Six-year-olds are at a good age for stories. They can hold a whole plot in their head, they have opinions about how things should end, and they still believe a stuffed rabbit might have a secret life. The hard part is usually the first sentence. Here are 48 prompts, one sentence each, grouped so you can pick a theme that matches the day you have had.
Each one is a starting point, not a script. Read a few out loud, let your child pick, then ask “and then what happens?” until you have a story.
First day of school
- A boy packs his backpack with everything he thinks he will need, including a flashlight, a spoon, and his cat.
- A girl is sure her new teacher is secretly a giant, and spends the day collecting evidence.
- Two kids who cannot agree on anything are assigned the same cubby.
- A child forgets her own name during introductions and invents a new one that sticks for the whole year.
- The class hamster escapes during the first hour and the new kid is the only one who knows where it went.
- A boy practices raising his hand at home for a week and then the teacher never asks a question.
A pet
- A dog decides it is his job to walk the family, not the other way around.
- A goldfish keeps a diary of everything it sees from the bowl on the kitchen counter.
- A girl trains her cat to fetch and nobody believes her until show-and-tell.
- A family adopts a rabbit that only eats food from the neighbor’s garden.
- The old dog and the new kitten have to share one sunny spot on the rug.
- A boy’s pet snail wins a race by being the only one who did not stop for lunch.
A lost toy
- A stuffed elephant falls out of a car window and has to find its way home across town.
- A girl loses one shoe from her favorite doll and the doll refuses to leave the house until it is found.
- A toy robot is left at the park overnight and learns what the playground is like after dark.
- A boy trades his best toy truck for a “magic” rock and immediately regrets it.
- The lost-and-found box at school turns out to be a doorway to where all lost things go.
- A teddy bear that was left at Grandma’s house calls home every night to say goodnight.
Kindness
- A girl notices the new kid eating alone and has to work up the courage to walk over.
- A boy secretly shovels the neighbor’s walk and she spends all winter trying to catch the “snow elf.”
- Two sisters have one cookie left and take turns finding reasons the other one should have it.
- A child gives away his umbrella in the rain and everything that happens to him after that is lucky.
- A class works together so a classmate in a cast can still play in the kickball game.
- A girl writes thank-you notes to everyone in her building, including the mail carrier and the elevator.
Nature
- A boy follows a line of ants to find out where they are all going in such a hurry.
- A girl plants a seed from her lunch apple and checks on it every single day.
- A family camping trip goes sideways when a raccoon takes the marshmallows.
- A child finds a bird with a hurt wing and has to decide whether to keep it or let it go.
- A puddle in the backyard turns out to be a lot deeper than it looks.
- A boy tries to count every leaf on the maple tree before the wind takes them.
Space
- A girl builds a rocket out of cardboard boxes and it actually works, but only for one trip.
- An astronaut brings his little brother along and the brother touches every button.
- The moon is lonely and sends a letter to the one kid who still waves at it every night.
- A boy discovers his flashlight beam is a road that ants from Mars use to visit Earth.
- Two kids in a homemade space station have to fix a “leak” before their parents call them for dinner.
- A star falls into a girl’s backyard and needs help getting back up before sunrise.
Family trips
- A family drives to the beach and the dog is the only one who remembered the sunscreen.
- A girl’s grandmother takes her on the train and tells her a secret at every stop.
- A boy gets separated from his family at the zoo and the penguins help him find them.
- Cousins meet for the first time at a lake house and have to share a bunk bed.
- A family’s car breaks down in a tiny town where every person has the same first name.
- A girl keeps a jar of something from every place the family stops on a long road trip.
Fears
- A boy who is afraid of the dark meets the thing under his bed and it is afraid of him.
- A girl does not want to go down the big slide and finds a friend at the top who does not either.
- A child is scared of the thunder until she learns the clouds are just moving furniture.
- A boy has to give a dog a bath even though the dog is bigger than he is.
- A girl learns to ride without training wheels by pretending the bike is a horse she needs to calm down.
- A boy is nervous about a sleepover, so he brings a map of his own house to show the other kids where everything is.
Turning an idea into a book
Pick one, ask your child who the hero is and what goes wrong, and you will have a plot in about three questions. If you want the story illustrated and set at your child’s reading level, you can make it into a book on TaleBuilder. It writes the pages with you, draws the hero from a description or a photo, and lets you fix any page you do not like.