Fun Writing Games

Getting kids to enjoy writing when they're old enough is not an easy task. Sometimes you have to put in the extra work to make it fun for them so they actually want to write. Writing prompts are a great way to do this. However, taking it a step forward and forming it into a writing game can be even more fun and exciting for them.

If you notice that your child has quite a wild imagination, you may not have a problem getting your child to love writing. Children can be quite the story-tellers. One of my daughters once told me she had a cloud family that lived in the skies before joining our family. Her stories are never boring, to say the least. After hitting the preteen stage, kids may not show much interest in basic school subjects such as writing. It really is a shame how the school systems have failed children over history and continue to do so.

Despite being important in order to progress through school, writing is a major element when it comes to expressing our emotions. This is why so many people write in a journal or a diary. It helps to sort out everything in their minds so that they can find better solutions for the challenges in their lives.

Writing can be relaxing and relieving. I used to write journal entries and poetry. Obviously, I am into writing, I started a blog... for the third time. Even just writing lists every day can make a tremendous difference in your day. Otherwise, if writing isn't your thing, it can help you in so many ways.

Soon, one of my favorite printables will be back up for sale. It has various kinds of writing prompts in it to engage kids in using their brains and doing some deep thinking. The printable will be called "My Junk Journal". My hope is that children will use them to add as much creative material to it as possible. Add material to the pages, add pages, and use their imaginations to create a monster of a journal. As soon as it gets posted, I will be adding the link to this post and featuring it. For updates, you can subscribe!

One Line at a Time

I call this game "One Line at a Time" because you write the story one line at a time. You can play this game alone, with another person, or with multiple people if you want to make it interesting. So my printable will have a story starter sentence that one person will finish, After that, the second person will write the following sentence. You continue this until someone writes "The End".

There are many different ways that you can play this game. If your kid wants to do one by themselves, they can write a line in the story once a day. It's a great game for parents to play with their kids as far as quality time goes. Another good idea is to have a theme for the story before starting it—funny, dramatic, murder mystery, action-packed, etc. Be sure to explain that all stories have a clear beginning, middle, and end in them. After one game, I think they will approach writing with a little more enthusiasm next time. My Junk Journal printable has many writing prompts including the story starters that can be used for this game.

Word Unscrambler

Another writing game to build skills is the word unscrambling game. You can use the regular word scramble games with just one word or you can play with whole sentences. For instance, you can come up with themes for your sentences, write the sentence out, and then scramble the words so that they have to put the sentence back together. One way to make this activity more fun is to cut words and letters out of magazines or have your kids do it.

Rhyming Word Match

Pretty simple games like this are easy to create. You could also use magazine word cutouts for this as well. Pick a theme and you could also try it with antonyms and synonyms.

MASH

I know we are not the only ones who played this game in our childhood. If you are unaware of what it is, it is a fun prediction game that most girls played when they were in their preteen and teen years. It is a very nostalgic game for me. The hard part is coming up with new categories for your fortune-telling. That is unless you have a printable like the free one I have that you can download with the button below...

Download MASH Printable

Storytelling Cards

In this game, you will need to make or find a printable for cards containing characters, settings, plot twists, and endings. However many people are playing you can pass out a number of cards to them and make sure that they only get one ending card. They have to tell the story with the cards that have been dealt.

Mad Libs

Here is yet another popular game that has been around for a while. Mad libs are so fun to do as a kid because the stories come out pretty silly. To make your own you would have to write out a short one-page story, then take out words that are verbs, nouns, and adjectives. The other person has to fill in all the missing words without knowing what the story is about or looking at the story. For example, once your blank spots are all picked out, ask the other person for the noun, verb, or adjective to place in the blank spot. You can also find many free mad libs printables at The Painted Turtles website.

Hangman

You can play Hangman online for free on Fact Monster.

Journal

Writing in a journal has so many mental health benefits.

Playdough Writing

This is an activity I have done with my son on many occasions. He likes making the shapes of letters with playdough and then saying a word that starts with each letter.

Hop Scotch ABC

Make a regular hopscotch with chalk. Then fill the boxes in with letters and hopscotch and spell words at the same time. You could hopscotch back and forth to spell your name or have someone guess what you are trying to spell out. This is a great way to intertwine exercise and learning.

Rhyme & Roll

First, you need to pick a category/word. Then roll a die to figure out how many words you must come up with to rhyme with the main word.

Instruction Writing

I thought this was a neat idea. Just have them pick some kind of activity that they like to do and have them write instructions as detailed as they can.

Junk Journaling

My Junk Journal has over 50 pages of journal writing prompts and creative invitations in it. I have recently updated this digital download and added to it. It is full of creative writing ideas for you or your kids to enjoy! You can get it on my Etsy shop here.

Comic Strips

There are some free comic strip printables at Picklbums blog.

Genre Roulette

You can make a wheel with different genres on it so that when you spin it whatever it lands on is the type of story you have to write about. Alternatively, there are many genre generators online for writers that you could use. But I don't see much fun in the so the wheel it is!

Crossword Puzzles

It may be a bit littered with ads but Puzzles to Print has plenty of printable crosswords, word searches, and word scrambles on their website. You can click the link here to check it out.

Creating Ads

Such a great way for problem-solving and creativity is having your kids create an ad for a favorite product! With how popular videos are nowadays this one could possibly become a family favorite. You could base a whole YouTube channel around this activity! One mommy blogger gave me the idea for this when she had her kids try it! Her tabletop surprise ideas are great and if you want to see how her kids' videos turned out check them out at this link!

Scientific Experiments

Experiments require lots of observation and writing. There are literally tons of ideas on Pinterest to choose from.

Guess Who Cards

Make cards with your kid's favorite characters on them. All who are playing get a piece of paper and draw a character card. they then have to write a description of the character on their paper then place the character card face down in a pile so no one else can see it. Then everyone gets to guess the character based on the descriptions that were given.

Story Dice/Bag

If you cannot find any printables or don't want to buy any actual story dice, you can roll story dice online at this link.

Letter Scavenger Hunts

There are an abundance of letter scavenger hunt printables but you can just as easily use my ABC Matching Game printable. You would usually play this by finding one thing that starts with each letter or maybe not all the letters because that may be kind of hard. You could definitely switch it up and put it on the scavenger hunt list to find something that has the letter in it.

Song Lyrics Game

Where kids pick one of their favorite songs and rewrite the lyrics to create their own version. This game could get entertaining. Likewise, writing poetry can lead to them writing their own songs. I used to write poems all the time when I was younger and I enjoyed it. Poems don't generally have to rhyme but it certainly does help you use your brain if you are trying to rhyme.

In conclusion, there are countless writing activities and games that can be made out of them.