A duck knocked on the classroom door with its beak.What did the duck want?
A frog hopped into Ben's lunch box and shut the lid.What happened at lunch time?
A parcel came to the door with no name on it.What was inside the parcel?
A pony was standing at the bus stop, waiting.Which bus did the pony get on?
A tiny dragon was asleep in the teapot.What woke the dragon up?
A very small elephant was hiding in the bread bin.How did it get in there?
All the birds in the park flew down and sat in a neat row.What were the birds waiting for?
Ava's shadow waved goodbye and walked the other way.Where did the shadow go all day?
The baby said her first word, and it was a very long one.What was the word?
The cake was in the oven and the timer had stopped working.How did they know when it was ready?
The crayon drew a door on the wall, and the door opened.What was on the other side?
Dad put on two different shoes and did not notice.When did he find out?
Show all 126 story starters (114 more)
Ages 6 to 8, continued
Dad took a wrong turn, and now nothing looked the same.How did they find the way home?
The dog learned how to open the biscuit tin.What did the dog do with the biscuits?
Every night the hamster's wheel was in a new place.Who was moving the wheel?
Every time Mum said cheese, the camera took a picture of the floor.What was wrong with the camera?
Every time Zoe clapped, one more balloon appeared.What happened when the room was full?
The goldfish blew a bubble with a note inside it.What did the note say?
Grandpa's umbrella lifted him one step off the ground.How high did the umbrella go?
Granny's hat blew off and landed on a cow.How did Granny get her hat back?
The hen laid an egg that was square.What hatched out of it?
The ice cream van played its tune backwards.What did the van sell that day?
It rained so hard that the playground turned into a pond.What game did the children make up?
The key was made of ice, and it was starting to melt.What did the key open?
The lights went off just as the birthday candles were lit.What did the party do in the dark?
Lily's boots started walking before she had put them on.Where did the boots go?
Mia's cat came home wearing a tiny red scarf.Who gave the cat the scarf?
The moon was sitting in the top of the apple tree.How did the moon get back up?
The new boy did not speak, but he could whistle any tune.How did the others say hello?
Nina found a mitten on the wall with a note pinned to it.Whose mitten was it?
Omar's tooth fell out at the top of the slide.Where did the tooth land?
On the first day of school, Jay's name was not on any peg.What did Jay do about it?
The puppy dug a hole in the garden, and something in the hole dug back.What popped out of the hole?
Sam found a snail carrying a suitcase.Where was the snail going?
The snowman winked.What did the snowman want to say?
Somebody had stuck googly eyes on everything in the fridge.Who did it, and why?
The spaghetti would not stay on the plate.Where did the spaghetti go?
The teacher sat down on something that went squeak.What was on the chair?
Ted's trousers were on back to front all day.Who was the first to spot it?
There was a button on the wall that said DO NOT PRESS.Who pressed it, and what happened?
There was one swing left and two children ran for it.How did they sort it out?
When Tom sneezed, his hat turned into a bird.What did the bird do next?
Ages 9 to 10 42
A fox came to the back door every night at eight and left one thing on the step.What did the fox leave tonight?
A sheep had joined the sponsored walk, and it was winning.What happened at the finish line?
A spider had spun a web across the school gate in the shape of an arrow.Where did the arrow point?
A wizard's hat arrived by post, with a bill.Who had ordered the hat?
All the cats on the street had started meeting behind the garage.What were the cats planning?
At midnight the statues in the park changed places.Who noticed in the morning?
The bees had built their honeycomb in the shape of a letter.Which letter was it, and who was it for?
The bus drove straight past their stop, and the driver did not look round.What did the children decide to do?
The class guinea pig had been keeping a diary, and today somebody found it.What was written on the last page?
The class photograph had one extra person in the back row, pulling a face.Who was the extra person?
The clock in the hall struck thirteen, and the stairs grew one more step.Where did the new step lead?
Dad's new navigation gadget would only give directions to the seaside.Where did the family end up?
The den was nearly finished when they found the old tin under the roots.What was in the tin?
Every door in the corridor led to the same small garden.What was growing in the garden?
Everyone in assembly got the hiccups at the same time.What cured them?
Grandad's shed had a padlock that nobody had the key for.How did they open it at last?
Halfway through the school play the lights went out, and Priya knew every line.What did Priya do?
The head teacher's wig was on top of the weather vane.How did it get up there?
The library book was due back three hundred years ago.Who borrowed it first?
The lighthouse beam stopped on one house and would not move on.Who lived in that house?
The lost dog poster on the lamp post had a drawing of Kit's own dog on it.Who put the poster up?
The map in the attic showed their house, with one extra room.How did they find the room?
The new house had a door in the garden wall that was painted shut.What was the door for?
The note in the lunch box was not in Mum's writing.Who wrote the note?
The old horse stopped at the same gate every day and would not walk on.What was behind the gate?
On the camping trip, the map blew into the river.How did they get back to the tent?
The parrot in the pet shop said a name that nobody had taught it.Whose name was it?
The racing pigeon came home with a second message tied to its other leg.Who sent the second message?
The robot vacuum cleaner had learned to open the front door.Where did the vacuum cleaner go?
Rosa's pencil would only write the truth.What happened in the spelling test?
The science project was due in the morning, and the volcano would not erupt.What did they try next?
Somebody had been leaving chalk drawings on the pavement before school.Who was the artist?
The substitute teacher was somebody's grandmother, and she had rules of her own.What was her first rule?
The talent show's magician could not find the rabbit.Where was the rabbit?
The team mascot costume was stuck, and the match started in five minutes.Who was inside the costume?
Two best friends were picked as captains of opposite teams.Who did each captain choose first?
The umbrella stand held one umbrella that was always wet.Where had the umbrella been?
Uncle Raj entered the pie contest with a pie he had sat on.What did the judges say?
Whatever Dev drew in the steam on the window was there in the morning.What did Dev draw next?
When the tide went out, a seal was sitting in the rowing boat.What did the seal do when they came close?
The wishing well sent back a note asking for a wish of its own.What did the well wish for?
The zoo counted its penguins twice, and both times there was one too many.Where did the extra penguin come from?
Ages 11 to 13 42
The careers quiz said my ideal job was lighthouse keeper, and it said the same to everybody else.What does the class do about it?
The class trip to the cheese factory was going fine until the wheel of cheddar got loose.Where does the cheese roll?
The dog I walk for pocket money led me to a house I had been told to keep away from.Do you knock, or go home and ask why?
The door at the end of the science corridor is only there on Thursdays.What do you take with you when you open it?
Every morning the same crow leaves something shiny on my windowsill, and today it was a key.What do you try the key in first?
Everything I write in the back of my maths book happens, but smaller.What do you write next?
The fortune teller at the school fair would not read my palm and gave me my money back.What had she seen?
I agreed to keep one secret for each of my two best friends, and the secrets do not fit together.Which friend do you talk to first?
I auditioned as a joke and got the lead part, which has a three-minute solo.What do you do at the first rehearsal?
I can stop time for exactly one minute a day, and I have just wasted today's.What happens next that you needed it for?
I found my own name carved inside the old desk, in handwriting I will not have for years.What else has the carver written?
I found the owl in our shed on Friday, and by Sunday I had told three different stories about what was in there.Which story comes undone first?
I promised to look after the class stick insects over the holidays, and this morning the tank was empty.Where do you look first?
I signed the class up for the wrong competition, and it turns out we are quite good at synchronised swimming.What is the team called?
I taught my baby cousin one word as a joke, and now it is the only word she says.What is the word, and who hears it first?
I told everyone I could play the guitar, and now I am on the list for Friday's concert.What do you do with four days?
I wore my jumper inside out by mistake, and by lunch half the year had copied me.What do you do on day two?
The lift in our block has a button for a floor that does not exist.Who else has pressed it?
The lost property box gives back things people have not lost yet.What does it hand to you?
My dad has volunteered to be the school mascot, and he has ideas.What is his worst idea?
My grandmother gave me a jar labelled Tuesday, and it is humming.Do you open it on a Tuesday, or on any other day?
My little brother has swapped something of mine at school, and he will not say what he got for it.How do you find out?
My name was read out for a prize I never entered.Who put your name down?
My reflection has started arriving a second late.What does it do when you turn away?
My science partner and I invented a glue that works too well.What are you stuck to?
My sister says the horse can tell when a person is lying, and today it would not let our new neighbour near.What do you ask the neighbour?
The new teacher has called me by my older sister's name all week, and I have started answering to it.When do you correct him?
The old man at number nine pays me to deliver one envelope a week, and this week it was addressed to my own house.Do you open it?
Our dog knows a command none of us taught her, and she only obeys it for my grandfather.What is the command?
Our substitute bus driver is taking the scenic route to school, and it is now lunchtime.Where are you?
The school newspaper wants my story, but the best part of it is not true.Do you hand it in?
The school's new bell plays a tune, and nobody can turn it off.How long has it been playing?
The second-hand phone still gets messages meant for its last owner, and tonight one of them was about me.Do you answer it?
The snail race was my idea, and now the whole year is counting on my snail.How do you get out of it?
Somebody has been opening the gate to let the farm's goats out, and I think I know who.Do you tell, or find out why first?
The stray cat I have been feeding in secret walked into our kitchen during dinner.What do you say to your family?
The swan on the canal has been collecting things, and one of them is my lost bus pass.How do you get it back?
The team sheet went up at lunch, and my best friend's name was where mine should have been.What do you say on the walk home?
The village has one rule: nobody mentions the fourth bridge.What do you find when you count the bridges?
The wallet on the pavement was full of money and had an address two streets away.What happens at the door?
We were only meant to borrow the rowing boat for ten minutes.What goes wrong at minute eleven?
The whale-watching boat had turned for home when I saw a fin on the wrong side.Do you shout, and what if you are wrong?
How this list was compiled: Original list written for Draw This Next on 2026-09-30: story starters for a child to carry on, each a single sentence that stops at the moment something has to happen, with one question to get the next sentence out. Every starter and question is our own work, no entry states a fact, and no brand, show, game or character from one is named. Nothing is more frightening than a mild mystery. The age bands are our own judgement of sentence length and of how much each starter asks for. They are a starting point, and the page claims no curriculum standard, grade level or learning benefit. Every starter sits in one age band and one kind. No starter repeats an entry of any other list on the site (the five lists of the story prompt generator and the first line generator among them). Licence: own work
How it works
This story prompt generator for kids deals one story starter at a time: a sentence that stops just as something has to happen, with a question to answer next. Press Pick another story starter for a new one.
Read the full guide
Read it, answer it, keep going
Read the sentence aloud. Then answer the question underneath, out loud or on paper, and the story has a second sentence. Ask what happens next twice more and it has a middle. It can be told, written or drawn as a comic.
Three ages and four kinds
A menu under the button narrows the list. The age groups are our own judgement: short sentences for six to eight, longer ones for nine and ten, and for eleven to thirteen a narrator with a choice to make, which suits a story prompt generator middle school classes can share. Animals, Magic, Real life and Funny cut across all three.
For a child who is stuck, change one word of the starter together. A duck becomes a dragon and the story is theirs.
Tell it before writing it. A story said aloud first is shorter work on paper.
In a class, give everyone the same starter. Hearing the different second sentences is the lesson.
Questions and answers
How do I use a story starter with a young child?
Read the sentence, ask the question under it and write down whatever they say. Keep asking what happened next until they run out, then read the whole thing back. Three or four sentences is a story at six.
Is this a random story prompt generator for kids?
Yes, in the plain sense. Each press picks a starter at random from a fixed list written for this page, and none returns until all have been seen. Nothing is made up on the spot.
Are the starters suitable for school?
They were written for children. Nothing is more frightening than a mild mystery, and no brand, show or game character is named. The age groups are a guide, not a reading level from any curriculum.
Can the story be a drawing?
Yes. Draw the starter as the first panel of a comic and the answer to its question as the second. The drawing prompts for kids page has pictures to start from.