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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 #142 | Flash Contest: Write a Story Set Somewhere You’ve Never Been
Write a story set somewhere you’ve never been. It could be set in outer space, Antarctica, or even an alternate reality! ...
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/ Contests, Creative Prompts, creative writing, creativity, flash contest, Flash Contest, monthly flash contest, poem, writing, writing activity
Weekly Creativity #141: Write about a Character You Don’t Like
Write about a character who you don’t personally like. They could be annoying, rude, or downright evil! ...
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/ Creative Prompts, writing activity
Weekly Creativity #140: Start with a Common Metaphor
Write about a common metaphor, and what it would be like if it were both literally and figuratively true. For example, you might use the expression “let the cat out of the bag,” and write about a situation in which someone might let the cat out of the bag (tell ...
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/ Creative Prompts, creative writing, writing activity
Weekly Creativity #139: Write a Story to Evoke an Emotion
Write a story designed to evoke an emotion. Maybe it’s a feel-good story, or a calming one ...
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/ Creative Prompts, daily creativity, writing activity
Weekly Creativity #138 | Flash Contest: Pretend Your Favorite Character has Social Media
Take a character from one of your favorite books, TV shows or movies, and pretend that they have a social media account. Write a few posts that they might share. Would they let their followers know what is going on in their lives? Or be secretive and vague in their ...
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/ Creative Prompts, writing activity
Weekly Creativity #137: Write a Story with the Same First and Last Sentence
Write a short story that begins and ends with the same sentence ...
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/ Creative Prompts, writing activity
Weekly Creativity #136: Invent a New Species of Animal or Plant
Imagine that you are a scientist who discovers a new animal species or plant. Draw or paint a picture that details your discovery. Is it related to any known species, or is it something totally new? If you want to, you can even give it a name ...
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/ art activity, Creative Prompts
Weekly Creativity #135: Write about a Historical Figure
Pick a historical figure and write a fictional story around a moment in their life. It can be a decisive moment of history, or it can be something mundane ...
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/ Creative Prompts
Weekly Creativity #134 | Flash Contest: Write About the Future
Write a science fiction story about a character who lives one hundred years in the future ...
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/ Creative Prompts
Weekly Creativity #133: Write a Poem About the Year
Write a poem in which each stanza sums up a month of this year ...
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/ Creative Prompts

 

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

COVID-19 Blog Posts

2020, a poem by Eden George, 10

2020 Eden George, 10 2020 was supposed to be our year It was the year guaranteed to make us all ...
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Music to My Ear

Battle of the Bugs: Corona Versus the Learning Bug

Battle of the Bugs: Corona Versus the Learning Bug TRINA CHAITANYA, 8 Hola! Me Llamo Trina Chaitanya Vivo en Mumbai ...
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To the Other Side

The Silver Lining of 2020

2020 was a disastrous year, but many good things came out of it. There’s a quote that says, “Sometimes you ...
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Attack of the Invading Virus, a poem by Natalie Yue, 8

Attack of the Invading Virus Natalie Yue, 8 A prickly ball of red spines Smirking, pesky, buggy, careless, You know ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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!” ...
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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.