short writing tasks year 2

Writing in Year 2 (age 6–7)

In Year 2, your child will learn to write sentences, discuss their writing, and read their writing aloud.

Read on to discover the National Curriculum expectations for writing in Year 2, and to find out how you can support your child at home.

How to help at home

There are lots of ways you can help your child with writing. Here are our top ideas.

1. Read to your child

While children do learn new language and ideas from speaking and listening, the type of language we use in writing is often very different from that in speech. Reading regularly to your child, especially longer chapter books that they might not be able to yet read independently, is a great way to support their writing.

While your child will have some favourite books and types of book that they’ll want to listen to again and again, try to make sure they get to hear a range of different types of books, including fiction and non-fiction. This is useful for their writing because it provides models for a wide of language styles.

For books to read with your child, take a look at our free eBook library .

2. Have your child to read to you

Making time to hear your child read isn’t just good for their reading. Seeing words in print helps them to understand the words, to spell them, and to see how grammar and punctuation are used to make meaning.

When you read, occasionally talk about why the author has decided to include something and how they written it. For example:

‘I wonder why the author has chosen to describe the castle as “gloomy”? I wonder what that tells us about what might happen there?’

3. Try some real-world writing

Writing for a real purpose can be a great way to fit in some practice. Writing cards, shopping lists, or letters/emails to relatives can be motivating real life reasons for writing, and can show children how useful it is to be able to write well.

Your child might enjoy keeping a diary or writing short stories based on books they have read or toys they enjoy playing with. Be sure to encourage your child to write about what most interests them, as this is the best way to keep them enthusiastiac.

4. Tell stories aloud

Giving your child the opportunity to tell stories orally is a great way to get them used to structuring their ideas and using adventurous language.

If they’re not sure where to start, see if they can retell a story that they already know well, like Little Red Riding Hood or Three Little Pigs .

If your child finds it useful to plan out their story first, try our free  Story mountain  to make a great plot or use our  Character profile  activity sheet to come up with an interesting lead character.

For more practical tips on helping your child improve their storytelling confidence, watch our storytelling skills video with Suzy Ditchburn.

Activity: Story Mountain

Complete the story mountain to plan your sotry with a beginning, middle, and end.

Activity: Character profile

Come up with lots of interesting details about the lead character in your story.

Video: How to develop storytelling skills

Suzy Ditchburn offers practical tips for improving storytelling confidence.

What your child will learn at school

In Year 2 (age 6–7), your child will learn to:

• Write simple, coherent narratives about personal experiences and those of others (real or fictional)
• Write about real events, recording these simply and clearly
• Demarcate most sentences in their writing with capital letters and full stops , and use question marks correctly when required
• Use present and past tense mostly correctly and consistently
• Use coordinating conjunctions (for example, and , or , and but ) and some subordinating conjunctions (for example, when, if , that , and because ) to join clauses
• Segment spoken words into phonemes and represent these by graphemes, spelling many of these words correctly and making phonically-plausible attempts at others
• Spell many common exception words
• Form capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another and to lower-case letters
• Use spacing between words that reflects the size of the letters.

Handwriting, spelling, grammar, and punctuation are all important aspects of writing too. You can find out more about them on our dedicated pages:

Handwriting in Year 2 (age 6-7)

Find out more about handwriting in Year 2 at Primary School.

Find out more

Spelling in Year 2 (age 6-7)

Find out more about spelling in Year 2 at Primary School.

Grammar and punctuation in Year 2 (age 6-7)

Find out more about grammar and punctuation in Year 2 at Primary School.

• Age 5–6 (Year 1)
• Age 6–7 (Year 2)
• Age 7–8 (Year 3)
• Age 8–9 (Year 4)
• Age 9–10 (Year 5)
• Age 10–11 (Year 6)
• Year 1 (age 5–6)
• Year 2 (age 6–7)
• Year 3 (age 7–8)
• Year 4 (age 8–9)
• Year 5 (age 9–10)
• Year 6 (age 10–11)
• Grammar glossary
• Grammar books

• Writing Prompts

59+ 2nd Grade Writing Prompts (+ Free Worksheets)

Keep on reading for a list of fun, educational and easy 2nd-grade writing prompts designed to interest any youngster.

When it comes to the 2nd grade, we all know that learning new words, spelling and legible handwriting is all-important. Bur rather than, asking students to just write their own name beautifully or to learn a list of words – could there be a more fun way of improving these skills? And the answer is yes. Through carefully thought-out writing prompts designed to peak your student’s interests, you could slowly, but surely increase your students interest in writing altogether. 

Writing Struggles

Writing prompts for the second-grade students need to be detailed, and clearly state what is required. Something as simple as ‘write a short story about a dragon who loves to eat doughnuts’ – won’t cut it for most 2nd graders. You need to break this writing task down. A better prompt to give your students is, ‘write the opening sentence to a story about a dragon who loves to eat doughnuts.’ Here you are expected the child to only write down one sentence, which is a much more manageable task compared to asking the child to write a whole story.

At such a young age, developing a child’s creativity and imagination is key. Inside their little heads, they can tell great stories of fire-breathing dragons, superheroes and monsters. But putting it down on paper can be difficult for more children. Asking questions, and giving as many prompts as possible could really help the child write down their ideas, thoughts and feelings. At this point, you can worry less about sentence structure, punctuation and grammar, and encourage your child to be free with their writing!

59+ 2nd Grade Writing Prompts

This list of 2nd grade writing prompts is both fun and educational. Find the perfect writing ideas for 7 to 8 year-olds:

• What do you enjoy doing on the weekends? Try making a list of activities you do on the weekend, and pick your favourite to write about in detail.
• What is your favourite animal? What do you like most about this animal? Can you research and write down five facts about this animal?
• Complete the following sentence in three different ways: I feel sad when…
• Which weather do you prefer, sunny weather or rainy weather? Can you give at least two reasons for your answer?
• If you could make one wish, what would it be and why?
• What subject at school is your favourite? Why do you like this subject?
• Imagine that you find a baby dragon in your backyard. What is the first thing you would do with this dragon?
• Can you describe your house? Think about how many rooms it has. What does it look like on the outside? You can draw a picture of your house to go with your description.
• Complete this sentence in three different ways: When I am bored, I like to…
• Make a list of your top five favourite food of all time.
• When was the last time someone was nice to you? Who was this person? What did they do? How did you feel at the time?
• Describe the scariest monster in the world. What would it look like? How would it smell? What sorts of things does it like eating? Does it have any weaknesses?
• What was the last book you read? In this book, who was your favourite character? Which part of the book was your favourite, and which part did you not like as much? Out of 10 stars, how many stars would you give this book? 10 stars being the best and 1 star being the worse.
• Imagine you need to plan a birthday party for a friend. Make a list of things you would need for the party. And then create your own party invites. On the invites, you may want to think about the time of the party, location, food, entertainment and dress code.
• Can you make a list of five ways to help someone who is sad?
• Think about what happened yesterday. What was your favourite part of the day? And what was the worst part of the day?
• Make a list of groceries that your parents need to buy every week.
• Can you complete this sentence in three different ways: Once upon a time, there lived…
• Pick a random country in the world. Research and write down five fun facts about this country.
• Would you rather have a lot of friends or a lot of money? Can you provide a reason for your answer?
• Have you ever felt angry? If yes, can you describe the last time you were angry and the reasons why? If not, then have you seen someone else be angry? How did you feel when this person was angry?
• If you could have a superpower, what would it be and why?
• What are you most scared of, and why? How could you overcome this fear?
• Can you make a list of at least five words to describe yourself?
• What is the best thing about school? And what is the worst thing about school?
• What is your favourite colour? Why is this colour better than all the other colours?
• When was the last time you went to a park? Can you describe some of the activities you did while there?
• Why is eating breakfast important? Can you list three benefits of eating a  good breakfast meal?
• Write a thank you letter to someone that you love. This could be a parent, a friend, a teacher or a sibling. What is the nicest thing they have done? How have they helped you?
• What is your favourite game to play in the playground? Can you explain one rule in this game? How does someone win in this game?
• Can you describe a tree in great detail? Look outside your window or find a picture of a tree. Using this image, describe the way this tree looks, its colours and shape.
• If you could have one pet, what animal would you choose and why?
• Imagine you find a secret door in your house. When you open this door, the first thing you see is…
• Which season is your favourite, Winter , Spring , Summer or Autumn? Why is this season your favourite?
• What is your dream job? Imagine in 20 years or so, what job do you want to be doing? What makes this job interesting?
• Complete this sentence in at least three ways: When I grow up, I will…
• Make a list of five things in your house that begin with the letter, ‘S’. Which one of these things is your favourite and why?
• When was the last time you learned something new? For example, learning to draw, or playing a new sport. Who taught you this skill? Was it difficult to learn?
• What is the most boring thing in the world? Think about some things that you hate doing. Why is this so boring?
• What is your favourite song to listen to, and why? Can you remember any of the lyrics? Try writing down your favourite line in the song.
• Can you remember a recent dream that you had? What do you remember seeing in this dream? Do you remember any sounds or voices?
• Write down some simple step-by-step instructions on how to make your favourite sandwich.
• Which holiday from the following list is your favourite: Christmas, Easter or Halloween? Can you explain your answer?
• What was the most recent movie you’ve seen? Did you enjoy this movie? What was your favourite part of the movie? And what was your least favourite part? Out of 10 stars, how many stars would you give this movie? 10 stars being the best and 1 star being the worse.
• Write down at least three things that you love about your family.
• Would you rather live on a pirate ship out at sea, or in a treehouse in a magical forest? Explain your choice.
• Can you remember a time when you felt embarrassed? What happened? Why did you feel this way?
• Pick one planet from the solar system, and write down five facts about this planet.
• Why do you think that sleeping is important? What happens when someone does not get enough sleep?
• What is the first thing you do when you come home from school or when school ends?
• If you were in charge of school lunch, what food would you serve? Create your own lunch menu.
• Would you rather have a dragon as a best friend or a magical wizard? Explain your choice.
• If someone was getting bullied at your school, what would you do?
• Complete the following sentence in three different ways: In my spare, time I love to…
• When was the last time you cried? What made you cry? What could you do to cheer yourself up when you are upset?
• Imagine that you meet a talking turtle at the seaside. What questions would you ask this turtle? What would the turtle say to you?
• Can you describe a dragon in detail? What powers does it have? What does it look like? Think about its weaknesses and what its name could be?
• What was the last present or gift you received? Who gave you think gift? How did you feel when you received it?
• Research and write down at least five fun facts about your own city or town. You could even create a leaflet about your town or city
• Imagine you turned into a cat. What kind of things would you do as a cat? Try writing a day in the life story of a cat’s life.

Free Printable: 2nd Grade Writing Prompts PDF Worksheet

This printable 2nd-grade writing prompts worksheet is great for your students. Print out and hand over to your students to keep in their own time! We have included some of the prompts from the list above in this PDF, with images to help visualise each prompt:

Did you find this list of 2nd grade writing prompts helpful? Let us know in the comments below!

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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