• 60 prompts
  • Checked October 2026

Alligator Writing Prompts

Two eyes on the waterline, a swamp bellowing in B flat, a nest that peeps, a narrower-snouted cousin.

Alligator Writing Prompts

Show all 60
  1. Write a report on the Chinese alligator for a class that has only heard of the American one.Fact: the Chinese alligator, found in and near the Yangtze River valley, rarely grows longer than 7 feet.
  2. Write a poem in which an alligator sinks out of sight one line at a time.Angle: tail first, then the back, then the snout. Save the eyes for the last line.
  3. The swamp dries up, and one alligator's pond is the only water left. Write who turns up to share it.Fact: alligator holes keep their water through the dry season and shelter other water animals.

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All 60 prompts

Eyes above the water 15

  • A canoe drifts past a floating alligator, and each takes a long look at the other. Write both looks. Fact: alligators tend to walk or swim away from people, but one that is approached can be provoked to attack.
  • A heron and an alligator share one bank and pretend not to notice each other. Write the hour. First line: The log by the reeds had not been there yesterday, and the heron knew it.
  • A photographer waits all day on a boardwalk for one alligator to surface. Write the caption of the photo she gets. Angle: what came up instead, three times, before the one she wanted?
  • A pond freezes over, and an alligator waits with only its snout above the ice. Write the long wait. Fact: when the water begins to freeze, alligators stick their snouts through the surface to breathe.
  • A turtle climbs onto what it takes for a log. Write the moment the alligator opens one eye. First line: "This is a very warm log," said the turtle. "And I think it is breathing."
  • A young alligator with yellow stripes hides in the reeds. Write a game of hide and seek it cannot lose. Fact: young alligators have bright yellow or whitish stripes that hide them among reeds and grasses.
  • An alligator basks on a bank all morning. Write the morning from the sun's side. Fact: American alligators mostly bask on shore, and some climb onto tree limbs to bask.
  • An alligator floats so still that a dragonfly lands on its snout. Write the alligator's thoughts. Angle: it must not move, sneeze or blink. How long can it hold out?
  • An alligator swims across a lake without a splash. Describe the crossing as someone fishing from the far shore sees it. Fact: an American alligator swims like a fish, moving its tail from side to side.
  • An alligator watches the full moon rise over the water. Write what it makes of that second, brighter eye. Angle: the moon floats too, and never blinks. Who looks away first?
  • Describe a pond from the waterline, the way a floating alligator sees it. Angle: half the picture is sky and half is its reflection. What crosses the line between them?
  • Only an alligator's eyes show above the water. Write what those eyes watch for one whole afternoon. Angle: nothing happens for an hour, then one thing does. Make the reader wait for it too.
  • Rain falls on a floating alligator. Describe the storm from just above the surface. Angle: each drop makes a ring. What happens to the rings when the wind comes?
  • Write a poem in which an alligator sinks out of sight one line at a time. Angle: tail first, then the back, then the snout. Save the eyes for the last line.
  • Write a riddle whose answer is an alligator, using only what shows above the water. Angle: two bumps, a long shadow, a ripple with nothing in front of it. Do not say teeth.

The swamp 15

  • A town plans to drain a marsh for a parking lot. Write a letter to the council from someone who knows its alligators. Fact: the main threat to alligators now is the draining and developing of wetlands.
  • A tuba player practices at the edge of a swamp, and an alligator answers. Write the duet. Fact: American alligators bellow in B flat, and tuba players have set off bellowing choruses.
  • After a week of rain the swamp rises. Write what an alligator finds in places it could never reach before. Angle: a fence post, the top of a road sign, a rowboat tied to a tree. Which does it decide to keep?
  • The American alligator was once in danger of dying out. Write a news story from the year it came off the list. Fact: the American alligator was listed as endangered in 1967 and taken off the list in 1987.
  • An alligator eats wild grapes off the vine. Write the surprise of the bird that sees it. Fact: American alligators have been seen eating wild grapes, elderberries and citrus fruit from the trees.
  • An alligator has dug its pond a little deeper every year. Write the pond's history as the alligator tells it. Fact: alligators change the wetlands they live in by digging small ponds known as alligator holes.
  • An old bayou alligator tells a newcomer the rules of the swamp. Write the five rules. First line: "Rule one: the sunny log is mine before noon."
  • Describe a cypress swamp at sunrise, with one alligator somewhere in it that the reader has to find. Fact: American alligators live in freshwater marshes, cypress swamps and other wetlands.
  • Egrets build their nests in the trees over an alligator's water. Write the bargain from the egrets' side. Fact: alligators keep predatory mammals from reaching bird colonies on wetland islands.
  • On a spring morning the alligators of a swamp bellow together. Write the chorus for someone who has never heard it. Fact: in April and May alligators bellow in choruses, usually one to three hours after sunrise.
  • Spanish explorers in Florida called the alligator the lizard. Write a sailor's diary page from the day he first saw one. Fact: the word alligator likely comes from el lagarto, Spanish for the lizard.
  • The swamp dries up, and one alligator's pond is the only water left. Write who turns up to share it. Fact: alligator holes keep their water through the dry season and shelter other water animals.
  • Three states chose the alligator as their state reptile. Write the speech that wins the vote in one of them. Fact: Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi each made the American alligator their state reptile.
  • Write a swamp's roll call at dusk: every animal answers, and the alligator answers last. Angle: who answers loudly, who whispers, and who answers for a neighbor that is not there?
  • Write the sign at the start of a swamp boardwalk that asks visitors not to feed the alligators. Make it polite. Fact: in Florida it is illegal to feed wild alligators at any time.

A nest of eggs 15

  • A baby alligator uses its egg tooth for the only job it will ever do. Write the breaking out. Fact: a baby alligator hatches with the help of an egg tooth.
  • A hatchling alligator is only a few inches long. Write its first good look at its mother. Fact: a newly hatched alligator is just six to eight inches long.
  • A hatchling alligator rides to the water in its mother's mouth. Write the ride as the hatchling feels it. Fact: a mother alligator gently carries her hatchlings to the water in her mouth.
  • A mother alligator hears peeping from her nest and starts to dig. Write the next five minutes. Fact: when the young begin to hatch, the mother alligator quickly digs them out of the nest.
  • A raccoon comes sniffing round an alligator nest and thinks better of it. Write the raccoon's account. First line: "I was only passing," said the raccoon, backing up the way it had come.
  • A young alligator calls for help, and its mother comes across the pond. Write the scene from the far bank. Fact: young alligators make a distress call that alerts their mothers when they are threatened.
  • A young alligator catches its first meal, and it is a snail. Write the proud report it gives the others. Fact: alligator hatchlings feed mostly on small animals such as insects, snails, spiders and worms.
  • The eggs in an alligator nest are kept warm by rotting leaves. Explain how, in a paragraph for a younger child. Fact: the mother covers her eggs with more plants, which heat up as they decay and keep the eggs warm.
  • For about two months a mother alligator stays by her nest. Write the afternoon something almost draws her away. Fact: the female stays near the nest through the 65 days it takes the eggs to hatch.
  • The last egg in an alligator nest hatches a day late. Write the hatchling's hurry to catch up. Angle: the nest is empty and the peeping is far off. What does it follow to find the water?
  • Write a newborn alligator's first swim, from the edge of the bank to the middle of its brothers and sisters. Fact: young alligators stay in pods with their mother on guard.
  • Write a science report on how the warmth of an alligator nest decides which eggs hatch male and which female. Fact: the temperature at which alligator eggs develop determines the sex of the young.
  • Write the day a mother alligator builds her nest, one mouthful of leaves at a time. Fact: a female alligator heaps plants, sticks, leaves and mud into a nest in or near water.
  • Write the thoughts of one alligator egg in the middle of the pile, a week before hatching. Fact: a female alligator lays 20 to 50 white eggs, each about the size of a goose egg.
  • Young alligators start calling just before they hatch. Write what the first one to call is saying. Fact: the yelping calls of young alligators can sometimes be heard just before they hatch.

Alligator or crocodile 15

  • A cold snap reaches the swamp. Write why the alligator can stay where a crocodile could not. Fact: American alligators stand cold better than American crocodiles and live farther north.
  • A fossil alligator and a living one look much the same. Write what the living alligator says to the old bones. Fact: fossils just like today's American alligator go back as far as 2.5 million years.
  • An alligator and a crocodile meet in southern Florida. Write their argument over who is who. Fact: only in southern Florida do alligators and crocodiles both live.
  • An alligator is tired of being called a crocodile. Write its letter of complaint to a newspaper. First line: "For the ninth time this summer you have printed my photograph under the wrong name."
  • An alligator loses a tooth and grows another, again and again. Write the short career of one tooth. Fact: an American alligator has 74 to 80 teeth and can go through over 2,000 in its lifetime.
  • Compare the home water of an alligator with that of a crocodile in a short report. Fact: American alligators prefer fresh water and stand salt water less well than American crocodiles.
  • Explain how to tell an alligator from a crocodile by the snout, for someone looking at two photos. Fact: the American alligator has a broader, U-shaped snout than the American crocodile.
  • Half of an alligator is tail. Write a paragraph on everything the tail is for. Fact: half of an alligator's length is its massive, strong tail, National Geographic Kids says.
  • Is an alligator darker than a crocodile? Write what you would look for, and why color alone can fool you. Fact: American alligators are among the most darkly colored crocodilians, more blackish than crocodiles.
  • Only two kinds of alligator are alive today. Write a letter from the American one to the Chinese one. Fact: two species are alive today, the American and the Chinese alligator.
  • Where in the world do alligators live? Write the answer for a friend who thinks they live everywhere warm. Fact: only China and the United States have native alligators.
  • Write a poem in which an alligator and a crocodile take turns, a line each, and neither will give up the last word. Angle: broad and narrow, fresh and salt, north and south. Who gets the final line?
  • Write a quiz of five questions that sorts alligators from crocodiles, with the answers underneath. Angle: snout, color, teeth, water, weather. Give one question to each.
  • Write a report on the Chinese alligator for a class that has only heard of the American one. Fact: the Chinese alligator, found in and near the Yangtze River valley, rarely grows longer than 7 feet.
  • Write a short report on which teeth you can see when an alligator closes its mouth, and which you cannot. Fact: when an alligator shuts its jaws, the upper jaw covers the lower teeth and the fourth tooth is hidden.

How it works

These alligator writing prompts keep to the swamp and the water's edge: a heron and an alligator on one bank, the last pond of the dry season, a raccoon backing away from a nest, a fossil that matches the living animal.

Read the full guide

Alligator or crocodile, sorted in writing

Fifteen prompts turn the difference into a quiz, a letter of complaint to a newspaper and an argument in southern Florida, the only place where both animals live. Others report on teeth, tails and the Chinese alligator.

The facts under the swamp

Forty-two prompts carry a fact from Wikipedia's two alligator articles or from National Geographic Kids. A nest of decaying plants keeps the eggs warm, its warmth decides which young hatch male and which female, and the mother carries the hatchlings to the water in her mouth.

  • Before an Eyes above the water prompt, list what is under the surface. Then leave all of it out.

Questions and answers

What is a good alligator writing prompt?

One that uses the waiting. An alligator floats so still that a dragonfly lands on its snout: write the alligator's thoughts. Very little happens, so every small thing counts.

What is the difference between an alligator and a crocodile?

Wikipedia's American alligator article says the alligator has a broader, U-shaped snout and darker coloring, and that its upper jaw covers the lower teeth when the mouth is shut. It stands cold better and salt water less well than the American crocodile.

Where do alligators live?

Only in the United States and China. American alligators live in the southeastern United States, in rivers, lakes, ponds, swamps, bayous and marshes. The smaller Chinese alligator is found only in and around the Yangtze River valley.

Are these alligator writing prompts for kids?

Yes. Nobody in a prompt is bitten or chased, and nobody feeds or walks up to an alligator: people watch from a boardwalk, a boat or the far bank. The list is for writing, not advice about wild animals.

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