• 65 prompts
  • Checked October 2026

Back to School Writing Prompts

The night before, the first day, all about me, hopes for the year and a look back at summer.

Back to School Writing Prompts

Show all 65
  1. Write your summer as a scrapbook page in words: three things glued down, with a caption for each.Angle: a ticket stub, a leaf, a wristband, a receipt for ice cream.
  2. Write a thank-you note to someone who made your first day of school a little easier.Angle: the bus driver, the kid who moved over, whoever held the door.
  3. Tell the first day of school in one sentence, then tell it again in a full page.Angle: say what the one sentence left out.

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All 65 prompts

The night before 13

  • Give a pep talk to someone nervous about going back to school, as a coach before a big game. First line: Listen up. You have done first days before and you are undefeated.
  • It is the last night of summer bedtime before school starts. Write your case for one more late night, and the answer you get. First line: I would like to point out that it is still light outside.
  • Lay out everything for the first day of school on the floor and write it as a museum display, with a label for each thing. First line: Exhibit one: a pencil case, never opened, origin unknown.
  • Make two lists the night before school starts: Things I Know About Tomorrow and Things I Do Not. Write about one line from each. Angle: make the second list longer, then circle one thing you are glad not to know.
  • The night before the first day of school, someone at home tells you about a first day of their own, long ago. Write their story. Angle: ask what they wore, who they sat with, what they were afraid of.
  • Somebody at home is more nervous about your first day of school than you are. Write how you can tell. Angle: the third reminder, the extra snack, the photo they have already planned.
  • Tell the back to school shopping trip as the cart: what went in and what got put back. First line: The glitter pens lasted one aisle.
  • Write a forecast for your first week back to school, for your mood and not the sky. First line: Monday: cloudy early, clearing by lunch.
  • Write a goodbye note to summer the night before school starts, and say where you leave it. Angle: under a beach towel, in a sandal, on the porch rail.
  • Write the dinner conversation the night before school starts: who asks what, and who changes the subject. Angle: one person is excited, one is not, one keeps passing the bread.
  • Write the first-day-of-school breakfast you would order if your kitchen were a restaurant. Angle: the menu, the waiter, and what it costs in chores.
  • Write the messages two friends send each other the night before school starts. First line: Are you wearing the thing or not wearing the thing?
  • Write three wishes for the first day of school: one thing you hope happens, one you hope does not, one you cannot decide about. Angle: be exact: not a good day but a seat near the window.

The first day 13

  • Describe the first-day-of-school photo by the front door: who takes it, how many tries, what your face is doing. Angle: set it beside last year's photo in the same spot.
  • Describe your first-day-of-school outfit as if you were choosing armor for a quest. Angle: what each piece protects against, and the one lucky thing.
  • On the first day of school you are handed a paper to take home. Write what it says and what it should have said. First line: Dear families, here is what really happened today.
  • On the first day of school, write the moment you saw who else was in your class. Angle: one face you hoped for, one you did not expect, one you did not know yet.
  • Something goes a little wrong on the first day of school and turns out fine. Write it. Angle: the wrong line, a lunch left on the counter, a shoelace at the worst moment.
  • Tell the first day of school in one sentence, then tell it again in a full page. Angle: say what the one sentence left out.
  • What was different on the first day of school from how you pictured it all summer? Write the picture and the real thing. Angle: the room, the teacher's voice, where the windows are.
  • Write a thank-you note to someone who made your first day of school a little easier. Angle: the bus driver, the kid who moved over, whoever held the door.
  • Write the first day of school as your teacher might tell it at home that evening. First line: Twenty-six of them, and I already know which one will ask about recess.
  • Write the first recess of the school year: who runs where, and which game starts first. Angle: say who makes the rules and whether they are the same as last year's.
  • Write the first roll call of the school year: every name, and how each person answers. Angle: here, present, yep, a wave; one answer makes the whole room laugh.
  • Write three headlines about your first day of school, then the news story under the best one. First line: Local Kid Finds Right Room on Second Try.
  • Write your first day of school as a ship captain's log. First line: Day one. Crew restless. Supplies of sharpened pencils holding.

All about me 13

  • All about me, back to school edition: write what has changed about you since the last first day. Angle: taller is the easy one. Find two changes nobody can see.
  • All about me, in numbers: write a paragraph in which every sentence holds a number that is true of you. First line: I have two brothers, one scar and eleven books I have read twice.
  • All about me, the short version: write what a new teacher should know about you in the first week, and what can wait until October. Angle: two things now, one thing later, and why it can wait.
  • All about me: write one true thing about your life outside school that your new classmates would never guess. Angle: a job you do at home, a language you speak, someone you help.
  • At the start of the school year, write about one thing you are an expert in that no test will ever ask about. Angle: skipping stones, braiding hair, telling twins apart.
  • Describe yourself for a new class the way a character is described on page one of a book. First line: She was the kind of kid who read the back of the cereal box twice.
  • If your new class could ask you only one question, which would you want it to be? Write the question and your answer. Angle: pick a question that needs a story, not a yes or a no.
  • Introduce yourself to a new class through five objects from home. Angle: say what each one proves about you.
  • Tell your life so far in five moments for an all about me page, starting with one you know only from stories. Angle: end on something that happened this summer.
  • Write a user manual for yourself for the start of the school year: how you work best and what to do when you get stuck. First line: This model runs best after lunch and should not be rushed before nine.
  • Write an all about me page with no favorites on it: only things you can do, things you wonder and things you would never do. Angle: three of each. Start with the never.
  • Write an all about me poem in which every line begins I am the one who. First line: I am the one who saves the crust for last.
  • Write the three words a friend would use to describe you to a new class, and argue with one of them. First line: Loud? I prefer enthusiastic.

Hopes for the year 13

  • A hope for the school year can be very small. Write ten tiny ones, none longer than a sentence. First line: I hope the pencil sharpener by the window still works.
  • Choose one person at school you hope to know better by the end of this school year. Write the first conversation. Angle: someone in your class, the librarian, the kid two lockers down.
  • Invent the award you hope to be handed at the end of this school year, and write the speech you would give. Angle: Most Improved at Asking Questions counts.
  • Name one club, team or instrument you are curious about this school year, and write the first day you imagine there. Angle: what you would be bad at first, and why you would stay.
  • Pick one subject you want to feel differently about this school year. Write a truce with it. First line: Dear Math, I think we got off on the wrong foot.
  • What do you hope your teacher knows about you by the middle of the school year? Write it as if it has already happened. First line: By December she knew I think best when I am drawing.
  • Write a beginning of the year dare for yourself: one thing you will try before the first month of school is over. First line: I dare me to sit somewhere new at lunch, once.
  • Write a promise to yourself for the beginning of the year, and the excuse you already know you will try. First line: I promise to start the reading before Sunday night. I also know myself.
  • Write about a hope for the school year that you had last year too. Say what will be different this time. Angle: one thing you will do sooner, one person you will ask.
  • Write one hope for the school year that is about someone else. Angle: a friend, a little brother, the new kid. Say what you could do about it by October.
  • Write the best possible ordinary day of this school year: no trip, no party, just a day that goes right. Angle: say what makes it good before lunch and what makes it good after.
  • Write the question you most hope to have answered this school year, about anything at all. Angle: how bridges stay up, why people yawn, what your grandmother did at your age.
  • Your class votes on a motto for the new school year. Write the three that lose and the one that wins. Angle: say who argued for which, and what settled it.

Summer, looking back 13

  • Back at school, write about the smallest thing you did this summer that you will remember longest. Angle: not the trip. The ten minutes on a curb, the joke at the sink.
  • Back to school means an old question. Answer What I Did Last Summer as a list of ten things, none longer than five words. First line: Lost a tooth. Found a turtle.
  • Compare the first day of summer with the last one before school. Write what changed in between. Angle: your bedtime, your knees, what you thought was fun.
  • Describe your summer in five smells, for a friend you have not seen since school let out. Angle: cut grass, a pool, a tent, a kitchen that was not yours.
  • Looking back at summer before school starts, write the thing you got better at without meaning to. Angle: swimming underwater, waiting, talking to grown-ups.
  • Something from this summer is still unfinished as school starts: a fort, a puzzle, a long book. Write where you left it. Angle: say whether you will go back, and when.
  • Summer, looking back: write the day you were most bored, and what you finally did about it. First line: By two o'clock I had named every crack in the driveway.
  • Tell your new class a summer story that is true and sounds made up. First line: You will not believe the part about the goat, but my cousin has a photo.
  • Which summer rule will you miss most when school starts? Write a farewell to it. Angle: breakfast at ten, shoes optional, one more chapter.
  • Write a thank-you note to this summer for one exact afternoon, to read on the first day back at school. First line: Dear Summer, thank you for the Thursday it rained and we stayed anyway.
  • Write about one person you met this summer, and what you would tell them about your school. Angle: a kid at the pool, a cousin's friend, someone's grandfather.
  • Write the last evening of summer vacation as the final page of a book. Angle: end on a small thing: a porch light, a towel on a rail, a bike on its side.
  • Write your summer as a scrapbook page in words: three things glued down, with a caption for each. Angle: a ticket stub, a leaf, a wristband, a receipt for ice cream.

How it works

These back to school writing prompts are written from the student's side of the first week, so the same list suits any class at the beginning of the year. Each has an angle or a first line under it.

Read the full guide

First day of school writing prompts

The first-day group is for the morning itself or the evening after: the first roll call, three headlines about the day, the photo by the front door, the day as a ship captain's log.

All about me, without the favorites

A new class learns little from a favorite color. These thirteen ask for a user manual for yourself, a paragraph of true numbers, or a poem whose every line begins I am the one who.

  • Write the night before in the present tense. It keeps the nerves in.
  • Keep a hope small enough to check by October.

Questions and answers

What are good back to school writing prompts?

Ones a writer can answer without a summer trip to report. Write the dinner conversation the night before school starts, a thank-you note to someone who made the first day easier, or ten tiny hopes for the year.

What is a good writing prompt for the first day of school?

Write the moment you saw who else was in your class: one face you hoped for, one you did not expect, one you did not know yet. It needs no planning, and everyone has an answer.

What are beginning of the year writing prompts?

Prompts for the first weeks, before anyone knows anyone. Here the hopes group does that work: a dare to yourself for the first month, a truce with one subject, a class motto and the three that lost the vote.

Can I print these back to school writing prompts?

Yes. Press Show all 65 under the button, then Print: the whole list goes on paper, each prompt with its line.

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