Best Fairy Tale Writing Prompts for Kids

Fairy tales are a wonderful way to practice the art of storytelling. When you are ready to teach your students how to write fictional stories, our fairy tale writing prompts will inspire them to write creative fairy tale stories with ease.

What is a Fairy Tale?

In our post about fairy tales activities, we mentioned that a typical fairy tale includes fantastical elements such as magic, strange creatures, and unbelievable events that all work out in the end. These magical stories are often good vs. evil stories with happily-ever-after endings.

How to Write a Good Fairy Tale Story

Besides including those common elements, you’ll also need crisis, suspense, conflict, climax, and resolution to write a fairy tale story. Discuss each of these story elements with your students.

Crisis. A problem comes up in the story that must be solved.

Suspense. No one knows for sure how the problem can or will be solved.’

Conflict. Good must overcome evil through a significant conflict.

Climax. The problem is solved at the height of the conflict.

Resolution. The story ends in victory and “happily ever after.”

Fairy Tale Examples

Before working on one of the fairy tale writing prompts, your student should have a good grasp of how fairy tales work and a working knowledge of the most traditional fairy tales. Make a few Fairy Tales assigned reading. Here are some fairy tale examples you might have your student read.

• The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson
• Hansel and Gretal by Hans Christian Anderson
• Sleeping Beauty by Hans Christian Anderson
• Cinderella by Hans Christian Anderson

Try these books from the library or Amazon:

• Little Red Riding Hood illustrated by Ed Bryan. 
• Sleeping Beauty by Cynthia Rylant.
• Jack and the Beanstalk illustrated by Ed Bryan. 
• The Princess and The Pea by Rachel Isadora.
• Hansel and Gretel by Cynthia Rylant.

Fairy Tale Picture Prompts

One of the best ways to get the writing juices flowing is through the use of pictures. Pictures are worth a thousand words right? Pictures inspire a story in our minds as we imagine what happened. These wordless fairy tale books will make awesome Fairy Tale Picture Prompts to get your students writing.

• The Three Pigs by David Wiesner. Wordless.
• Red by Jed Alexander. A delightful and wordless retelling of the classic Little Red Riding Hood.

The Best Fairy Tale Writing Prompts for Kids

There is no better way to get started writing stories than using our fairy tale writing prompts for kids. Your students will be inspired by the great authors and fantastical stories. It’s a great storytelling tradition and example to follow.

Fairy Tale Story Starters

Adorable Fairy Tale Gnomes make the perfect illustrations in our Fairy Tale Writing Prompts e-book. Each of the following fairy tale story starters on this list is also in our e-book (plus many more) with handwriting lines for all ages and the adorable gnomes decorating each page.

1. A wicked Fairy has stolen your Sunflowers and with it the joy of your village has fled. Tell the story of how you got the sunflowers back and restored joy to your community.
2. Mushrooms have poisoned your fields and you must find someone who can help you heal the fields and get them planted before the growing season ends. Tell the story.
3. The powder from ground sunflowers fuels the magic in your world. When the sunflower crop is threatened, you are the only one who can stop the threat. Tell the story.
4. You need the petals from a single sunflower to make a magical soup that will heal a beloved sick cow. On your way home with the only sunflower you can find, it is blown from your hand. Tell the story.
5. As the head gnome farmer, you are in charge of overseeing the sunflower fields. Describe a conflict with a neighboring community of ogres and how you saved the fields.
6. Your beloved has been spell-bound and kidnapped by an evil fairy gnome and you are taking her these magic sunflowers to release her from the spell. Tell the story of your epic journey to save your true love.
7. All dressed up and ready for your masquerade ball, yet you cannot find your beloved on the dance floor no matter where you look. Tell the story.
8. This beautiful mushroom can restore health to an injured or sick person. It is rare, and you’ve just been sent on a mission to find one for the ailing princess. Tell the story of your quest.
9. Bound by oath to protect the dragonflies, you must now escort this princess dragonfly to the other side of the kingdom for her coronation. Tell the story of your journey.
10. You’ve been locked in this tower for many days, and at this exact moment, you have made your escape. Tell the story of your capture and escape to freedom.

Download your Fairy Tale Gnomes Writing Prompts

Our writing prompts include twenty pages with lines appropriate for beginning handwriting, and twenty pages with lines appropriate for older students. Each page has a full-color illustration of a gnome or related item centered around the fairy tale theme. The writing prompts are found at the top of each page and provide just enough information to tickle your child’s imagination and help get the writing process started.

To download the Fairy Tale Gnomes Writing Prompts, simply add it to your cart and then checkout. **Upon checkout, you will be added to my Weekly Newsletter list.**