Monday, April 27, 2015

Photo Writing Prompt Ideas for Homeschoolers

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In our homeschool we do weekly writing prompts. I already wrote a post on 36 writing prompts - prompts we've personally used. If you've never incorporated writing prompts in your homeschool, I highly recommend viewing that post!

 A few months ago, I decided to change things up a bit. Instead of giving my kids a topic to write about, I decided to show them a picture to write about. It's been super fun, although somewhat more difficult on my part. Searching for interesting images for my kids to write about is far more challenging for me than coming up with a list of topics! And, good grief, it's so frustrating to see inappropriate images pull up when entering completely innocent words in the search bar. :( Ugh.

Tip: Change your safe search mode to strict. The default is moderate. I didn't see this handy dandy feature right above all the images until a few picture prompts ago.

10 Photo Writing Prompt Ideas

I wish with all my heart that I could share in this post the images we've used so far, but I don't want to break any copyright rules. So, I am just going to link to the images. I found all of our picture prompt images using the Bing search bar. (The pictures in my above graphic came from Pixabay, a great resource for free images that don't require attribution.)

Rules are simple:

* Show kids an image you've chosen (I started having my kids take turns picking a picture prompt from about 2-3 images. All kids write about the same picture. The next week a different kid gets to pick.)

* Give kids about 15-20 minutes to write about anything they want as long as it has something to do with the picture. Give a 2-5 minute warning for when time will be up, so they can wrap up their stories.

* Have kids read stories out loud. :)

Following are the picture prompts we've already used:

1. Haunted House

2. Guy Running with Ice Cream Cone in the Snow

(I was actually searching for "shiny objects in the snow" when I came across this image. I thought it was funny and figured my kids would have fun with this one! Looks like a death eater in the back ground.)

3. Hands on a Cliff

4. Guy and Banana Peel in the Middle of the Road

5. Deep, Dark Cave

6. Unicorn Bursting Through a Portal

7. Leprechaun Hat in a Field of Clover

8. Skeleton in Desert Holding Cell Phone

9. Candy House in the Woods

10. Castle in the Sky

My kids have really enjoyed photo writing prompts. Maybe yours will, too!

Linked to Hip Homeschool Hop, A Little Bird Told Me, Thoughtful Thursdays, Literacy Musing Mondays

5 comments:

DorothyWillfred said...

really great idea with photo prompts. Think it's really great for children. But I want to try it my office with essay writing reviews to make our service better and to make it a little bit funnier)))

Shelly said...

That is such an awesome idea! That would go great with notebooking!

Brandi said...

Thank you, Shelly. It was really fun! Searching for pictures proved to be more difficult than I thought it would be, but I'm glad I did it.

The Forever Joyful Homeschool said...

Great ideas! My children like learning about photography. I bet they would enjoy taking a picture then writing about it, too. Thanks for sharing at the #LMMLinkup.

Donna Reidland said...

This looks like some great ideas for anyone wanting to get their writing juices going! I'm visiting today from Literary Musing Mondays.

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