• 60 prompts
  • Checked October 2026

Squirrel Writing Prompts

An acorn gone missing, a raid on the bird feeder, a nest to finish before the cold, a checked fact.

Squirrel Writing Prompts

Show all 60
  1. Is the squirrel wise to store food for winter, or does it worry too much? Write what you think.Angle: compare it with an animal that sleeps through the cold and one that flies away from it.
  2. A hawk's shadow crosses the yard while a squirrel is on the feeder. Write the next ten seconds.Fact: gray squirrels flick their tails and call kuk or quaa to warn other squirrels about predators.
  3. Can a flying squirrel fly? Write the true answer.Fact: it glides on a membrane between its front and back legs, and can cover more than 150 feet in one glide.

Next step Deal an autumn storyPaint the squirrel you wrote about

All 60 prompts

The lost acorn 15

  • A squirrel digs for an acorn in spring and finds a small oak growing there instead. Write the moment. Fact: red squirrels sometimes forget to dig up seeds, and so plant trees in new places.
  • A squirrel digs up an acorn she does not remember burying. Write her deciding whose it is. Angle: finders keepers, or a neighbor's winter supper? What does she do with it?
  • A squirrel drops an acorn down a storm drain. Write the rescue, or the goodbye. Angle: how far will a squirrel go for one acorn out of a whole season's?
  • A squirrel has filled the watering can on the porch with acorns. Write the family's guesses before they find out. First line: Nobody in our house collects acorns, and nobody would admit it if they did.
  • A squirrel is about to bury an acorn and sees a blue jay watching. Write what the squirrel does next. Fact: a squirrel that feels watched may only pretend to bury food, keeping it hidden in its mouth.
  • A squirrel is sure someone has stolen an acorn from her. Write her investigation of the whole yard. Angle: a jay, a chipmunk and another squirrel each have an alibi. Who is lying?
  • The last acorn on the oak will not fall. Write a squirrel's afternoon trying to get it. Angle: thin branch, heavy squirrel. Three attempts, each a little sillier than the last.
  • Snow comes early and covers every hiding place. Write a squirrel's search for one lost acorn. Fact: smell helps a squirrel find buried food, but scent is unreliable when the ground is under snow.
  • Two squirrels each claim the same acorn. Write the argument on the fence. First line: "I buried it." "You buried it in my spot."
  • Write a squirrel's diary for the week the oak tree drops its acorns all at once. Angle: seven short entries. Day one is joy. By day five there is a storage problem.
  • Write a squirrel's list of landmarks for finding one buried acorn again. Fact: squirrels have very accurate memory for where their caches are, using landmarks near and far.
  • Write the day a young squirrel buries its very first acorn and gets it slightly wrong. Angle: too shallow, too obvious, right under the dog's window. Who puts it right?
  • Write the directions a squirrel would give another squirrel to one hidden acorn. Angle: they are given from tree height. Distance is measured in hops, and the last clue is a leaf.
  • Write the lost-and-found notice a squirrel might post for one missing acorn. Angle: how do you describe one acorn so that nobody hands in the wrong one? Name the reward.
  • Write the story of one acorn, from the branch to the hole a squirrel digs for it. Angle: tell it as the acorn. The fall, the wait in the grass, the teeth, the dark.

A squirrel at the feeder 15

  • A child puts out a feeder just for the squirrel, and the squirrel ignores it. Write why. Angle: perhaps the fun was never the seed. What does the squirrel want instead?
  • A hawk's shadow crosses the yard while a squirrel is on the feeder. Write the next ten seconds. Fact: gray squirrels flick their tails and call kuk or quaa to warn other squirrels about predators.
  • A squirrel hangs head down by its back feet to reach the seed in a feeder. Describe the stretch. Fact: a tree squirrel can rotate its ankles so its back feet point backward and grip the bark.
  • A squirrel studies a bird feeder that is meant to be squirrel-proof. Write the plan. Angle: the pole is slippery and the roof spins. Give the plan three steps and one flaw.
  • An old squirrel teaches a young one the way to the bird feeder. Write the lesson. Angle: the route, the timing, the dog's nap. The pupil improves on one step.
  • The bird feeder stays empty for a week while the family is away. Write the squirrel's daily visits. Angle: day one, patient. Day four, staring in at the window. What happens on day seven?
  • Describe a squirrel eating one sunflower seed, slowly enough to fill a paragraph. Angle: the turning in the paws, the teeth, the shell falling. What are the eyes doing meanwhile?
  • The family dog watches the squirrel at the feeder through the glass every morning. Write the dog's log. First line: 7:02. It is back. 7:03. It looked at me. 7:04. I have told everyone.
  • The person who fills the feeder and the squirrel who empties it have been at it for a year. Write both sides. Angle: each thinks the other is clever. Neither will ever say so.
  • Two squirrels arrive at the bird feeder at the same moment. Write the stand-off. Angle: who blinks first, and does a sparrow get the seed while they argue?
  • Watch a squirrel at a feeder or in a park, then write only what it did. Angle: no guessing what it thought. Paws, tail, stops and starts. Add one guess at the very end.
  • Write a note from the birds to the squirrel about sharing the feeder. First line: We have talked it over, and we would like to suggest a schedule.
  • Write a squirrel's raid on the bird feeder as the chickadee who was there first. First line: I had one seed. One. And then the whole feeder started to swing.
  • Write a squirrel's review of the bird feeders on one street, with scores. Fact: gray squirrels rob bird feeders of sunflower seeds, corn and millet.
  • Write the commentary on a squirrel's jump from the fence to the bird feeder, as if it were a sport. Angle: the wind-up, the leap, the landing. Does the feeder hold?

Getting ready for winter 15

  • A child rakes the leaves into a pile and a squirrel keeps taking them. Write the afternoon. Angle: the child wants a pile to jump in. The squirrel wants a roof. Who gets the leaves?
  • A hard frost is coming tonight. Write the hours inside a squirrel's nest. Fact: in cold winter spells, squirrels may share one drey for warmth.
  • A squirrel born in autumn spends its first winter in its mother's nest. Write what she tells it about the cold. Fact: young gray squirrels born in autumn often spend the winter with their mother.
  • A squirrel builds a nest of leaves high in a tree before the cold. Write the building of it. Fact: a squirrel's nest is called a drey: leaves and twigs in the fork of a tree, lined with moss and dry grass.
  • A squirrel checks its nest for leaks before the first winter storm. Write the inspection. Fact: a drey needs constant upkeep to keep water out, with twigs and leaves replaced as needed.
  • A squirrel finds the ground frozen for the first time this year. Write the morning it has to change its plans. Angle: yesterday the acorns went in easily. Where do today's go?
  • A squirrel hides food in one place after another all autumn. Write one busy hour of it. Fact: a gray squirrel is a scatter-hoarder, estimated to make several thousand small caches each season.
  • A squirrel runs out of room in the nest before winter and has to choose what stays. Write the choosing. Angle: a favorite pinecone, a good stick, too many leaves. What gets carried back out?
  • Is the squirrel wise to store food for winter, or does it worry too much? Write what you think. Angle: compare it with an animal that sleeps through the cold and one that flies away from it.
  • It is the busiest day of autumn in the oak tree. Write the squirrels' day as a traffic report. Angle: delays on the main branch, a near miss at the fork, acorns down across two lanes.
  • The leaves fall and every squirrel nest in the park can suddenly be seen. Write a walk under them. Fact: dreys become much more visible in autumn, when the leaves have fallen.
  • Write a squirrel's to-do list for the last warm week of autumn. Fact: eastern gray squirrels do not hibernate.
  • Write a squirrel's winter morning: out of the nest, down the trunk, across the snow to one remembered spot. Angle: one meal's trip, start to finish. What is under the snow when it gets there?
  • Write about a squirrel who leaves everything to the last minute, and the first snow. Angle: the neighbors are finished and smug. Who helps, and what does it cost?
  • Write the talk between a squirrel getting ready for winter and a goose about to fly south. First line: "You are leaving? All of it? The whole yard?"

Real squirrels 15

  • Can a flying squirrel fly? Write the true answer. Fact: it glides on a membrane between its front and back legs, and can cover more than 150 feet in one glide.
  • Describe the sounds a red squirrel makes and what you think each one means. Fact: the American red squirrel makes a long, falling trill and a mixed chatter of notes.
  • Describe what a squirrel eats besides nuts. Fact: gray squirrels also eat seeds, tree buds, flowers, berries and some kinds of forest fungi.
  • Explain how a tree squirrel, a ground squirrel and a flying squirrel differ. Fact: the squirrel family includes tree squirrels, flying squirrels and ground squirrels such as chipmunks.
  • Explain why a squirrel buries nuts instead of eating them all at once. Fact: red squirrels gather seeds and nuts and hide them, a food store for the lean winter.
  • What is a baby squirrel called, and what is it like when it is born? Write the answer. Fact: newborn gray squirrels are called kits, kittens or pups, and are born blind and hairless.
  • The word squirrel goes back to Greek words for shade and tail. Write a poem called Shadow Tail. Fact: the Greek name means shade tail, for the long bushy tail many squirrels have.
  • Write a field guide entry for the American red squirrel. Fact: it is about 12 inches long, with a bushy dark red tail and a thick white ring around each eye.
  • Write a night in the life of a flying squirrel, an animal few people ever see. Fact: flying squirrels are nocturnal, which is why few people ever see them.
  • Write a report on a squirrel's eyes and whiskers. Fact: squirrels have excellent vision, and many have whiskers on their legs as well as their heads.
  • Write a report on the black squirrels that some towns have. Fact: some eastern gray squirrels are almost entirely black, as in large parts of southeastern Canada.
  • Write a summer afternoon in a squirrel's tree, when nothing moves. Fact: gray squirrels mostly keep out of a summer day's midday heat.
  • Write about a squirrel's footprints in fresh snow and what they tell you. Fact: a squirrel's track shows four toes on each front foot and five on each hind foot.
  • Write about a squirrel's front teeth and the work they do in a day. Fact: a squirrel's front teeth, like other rodents', keep growing throughout its life.
  • Write about where in the world squirrels live. Fact: squirrels are native to the Americas, Eurasia and Africa, and live in almost every habitat.

How it works

A squirrel writing prompt here catches the animal at its busiest, in the weeks when the oak drops everything at once: burying, forgetting, raiding the bird feeder and patching the nest before the first storm.

Read the full guide

The lost acorn, funny and true

Fifteen prompts follow one acorn. The comedy has facts under it: Wikipedia's article on the eastern gray squirrel says a squirrel makes several thousand small caches in a season and, when it feels watched, may only pretend to bury its food.

Why a squirrel's autumn is so busy

Eastern gray squirrels do not hibernate, so their autumn is all preparation. These prompts build the leaf nest, called a drey, check it for leaks and give a frosty night to squirrels sharing one for warmth.

  • Give the squirrel a deadline. A story prompt gets better when the first snow is a day away.

Questions and answers

What is a good squirrel writing prompt?

One with a problem a squirrel would really have. The last acorn on the oak will not fall. The feeder has a roof that spins. A blue jay is watching, so the acorn cannot be buried yet.

Do squirrels remember where they bury their nuts?

Mostly. Wikipedia's article on the eastern gray squirrel says they have very accurate memory for their caches and find them by landmarks, helped by smell. The National Wildlife Federation says red squirrels sometimes forget seeds, which then grow into trees.

Can a flying squirrel fly?

No, it glides. The National Wildlife Federation says a membrane between the front and back legs can carry a flying squirrel more than 150 feet in one glide, steering with its legs and braking with its tail.

Are these squirrel writing prompts for fall?

Most are set in autumn, when the acorns drop and the nests are built. The fifteen on real squirrels and most of the feeder prompts work in any season.

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