Be a Storyteller. Write a story about a time in your childhood when someone got revenge for a nasty trick that was played.
Plinky Prompt
Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.
Your first experience with death
Describe your first experience with death. Was it with a family member? Pet?
Plinky Prompt
List your 5 best qualities.
Who writes the best song lyrics?
Who writes the best song lyrics?
Plinky Prompt
Do you eavesdrop on people in public places?
Protecting the Nation?
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca
A critical thinking challenge for students, ages 14-18
In the spring of 1864 a series of killings sent a chill across Canada. The blood of 14 men, spilled into the Homathco River before dawn on the morning of April 29th, 1864, was only the beginning of this conflict. By the end of May, 19 road-builders, packers, and a farmer were dead. Within six weeks an army of over 100 men had arrived in the area to catch the killers.
The killings took place in a remote triangle in central British Columbia that, at the time, was inaccessible by road or even horse trail. The dead men had all been part of the teams trying to build a road from the Pacific coast to the recently discovered goldfields of the Cariboo.
This area was traditional territory of the Tsilhqot’in people who had lived on the high Chilcotin Plateau for centuries, perhaps for thousands of years. The survivors of the attacks identified the principal leader of the more than 20 people involved in the killings as a Tsilhqot’in chief, who was called “Klatsassin” by his people.
Was this violent conflict an early attempt by First Nations in Canada to assert their legal right to their lands — to their nationhood? Did members of the Chilcotin First Nation kill 17 members of a British road-building crew moving through their territory in 1864 to protect the “national” sovereignty of the Chilcotin nation? Perhaps the motives were more cultural and less political: was it an attempt to protect the Chilcotin culture and way of life from outside forces? Or, as some historians have suggested, were the Chilcotin people lashing out against these non-Natives for reasons that had little to do with politics and cultural preservation?
In this MysteryQuest, you are asked to take on the role of an historian creating a public monument to commemorate the Chilcotin War of the 1860s. Your main task is to investigate to what extent this war was an attempt to protect a “nation” from invaders.
First, you will examine definitions of “nation” and learn about the two meanings of this term. Then, you will be introduced to the facts of the Chilcotin War. You will refer to an historical overview and maps to get a snapshot of the key events in the group’s history and insight into the relationship between the Chilcotin people and developers who were determined to access the rich resources of the British Columbia interior. You will then examine a number of primary documents from the period, looking for evidence of the Chilcotin motivations for this conflict. Your final task is to prepare a statement on the extent to which this was a war for nationhood. Your ideas will be used by an historical panel investigating the causes of the Chilcotin War to create a plaque commemorating the event.
Your Ideal Home
You have all the resources you need to built your ideal home. Tell us about it.
A million dollars
What would you do with a million dollars?
Regret
What’s your biggest regret? How would your life have been different if you’d made another decision?
Good Neighbour
Are you a good neighbour? Why or why not?

New
With all due respect to old, borrowed, and blue things, today’s prompt is all about the refreshingly, excitingly new.
Ready to roll? All you need to do is…
- Write a new post on your iBlog in response to the prompt.
Need more ideas? Not sure what to write around New? We’re here to help:
- Tell us about a new skill, hobby, or activity you’ve become interested in recently.
- Who’s your newest friend? Share the story of how you connected.
- Spring is here (in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway) — what do you most look forward to in this season of new beginnings?
- Is your blog or website new (loosely defined)? Tell us why you decided to launch it.
- Publish a post in a genre, format, or media that’s totally new to you. For example: poets, share a photo (or several); photographers, write some flash fiction; travel bloggers, post a book review. (And so on and so forth.)
A Strange Hobby
Do you know anyone who has a strange hobby, one that most people would never consider undertaking? Describe the person and the hobby.
Hope
Tell us about a time where everything you’d hoped would happen actually did.
Plinky Prompt
You wake up and discover that you can speak another language. Which one?
Your Early School Years
Narrate a story about your early school years. Describe a once embarrassing memory that now seems amusing.
Interview
Interview your favorite fictional character.
“He was terrified of small spaces and she knew”
Write a short story with the first line – “He was terrified of small spaces and she knew” – and containing some sort of direct reference to each of the following:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopædia_Britannica
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Genealogy_of_Morality
https://www.edx.org
Funeral Procedures
What are some funeral ceremonies and procedures you know about? How have some of the people who participated in these rites behaved?
One free trip to space
Would you rather have one free trip to space or free international travel for life?
Plinky Prompt
If you were able to clone yourself, how would you divide your duties?
Make a guest appearance on any TV show
You get to make a guest appearance on any TV show of your choice. What’ll it be?
Someone Else for a Day?
If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why? If that seems too easy, try this one: who would you like to have spend a day as you and what do you hope they?d learn from the experience?
Plinky Prompt
What’s your generation known for?
Borrowed Poetry
Hunches
A hunch is a feeling or impression that something is about to happen. Authors sometimes use a character’s hunches to create suspense or to tie together a group of events. For example, in “Stains,” the mother has been afraid for her son “for a long time. She realized that when the doorbell rang at 4 a.m.”
Write a story about a character’s hunches. Try to use this hunch not only to create suspense, but to help explain the action that comes at the end of the story.
Patriotic
Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?
Struggle or Conflict
Write a detailed narrative account of a struggle or conflict between two people in which you show the reader clearly not only what happened, but also answer questions about who, what, where, when , why, and how.
Tropes in Film
Investigate tropes. What is a trope?
- View a film and review it with the aim of pointing out several tropes.
- note the broad categories tropes fall into, identify several examples from at least 3 categories.
- Write a short story(that one day could be turned into a feature film) based on an idea generated by tvtropes.org Story Idea Generator.
- Incorporate at least one common trope from the film into your story. There is no need for your story to parallel the film in any other way.
- Focus/comment somewhere in your story on the theme of global warming.
Plinky Prompt
Do you remember your favourite book from childhood?
Plinky Prompt
What’s your favourite scary movie?
National News
Spend a week carefully observing news stories covered by the televised CBC news The National (10 or 11 p.m.) and the print daily newspaper The National Post.
Which stories were covered on TV, which significant stories were only in the newspaper? Which medium provided the deepest and most thorough coverage of particular events?
Write a post about your comparison and conclusions.
Plinky Prompt
What movies are worth watching more than once?
Scared
Do you like being scared by books, films, and surprises? Describe the sensation of being scared, and why you love it – or don’t.
Group of Seven
Write an essay on one of the Group of Seven.
- Franklin Carmichael
- Lawren Harris
- A. Y. Jackson
- Frank Johnston
- A. J. Casson
- Arthur Lismer
- J. E. H. MacDonald
- Frederick Varley.
Find out what influenced the artist, and the effect his/her work has had on others. Include an assessment of one piece of his/her art.
Religious Conflict and the Search for Historical Explanations
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca
A critical thinking challenge for students, ages 16-18
Early in the morning of February 4, 1880, five members of an Irish immigrant family were murdered in rural southwestern Ontario, allegedly by an armed band of vigilantes from the community. No one was ever convicted of these crimes. While “Who did it?” is the most obvious question here, in an important sense the real mystery is why these crimes happened at all and how we should understand them now.
In this MysteryQuest, you are invited to take on the role of advisor to a team of historians beginning research on the Donnelly massacre of 1880 in Biddulph Township. You have been asked to examine selected primary and secondary documents for evidence to support one of the key theories about the reasons behind the massacre: it was the result of religious hatred among Irish immigrants who settled the township in the nineteenth century. First, you will be introduced to the idea of causal explanations in history. Then, you will be introduced to the Donnelly massacre and to the three main theories for the conflict. Working individually or with a partner you will examine five historical documents, looking for evidence of religious conflict. You will then prepare a 250-word report for the historians that summarizes the evidence and offers your own conclusion about whether there is enough evidence of religious conflict to proceed with a more detailed search for evidence of this explanation.
Studying God’s Finished Picture
Spend 5 minutes trying to complete a 200+ piece jigsaw puzzle WITHOUT looking at the picture.
Now look at the picture and see how many pieces you can add in the next 5 minutes.
In what ways is putting the puzzle together like or unlike putting your life together?
In what ways is the puzzle like or unlike answering the question, “Who Am I?”
Choose one of the following passages to study:
- read the passage
- write about what you think the passage says
- explain what you think the passage means in each of your lives today
- describe what the passage says we are in God’s eyes
Passages:
- Genesis 1:26-31
- Isaiah 43:1-7
- Colossians 3:5-17
- Luke 4:18-19
- Ephesians 5:15-20
- John 6:22-40
- 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
- Ephesians 4:1-32
- Galatians 5:13-26
- Psalm 139
- John 14:12
Criticism
Tell us about the harshest, most difficult to hear ? but accurate ? criticism you?e ever gotten. Does it still apply?
Analysis of a Product
Write a classification analysis of a common manufactured product that is useful for some specific purpose. Divide you subject into several categories or subclasses according to an appropriate principal of division (such as features, design, effectiveness, operation, size, etc.). Be sure to label, define, and illustrate each category or subclass so that your analysis supports your thesis in an effective and interesting manner.

Focus
Today, let’s draw all our attention to focus (or the lack thereof).
Ready to roll? All you need to do is…
- Write a new post on your iblog in response to the prompt.
Need more ideas? Not sure what to write around Focus? We’re here to help:
- Many people have been finding it more difficult to stay focused since pandemic-related restrictions have taken effect around the world. Are you one of them, and if so, how have you been navigating this challenge?
- Tell us about a sound, a smell, or any other type of stimulus that helps you concentrate on one thing.
- Photographers: share a photo with a particularly clear focal point. Or, conversely: post your favorite out-of-focus shot.
- Share a story about a moment or a period in your life where, after feeling lost or distracted, you managed to refocus.
- The word “focus” derives from the Latin for “hearth” — what is the equivalent of a hearth in your home? What’s the object, room, or activity around which everything else is organized?
Plinky Prompt
If you could wake up tomorrow and find that one thing had changed about the world, what would you have that one thing be?
Pick-up Line
Share a pick-up line you’ve heard that you really liked. Or share one you tried that was successful.
Plinky Prompt
When you need a good laugh, who/what do you turn to?
Even Keel
We all have things as need to do to keep an even keel – blogging, exercising, reading, cooking. What’s yours?
Random ideas for a short story
- fate vs free choice
- a secret reason
- a quiet sacrifice
- betrayal of an old relative
- flirting with a stranger
- flirting with an old friend
- predator vs prey
- a symbolic object
- jealousy
- second language words or phrases
- specialty jargon
- animal captivity
- symbol of good
- symbol of evil
- annoy your brother
- regret a decision
- choose safety over risk
- something mythologically familiar
- a song without words
- a song with words
- a passage from scripture
- describe a colour
- focus on hands somewhere
- current piece of technology
- a current event in the news
- some natural phenomenon with infinite details
- notice dirt, mud, dust, rust or decay in some small way
- refer to a classic book by name
- have a character cut something with scissors or a knife
- have a character write something on a sticky-note
- quit something
- cuss but don’t write the word
- flashback
- whiffle ball accidents
- two faced
- dream with a shadow in it
- eat healthy at a fast food restaurant
- loss of your own soul
- a falling object
- focus on a facial expression
- loss of a significant other
- betrayal of another
- poison from a secret
- chaos from order
- have a character say “Huh?” and really mean it.
- smile fiercely
- smile falsely
Plinky Prompt
If you could delete a memory, would you?
A time when you stood up
Describe a time when you stood up for what you believed in.
Plinky Prompt
Make a list of things you want to do before the end of this year.
Create a Visual of Your Favorite Poems
Create a visual (canva or prezi) that captures the essence of some (3-5) of your favorite poems. Your work should contain appropriate visuals, brief quotations from the poem, and personal commentary that reflects your own perspective.
Use poems you’ve already studied, or discover more from poets.org:
Breakups and Heartbreak: Poems for Teens
Family: Poems for Teens
Gender and Sexuality: Poems for Teens
Grief and Loss: Poems for Teens
Heritage and Identity: Poems for Teens
Love and Relationships: Poems for Teens
Mental Health: Poems for Teens
Politics and Social Justice: Poems for Teens
Self: Poems for Teens
Smile
What makes you smile like nothing else can?
Plinky Prompt
If you were a mad scientist and could create a cure for any disease, which disease would you cure and why?
Forbidden Association
How would you handle a situation in which you were forbidden by your family to associate with a young man or woman whom you really wanted to see? Do you believe it’s possible for two young people to fall in love when they don’t really know very much about each other?
Plinky Prompt
Confess a wasteful habit of yours.
Cities
Is the big city “a wondrous toy” as the song goes, or is it a hill of swarming ants? Is it a creative showcase for a country’s talent and skill or is it a drain on the energies of millions of people who must struggle for survival from day to day? Can it be both? Is it something else? What does the city mean to you? Describe your view of the city in specific detail.
Free trip to the moon
If you were offered a free trip to the moon, would you go? Why or why not?
Start an Online Discussion with a “Plinky Prompt”
Your Specific Task:
Form a discussion group of about 5 students(invite a staff member, too, if you want).
Start your discussion in the “Garden Party” Forum. One of you picks the discussion starter from any of the “Plinky Prompts” in the Snowflake iblog. Post follow-up responses to each other so the discussion is “two-way”.
Demonstrate these “I can…” outcomes:
“I can … Explore your thoughts, ideas, understandings and ask your discussion group members to do the same.”
“I can … Respect each others opinions, but work together towards building a discussion thread that is perceptive, insightful, engaging and unified.”
Assessment:
Once each member of the group is satisfied that they have completed the specific task, and met the more general “I can…” outcomes, assign your discussion thread a score using this “Personal response” rubric.
Anonymous gift
What gift would you like to anonymously send someone?
Fountain of Youth
If there were a real Fountain of Youth, would you drink the water?
Time travel
What historical event would you attend if you were able to time travel?
How to Attain a Goal
Consider an aim, goal, or a pursuit that you established for yourself, and then write an informational process analysis in which you explain the stages involved for you trying to attain it.