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How to run a writing prompt with the wheel
Spin from the tab that matches the writing type you're teaching, so the prompt practices the skill in your lesson. Spinning in front of the class also ends the "I don't know what to write" stall: everyone gets the same starting point at the same moment.
- Pick the type and grade bandOpen the Narrative, Opinion or Informative tab for K–2 or 3–5 and press Put these on the wheel. Delete any prompt that doesn't suit your class before you spin.
- Spin and read it twicePress F to show the wheel on the board, spin, and read the prompt aloud twice. It stays on screen in big type for students who need to look back.
- Plan for two or three minutesStudents sketch a quick plan: first-next-last boxes for narrative, a reasons list for opinion, a fact web for informative. Each prompt's note in the table below has a frame or a planning cue to read aloud.
- Write on a timerPut the classroom timer on the board. 10–15 minutes is a common start in K–2 and 20–30 minutes in 3–5. K–1 writers can draw first, then label or dictate.
- Share and keep a recordChoose two or three writers to read aloud. The spin history lists every prompt with its time, so you can copy it into your writing log and avoid repeats next week.
Want each table on a different prompt?
Turn on Remove winner after spin in Options and spin once per table group. Each prompt leaves the wheel once it's drawn, so no two groups write about the same thing, and peer feedback stays fresh.
Writing prompts by type and grade band
Six tabs: narrative, opinion and informative prompts for grades K–2 and 3–5, each with a sentence frame or planning cue you can read aloud. None of the prompts ask about family, money or home life, so any student can write about any spin.
| Prompt | Frame or planning cue | On the wheel |
|---|---|---|
| A time you learned something new | Tell what happened first, next and last. | |
| A day as the class pet | Draw it first. Who fed you? What could you see from your cage? | |
| The day it rained jelly beans | What did you see, hear and do? How did it stop? | |
| A time you helped a friend | Frame: One day, my friend needed help with ___. | |
| Your rocket lands on the moon | First, next, last: blast off, landing, the trip home. | |
| A lost mitten finds its way back | Tell it from the mitten's side. Who helps it along the way? | |
| A tiny dragon visits our class | Where does it hide? What does the class do about it? | |
| Your shoes can talk for a day | What do they say? Where do they want to walk? | |
| A fun game at recess | Who played, what happened, and how did it end? | |
| An owl who can't stay awake | Why is it so sleepy? How does it solve the problem? |
| Prompt | Frame or planning cue | On the wheel |
|---|---|---|
| You switch places with your teacher | Zoom in on one scene: your first five minutes in charge. | |
| A time you didn't give up | Slow down the hardest moment. Add dialogue and what you were thinking. | |
| You wake up three inches tall | What's your first problem, and how do you solve it? | |
| The library book that hums | Who notices first? What happens when someone opens it? | |
| A door appears on the playground | Where does it lead, and why do you go back? | |
| A field trip with a funny problem | Beginning, problem, fix. Keep the problem small and silly. | |
| A robot joins your team | Tell the first game from the robot's point of view. | |
| The day the colors disappeared | How do people notice? How do the colors come back? | |
| A moment you felt brave | Show what you saw, heard and thought, then how it ended. | |
| A school day as a pencil | Tell one day, start to finish, in the pencil's voice. |
| Prompt | Frame or planning cue | On the wheel |
|---|---|---|
| Which season is the best? | Frame: I think ___ is the best season because ___. | |
| Cats or dogs? | Pick one. Give two reasons. End with: That's why ___. | |
| The best recess game | Name the game and give two reasons it's the best. | |
| Should our class get a pet? | Say yes or no, then give two reasons. | |
| Is it better to read or be read to? | Frame: I like ___ more because ___. | |
| The best animal classmate | Pick one animal. What would it be good at in class? | |
| Art, music or gym: which is best? | Pick one and tell what you learn there. | |
| Rain or sunshine? | Frame: ___ is better because ___. Add one example. | |
| The best book in our class library | Name the book and use your favorite part as a reason. | |
| Should recess be longer? | Give one reason and one example. Draw it too. |
| Prompt | Frame or planning cue | On the wheel |
|---|---|---|
| Should students have homework? | State your opinion, give three reasons, then restate it. | |
| Should every school have a garden? | Back up each reason with a fact or an example. | |
| Should students pick their own seats? | Answer one reason a reader who disagrees might give. | |
| The most important invention | Pick one (the wheel, the printing press, the light bulb) and argue for it. | |
| Should recess come before lunch? | Use linking words: for example, another reason, also. | |
| Book or movie: which is better? | Pick a story you know both ways and compare one scene. | |
| Which subject deserves more time? | Give three reasons and end with what the school should do. | |
| Are field trips worth the time? | Use one example from a trip your class has taken or could take. | |
| Should animals live in zoos? | Give one reason for the other side, then explain why yours is stronger. | |
| Calculators in math class? | Say when they help, when they don't, and what you decide. |
| Prompt | Frame or planning cue | On the wheel |
|---|---|---|
| How to plant a seed | Use first, next, then, last. Draw each step. | |
| All about an animal | Tell where it lives, what it eats and one cool fact. | |
| How to be a good friend | Give three tips. Start each one with an action word. | |
| All about our school | Name three places in the school and what happens in each. | |
| How to line up for lunch | Write the steps a new student would need to know. | |
| All about the weather | Pick sunny, rainy, windy or snowy. What do you see and wear? | |
| How to take care of a book | Give three rules and why each one matters. | |
| All about insects | Every insect has 6 legs and 3 body parts. Add facts you know. | |
| How to play a game you know | Tell what you need, the rules and how you win. | |
| All about the moon | Share facts you know, then draw and label a picture. |
| Prompt | Frame or planning cue | On the wheel |
|---|---|---|
| How a seed becomes a plant | Use sequence words and a labeled diagram of each stage. | |
| Teach a younger student a game | Write rules a second grader could follow without help. | |
| All about a U.S. state | Include its region, its capital and two facts that surprised you. | |
| Explain the water cycle | Cover evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection. | |
| How recycling works | Research what happens after the bin is emptied. Use a heading for each step. | |
| An invention that changed life | Who made it, when, and how daily life changed after. | |
| Compare two animals | Plan with a Venn diagram, then write a paragraph on each. | |
| Explain a math skill | Pick one, like rounding, and teach it with a worked example. | |
| All about a planet | Include its size, its place from the sun and one surprising fact. | |
| Why we have seasons | Explain how Earth's tilt changes sunlight, and add a diagram. |
8 ways to use the writing prompt wheel
Daily quick-write
Open the morning with one spin and a five-minute quick-write in journals. Short daily writing builds stamina faster than one long piece a week, and students stop dreading the blank page.
One type for a whole unit
During an opinion unit, load the Opinion tab for your grade band and spin a new prompt each day. Students see that the same structure (opinion, reasons, conclusion) works for any topic.
Spin the type, then the topic
On review days, spin a three-slice wheel for the writing type first, then load that tab and spin the prompt. Students practice switching purpose, which is what writing tests ask of them.
One topic, three purposes
Take one spin, such as "Should our class get a pet?", and write it all three ways: a story about the day the pet escaped, an opinion, and an informative how-to on pet care. It shows how purpose changes the writing.
Talk before you write
After the spin, partners tell each other their idea for one minute. Reluctant writers then have a first sentence: the one they just said out loud.
Open the timerSpin twice, choose one
Spin two prompts and let each student pick either. A small choice raises buy-in without the long wait of a full menu of options.
Writing center or sub plans
Copy the share link into your sub plans or the writing center slide. The prompts travel inside the link, so a substitute or a small group can spin with no account.
Author's chair
At the end of the block, swap the prompts for your class list to choose who reads aloud, with Remove winner on so nobody reads twice before everyone has had a turn. Undo brings the prompts back.
Writing prompt: frequently asked questions
What are the three types of writing taught in elementary school?
Most U.S. standards, including the Common Core, name three: opinion (state a view and support it with reasons), informative/explanatory (teach the reader about a topic with facts, definitions and details) and narrative (tell a real or imagined story in order, with descriptive detail). From grade 6, opinion writing becomes argument writing, which adds claims, evidence and counterclaims.
How long should students write for a prompt?
For a daily quick-write, 5–10 minutes is plenty. For a full piece, many K–2 teachers plan 10–15 minutes of writing after a short plan, and grades 3–5 often write for 20–30 minutes. Start shorter than you think and add a few minutes every couple of weeks as stamina grows.
What's the difference between a writing prompt and a story starter?
A writing prompt gives a topic and a purpose ("Should recess be longer?") and works for opinion and informative writing as well as stories. A story starter hands students the first sentence of a story, so they begin in the middle of a scene. Use the story starter wheel for fiction warm-ups and this wheel for unit writing.
What do I do when a student says they have nothing to write about?
Have them talk first: one minute telling a partner their idea, then write down the first sentence they said. Offer the frame from the prompt's note, let K–2 writers draw before they write, or spin twice and let them choose. Prompts about personal life can stall students, which is why these never ask about family, home or money.
How often should students write to a prompt?
Short, frequent writing builds fluency. Many teachers run a 5–10 minute quick-write three to five days a week and save longer prompts for unit writing, with a full piece every week or two. On review days, mixing the three types keeps each structure fresh before state writing tests.
How the randomness works
When you press Spin, ChalkSpin asks your browser's Web Crypto generator for a random number and uses it to choose the winning slice before the wheel starts turning. The animation then lands on that slice. Each slice's chance is its share of the wheel: 10 equal prompts means a 1 in 10 chance each.
Weights are always visible: a prompt marked *2 gets a slice twice as wide, so everyone can see why it comes up more. Turn on Remove winner if a prompt shouldn't come up twice in a round.
- Generator
- Web Crypto (
crypto.getRandomValues), in your browser - Odds
- Equal to each slice's size on the wheel
- Weights
- Shown openly as wider slices, never hidden
- Repeats
- Off when Remove winner is on
- Your list
- Stays in this browser unless you share or save it