Fun Writing Activity:
Fill-in-the-Gaps Story Writing

Encouraging beginner writers to sit down long enough to write even a short story can be challenging. It takes considerable effort for them to write even a couple of sentences.

That is why I love this quick and fun writing activity in which your very own child stars as the superhero or superheroine.

Your child practices their writing, but not too much to make them bored, and at the end of it they still manage to produce a fun, personalised story featuring themselves!

In this activity, your child fills in the gaps in a pre-written story, personalising it with their own special preferences, such as their favourite toy and food. They don't know the details of the story until after they have written their words, however, so it is fun to read the story at the end and see how it turns out.

Step 1

Download the Fun Writing Activity document and then print out the first page along with either the second or the third page, depending on whether your child is a boy or a girl. The second page is tailored for a boy and the third page for a girl.

Step 2

Ask your child to fill in the blanks on the first page entitled "Fill in the Blanks". Their name appears multiple times since it is needed in the story multiple times.

Step 3

After your child has finished writing all of the words, they should cut out each of the 14 boxes surrounding the words.

Step 4

Next ask your child to stick each box onto the correct space in the story, either on the page entitled "The Superhero!" for boys or on the page entitled "The Superheroine" for girls. The box labelled 1 should be stuck in the space labelled 1 etc.

Step 5

Now ask your child to read the story aloud, or read it to them! My six-year-old had such a grin on his face as I was reading his story to him. He loved it!

If your child enjoyed this activity, they will probably love the Mad Libs fill-in-the-blanks books.

The Mad Libs Junior books, such as Super Silly Mad Libs Junior , are perfect for younger children aged around 5 to 8-years-old. In these books your child chooses from a list of suggested words to fill in the gaps in a story.

For older children, around 8-years-old and over, your child first thinks up words (using prompts such as "Plural Noun", "Occupation" or "Verb Ending in -ing") and then fills the gaps in the story using the words they have chosen. There are Mad Libs books on many themes, but we love the Best of Mad Libs with over 125 of the classic Mad Libs stories.

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