult that’s not in my family is
David
31. If I could live in another state, I would move to
Misasipy
32. My favorite part of church is
Lirnig abalt God
33. My favorite thing about Kitty and Leo’s House [Her great-Aunt and Uncle at the beach] is
Flamingo’s
34. I love Mommy because
Your speshl
35. I love Noah because
Hes speshl to
36. When I grow up, I want to
Driv a Flex
37. I am excited for Summer because
Its worm
38. My favorite food is
Lasanya
39. I liked going to Kitty and Leo’s because
I lick the Duck’s
40. My favorite part of the car trip was
Woching Sofea
41. I bet Noah’s favorite part of the trip was
Playeng with Leo.
42. The most fun thing I did with Kitty was
Playig hide the ducks
43. The most fun thing I did with Leo was
The sam with Kitty
44. I loved Quiet Time at Kitty and Leo’s because
I lick poring alt my shels and sortg them.
45. Daddy made the trip very special when he
Tock me to the tickit gam
46. Three things I did at my friend’s house yesterday:
1. We eat a snack
2. Played altsid
3. And wacht a movy
47. I love talking to Gramamma about:
Now stuf
48. My Mommy makes me happy when she
Tells me I love you!
49. My Daddy makes me feel special when he
Givs me swet sadrday milk {That would be “Sweet Saturday Milk” – milk with coffee creamer in it}
50. When I grow up, I want to have _____ kids and name them
2, Danyl and Dayse
51. I bet that when Daddy’s at work, he does
rit a lot
52. At Gramamma’s house, I thought about
Nutheg
53. Something I did with Nick was
Played Fruit Ninja HD
54. Something I did with Pop was
Made bisckits
55. Three things I did with Gramamma were
1. Book
2. Wotched strobery shortcak
3. Played
56. My favorite part of the weekend was
Goeg to Gremomma’s Hals
57. If I had a mustache, I would look
Boreg. {Boring}
58. If I had three arms, I use my extra arm to
Play iPad
59. If I could live anywhere, I would live
At home.
60. I think Daddy is the greatest because he
Hugs me
61. I think my Mommy is awesome because she
Maks ckampany chickin {Company Chicken – apparently a recipe she likes.}
62. I know Gramamma is amazing because she
Hugs
63. Pop is fabulous because he
Maks eggs
64. If you got to plan a perfect day, what would we do?
Go to Macwayn {McWane Center is the science center in Birmingham}
65. Next time we go to vacation, I hope I get to
Swim
66. My favorite person is
Mommy and Daddy
67 I love school because
I Lrn
68. My favorite game to play with Noah is
Lego
69. My favorite thing about Daddy is
To cudle
70. I can’t wait until I can drive so I can go
To the stor
71. My favorite vacation was when we went to
Tinasy
72. I love Sunday School because
God
73. Summer was fun because we
Played altsid
74. My favorite playground is
The won at Nabils
75. I love doing this with Mommy:
Cus its fun
76. I know that it makes Noah happy when I do this with him:
Cus he liks it {…but we still don’t know what “this” is…}
77. I think that flowers are the prettiest when they are
Pink
78. Birmingham is great because
It’s great for wocking on.
79. I love giving cards and gifts to people because
its fun
80. My favorite dream is
The won last nite.
Thank you for sharing these, Rachel. Great ideas! I’ve been hoping to add more creative writing to our day, and these would be great prompts for my left-brained, 6-year old boy. To prevent an insurrection, I will probably have to substitute Lord of the Rings characters for the princesses. I hope Ali doesn’t mind!
Ha! Yes, I think that would be a very understandable substitution!
Cute! I always had trouble thinking of writing prompts last year. These are some good ones. But I am curious about what kind of duck’s she is licking at Kitty’s house?? :)
P.S. It has been SO hard for me to let K do her own spelling, but her teacher does NOT want us to correct them. So now if I tell her she is spelling something wrong she says, “That’s ok Mommy, I am supposed to spell phonetically!” :P
That’s awesome!
We are doing spelling now, but when we’re doing creative writing or she’s doing things on her own, I don’t correct her.
She LIKES the ducks. Hopefully she didn’t lick any, but there’s really no telling.
I love this idea! We used to do something similar when I was a kid on Mother’s Day. My Sunday school teacher would ask us stuff like “What does your mommy do all day?” and then write down what we said. I ask my kids these kinds of random questions pretty regularly when we’re sitting around a meal and have nothing to talk about, but I like the idea of writing them all down. It helps to remember the adorableness! Mind if I copy this idea and post it on my blog?
Sure! I can’t wait to see what your kids come up with!
I am all for phonetically spelling but for her sake, teach her how to spell like. She is doing too much licking. My 6 year old has some creative spelling! Her kindergarten teacher chooses some words from journaling to work on spelling. I like that because I think the words ae more meaningful when they have used them for something important to them. My daughter might enjoy these prompts! She has no homework in Kindergarten but i am trying to prep her for first grade ( we are spoiled with a small quaker school for kindergarten) in the district and so I create homework a few times a week!
Ha! You’re so right. It’s going on her list of spelling words NEXT WEEK. The whole lick for like thing has led to some EXTREMELY inappropriate notes.
Let me know how your daughter enjoys them!
I love how she would take 50 kids outside and that she would be outside if she had 50 moms. Girl knows how to get away from a crowd. :)
She’s a classic introvert!!