fbpx

100% written and illustrated by kids ages 8-13

Stay Creative with Stone Soup: Resources

When the global Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic was declared, Stone Soup implemented new programs and additional activities to keep young people engaged and creative. With schools closed, and students cut off from friends and spending extended periods of time in isolation, sheltering in place, or on lockdown, we knew our readers and contributors would appreciate more ideas to keep them busy, and new ways of bringing them together with other members of the Stone Soup extended family. Some of these are activities you can do by yourselves or with siblings and other family members at home; others are Zoom classes where you can interact with other Stone Soup readers and writers. Everyone is welcome.

Starting September, our Daily Creativity prompts are moving to a Weekly Creativity schedule. These prompts challenge you to make a piece of writing (a poem, a journal entry, a story outline, a review) or art, or music, or a spoken word recording, or other piece of creative work. All the prompts we have written are brought together on this page – see below. The first prompt of the month  prompt is also a Flash Contest!

Also starting September, our Stone Soup Writing Workshop and Stone Soup Book Club are following a new schedule. Starting September 12, they will take place on Saturday mornings (PST), with Book Club taking place on the last Saturday of the month and Writing Workshop on each other Saturday. These sessions remain free for subscribers and open to all. Booking will now be required: full details and booking options will be published before September 7. Click the links to find out more and read about what the two groups have been doing since March!

Plus, we are continuing to publish regular blog posts focused on current events, recording young writers’ thoughts and experiences. To submit your writing about COVID-19, BLM or any other current topic, visit our Submissions portal.

Sign up to the mailing list to receive a weekly email that brings the Weekly Creativity prompt and links to our Book Club and Writing Workshop bookings right to your mailbox!

Creativity Prompts

Weekly Creativity #129: Create a Story Around a Postcard
Pick a postcard from this digitized historical collection at the New York Public Library. Write a historical fiction short story that involves a character sending this postcard to someone. What do they write on the postcard? Who are they sending it to? Make sure to take note of what year ...
Read More
/ COVID-19, Creative Prompts, writing activity
Weekly Creativity #128: Write a Graphic Novel Memoir
Create a short memoir about an event in your life. Only, instead of using just words, add illustrations to tell the story. In other words, make it a graphic novel memoir ...
Read More
/ art activity, Creative Prompts, graphic novel, personal narrative, writing activity
Weekly Creativity #127: Write about Characters Reuniting
Write about two characters who have reunited after many years apart. How have they changed? Do they still interact with each other the same way? ...
Read More
/ Creative Prompts, writing activity
Weekly Creativity #126: Write a Story Within a Story
Write a story within a story. Maybe one of your characters reads a book, watches a movie or sees a play that informs the overarching plot ...
Read More
/ Creative Prompts, daily creativity, writing activity
Weekly Creativity #125 | Flash Contest: Write a Story with Traditional Opening and Closing Lines
Write a short story that begins with “Once upon a time, in a land far away...” and ends with “...and they all lived happily ever after.” This prompt is our November Flash Contest. Please check the Contest page for full details ...
Read More
/ Creative Prompts, flash contest, story writing, writing activity
Weekly Creativity #124: Draw a Subject as Though Looking Through a Thermal Camera
Pick a subject and draw it as if you were looking at it through a thermal camera ...
Read More
/ art activity, Creative Prompts
Weekly Creativity #123: Write a Story Set in Medieval Times
Write a story set in medieval times ...
Read More
/ Creative Prompts, daily creativity, weekly, writing activity
Weekly Creativity #122: Write about the Concept of Heaviness
Spend 15 minutes thinking about HEAVINESS, and write down every word you associate with it–different nouns, verbs and adjectives; colors, sounds, weather, moods, places, people–as many as you can. Read through your word list, and use the images and ideas that most appeal to you to write a one-page story ...
Read More
/ Creative Prompts, daily creativity, writing activity
Weekly Creativity #121 | Flash Contest: Write a Poem That Can Be Read Up or Down
Write a poem that can be read both from top to bottom, and bottom to top ...
Read More
/ Creative Prompts, writing ideas
Weekly Creativity #120: Write about Someone You Know as a Superhero
Write a story about yourself, or someone you know, as a superhero ...
Read More
/ COVID-19, Creative Prompts, daily creativity

 

You can see more writing and art activities on our Activities pages.

COVID-19 Blog Posts

Talk, a poem by Dylan Li, 5

Talk Dylan Li, 5 I like to talk, talk, talk... I talk to an apple No answer I talk to ...
Read More

I Express Myself, a poem by Fatehbir, 9

I Express Myself Fatehbir, 9 I will sit quietly and write in my journal. When I am happy, I laugh ...
Read More

Weekly Creativity #129: Create a Story Around a Postcard

Pick a postcard from this digitized historical collection at the New York Public Library. Write a historical fiction short story ...
Read More
My Last Summer's Night woman and daughter in the living room

Yom Kippur through the ages

When I was little, I didn’t have to go to temple on Yom Kippur. I got to go to the ...
Read More

COVID: The Normality Thief, a poem by Jane Lee, 12

COVID: The Normality Thief Jane Lee, 12 Before Covid, my mom used to yell “Hurry or you’ll miss the bell!” ...
Read More

Loneliness, a poem by Salma Hadi-St. John, 11

Loneliness Salma Hadi-St. John, 11 My friends are all gone My life has disappeared Into a new world of loneliness ...
Read More

Defeating Covid-19 Together, a story by Emily Gu, 9

Defeating Covid-19 Together Emily Gu, 9        Purell had always wanted to get this much attention. Before he ...
Read More

Zoom Sagas, creative nonfiction by Stella, 11

Zoom sagas Stella, 11 “I ain't never used this alien program!” —Darlene I The only thing my sister could see ...
Read More

Covid-19 in China: layered paper cut art by Alina Ji, 13

Covid-19 in China: Layered Papercut Art Alina Ji, 13 At the start of the pandemic, Alina Ji spent two months ...
Read More

We are standing by ready to publish additional Blog posts by our young writers on everything related to the COVID-19 pandemic. On this page you’ll see the latest on COVID-19, and you can visit the Stone Soup blog to read all the blog posts on every topic. If what you read makes you think, leave a comment for the author! And, if you have something you want to say, submit your writing and ideas to the Blogs and Book Reviews category on our submissions portal. Remember–blog submissions are free.