It’s a spring bloom of 32 writing prompts for daily writing in April based on national days celebrations! Your students will love the wide variety of days to celebrate with quick writes.
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Have you ever thought about using the national days to create daily writing prompts? It’s a great idea, but it can involve a bit of extra work for a teacher to find school and age appropriate prompts. Obviously you don’t want your students writing about National Margarita Day!
From my first year of teaching, I used daily writing prompts based on a calendar of national days. I found the free calendars at the Teacher Created online store. Every morning, we’d have a five minute chat about the prompt of the day, perhaps watch a short video, and then get started writing right away.
When students have a few minutes to access background information and talk about the topic, they get engaged and actually look forward to writing every day. That’s why I love creating these daily writing journals for you. I’ve made it simple for you to have a wide variety of prompts and suggestions for teacher-curated websites to enhance the daily writing prompt.
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Over the years, many students told me they were afraid of writing or they hated writing. However, after being in my class and experiencing so many engaging daily writing prompts, that changed to, “I love writing!”
April Daily Writing Prompts from National Month Celebrations
This month of April writing prompts includes National Poetry Month and National Jazz Appreciation Month.
There are so many different observances, that sometimes it’s hard to choose what topics to use. What I do is research the national days, choose topics that are appropriate for writing in grade 3, writing in grade 4, or writing in grade 5. Then I find videos or websites to engage and explore the topic. Finally, the students do the April writing prompts.
April is National Poetry Month
You can kick off National Poetry Month in April with this video with Amanda Gorman, available on PBS Kids. Amanda Gorman became the United States Youth Poet Laureate in 2017. Students can listen to her poem, “Talking Gets us There” and then you can have a deep classroom discussion. Finally, students can write about what it means to them. You can read more about the incredible Amanda Gorman on Wikipedia.
If you have a book of her poems, you could choose one or more to use as a poetry mentor text with your class. Just do a quick search on Amazon or elsewhere to find a variety of her books.
April is National Jazz Appreciation Month
Are you not sure how to celebrate National Jazz Appreciation Month? Here’s the audio of a super fun selection of children’s songs played in the jazz style by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. You can play the music for your class while they write. In fact, I’m tapping my feet while listening to the samples right now!
You can see an example of the Jazz Appreciation page from the April Writing Journal in this preview. With each prompt the students do self-editing with the CUPS system. This helps them become independent writers, day by day.
More Writing Prompts for April
There’s always a wide variety of prompts in every month. When you use these journals, you’ll be able to teach across the curriculum, easily and in a minimum of time. Students will develop a breadth of knowledge and you can teach to the depth and complexity you desire. If a topic intrigues you, extend the lesson!
You can use the prompts straight from the digital or PDF writing journal. With a simple search, you can find classroom appropriate videos to share with your students and activate their creative thoughts. The journal has a list of trusted sites for you, the teacher, to use to find background information to share with your class.
With all these topics to explore, you can really get your students turned on about learning and writing. The discussions that come out of these writing prompts when the class shares them are phenomenal. Do you want to know more about the April Writing Journal? You can view a preview in my TpT Store that shows many of the pages included.
Each page includes an image or clipart, a space for writing, and tools to edit using the CUPS system. I get many of the images from Deposit Photos with a money saving plan. The website links are for the teacher to use to look for more information and perhaps share with your young writers.
Literacy Themed April Writing Prompts
- International Children’s Book Day (It’s also Hans Christian Anderson’s birthday.)
- National School Librarian Day (Yay for librarians!)
- National Bookmobile Day (Do you remember those?)
Writing Prompts for Social Studies
- National Nebraska Day
- Colorado also has its own National Day
- National North Dakota Day
Writing About Science
- Arbor Day
- Audubon Day
- Dolphin Day
- Bat Appreciation Day (Bats are an important part of our ecosystems.)
- Orchid Day
- Sense of Smell Day (This is a fun day to explore a dog’s sense of smell.)
- Let’s not forget Earth Day! (With a focus on the three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.)
History and Biography Spring Writing Prompts
- National Sir Winston Churchill Day
- National Thomas Jefferson Day
- Jackie Robinson has a day honoring him in April. It’s perfect for teaching good character. Read the next section for free resources about Jackie Robinson.
- National Babe Ruth Day (Strike up a home run conversation about these baseball greats!)
- National Telephone Day (Hello! Hello! Mr. Bell, is that you?)
Jackie Robinson Day
April 15th isn’t just the dreaded tax day in the United States, it’s also Jackie Robinson Day. This is the perfect day or week to share videos and books about Robinson and how he broke through the racial barriers in the MLB. Every year in April, all players wear the number of Jackie Robinson’s jersey, out of respect for his contributions to baseball and the world.
This vector image is by lucky_xtian on Deposit Photos.
Marshallow Candy Bunnies and Chicks
These fabulous little bunnies and chicks start appearing in stores in March and April. What student wouldn’t want to learn about how these fun candies were invented and how they’re made today?
Here’s what Julie S. had to say about this resource.
My students loved this resource! They were very engaged.
These cute and delicious goodies are covered in a week-long lesson plan. It’s part of what I call my “Sweet History” line of products! You can watch a video to see everything that’s included in this comprehensive resource, Close Reading and Writing Marshmallow Bunnies and Chicks.
Students read and annotate an original passage with the tools included. They practice Tier II vocabulary.
- Immigrant
- Liquid
- Process
- Squeeze
- Stack
- Technology
They answer comprehension questions. To culminate the week, they’ll write a narrative about a time when the marshmallow candies escaped from the Just Born candy factory!
This fun close reading and writing resource comes in both digital and printable versions. You choose what works best for you!
Escape From the Candy Factory
If you love marshmallow bunnies and chicks like kids do, you might want to share this Easter Escape Room activity with your classroom peeps! For now, save this image to your Pinterest board so you remember it for next year, too!
Here are a couple of reviews from teachers who have used it with their classes.
I absolutely LOVE this resource! Very well made and easy to use! It was just what I was looking for – thank you so much!! ~~~mmags88
This was such a fun Easter activity. My students were engaged the entire lesson! ~~~Kassie D.
The Escape From the Candy Factory follows the same information as the Close Reading Marshmallow Candy Bunnies and Chicks, but in a fun escape room format. Watch this video clip to get your students hooked. The best part about this escape room is there’s no prep for you! Just print it and you’re ready to go. It also has an option in Google Slides (R).
Imagine how much fun your students will have reading about the history of Peeps (R) marshmallow bunnies and chicks. After watching the video hook, they’ll be eager for close reading the informational text to find all the clues and solve four challenges. In this engaging ELAescape room, they’ll learn how the candies are made, how they got started, and write a narrative about the escape. Their completion certificate is a jigsaw puzzle with bright bunnies and chicks.
This fun Easter escape room is part of a year-long bundle of holiday themed escape rooms. They include St. Patrick’s Day, Thanksgiving, Día de los Muertos, Valentine’s Day, and several winter holidays.
Try Five Days of a Daily Writing Journal For Free
If you haven’t tried my daily writing prompts before, you can try five days of writing prompts for free and see if it’s a good fit for your class and grade level. Go ahead and see what they’re all about. Download your PDF sample on this page. If it’s not for you, no problem! If you like it,here’s where you can find a daily writing journal for every month of the year.
You can pick up the full month of April Writing Prompts in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I hope you find joy in teaching writing with them.
One teacher told me about how she uses the plastic eggs in her class for a math activity. She puts a math problem in each egg and marks a number on the egg. Students go on an egg hunt. They solve the math problems and write them on an answer sheet. It sounds like a lot of fun, doesn’t it? You could adapt this by tucking a quick writing prompt inside the eggs.