When you’re a homeschooling mom, you know the power of using Mad Libs printables to get in some sneaky grammar practice! Seriously, these printables are the best because kids love them, you can find holiday-themed mad libs, plus they’ll get real life practice naming parts of speech. So, if you’re looking for the best mad libs to print out and use in your homeschool, check out our list below.
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What are Mad Libs?
Mad Libs are a word replacement game that provide an engaging way to reinforce your normal grammar studies. They can also help with vocabulary skills and reading comprehension. You just need a fill-in-the blank printable to have fun with Mad Libs. You can also find simple Mad Libs for younger kids that mainly ask for a few parts of speech, or you can find advanced versions for your older kids that include all the parts of speech they’ve studied.
Here’s how Mad Libs work. You’ll have a bunch of blanks to fill in without knowing the context or the story ahead of time. You’ll be asked for nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs and simply supply the part of speech that comes to your head first. Then the fun begins. You start plugging in your answers to a read aloud story and the results are hilarious!
The original Mad Libs concept was created by Leonard Stern and Roger Price in 1958. Since then, more than 110 million copies have been sold.
How Do You Make Your Own Mad Libs?
You can have your kids make their own Mad Libs to get some fun writing practice into your homeschool day too! One child can write the Mad Lib story and a sibling can fill in the blanks.
Just have your student write out a very short story – just a paragraph or two will work. The story itself doesn’t have to be funny. Once the blanks are filled in it will definitely sound silly!
What are the main parts of speech used in Mad Libs? Here are common choices:
- Noun: the name of a person, place, thing, or idea (librarian, lake, dog, freedom)
- Adjective: a word that describes a noun (silly, green)
- Verb: a word that does an action (jump, slide, smile)
- Adverb: a word that describes a verb, adjective, or another adverb (slowly, very)
Once your child has written their short story, they can decide which words to pull out and change into blanks. When you pull out the word, note which part of speech it is and write that part of speech under the blank.
If your blanks need some help, you can specify things like:
- Verb ending in -ing rather than simply “verb”
- Plural noun rather than simply “noun”
- Past tense verb rather than simply “verb”
- Type of animal rather than simply “noun”
How Do You Make a Mad Lib for Kids?
You can make a Mad Lib story about anything! The fun comes when you substitute words that are out of context. But if you need some inspiration, here are some topics to consider if you want to create your own Mad Libs for your kids or encourage them to write some:
- Song lyrics
- A paragraph from a book
- Recipes
- Seasonal or holiday based
- Write about a person in the family
- Family vacation
- Homeschool day
- Sports
- Fairy tales
- Newspaper headlines
If you don’t want to create your own, check out these FREE printable options below to fit any season, holiday, or theme you’re looking for.
Free Mad Libs Printables for Kids
Mad Libs Printables and Activities – Tons of printable Mad Libs here for your growing readers all the way to your tweens.
21+ Free Printable Mad Libs for Kids (Mad Libs Templates) – Check out this big list of fill-in-the-blank printables featuring camping themes, Mother’s Day, and more.
Free Printable Mad Libs for Kids of All Ages – Here’s a huge and super silly collection of Mad Libs to print.
Free Monster Mad Libs Printable – These cute printable is perfect for your monster-themed party or homeschool day.
Online Mad Libs Creator
If you’re okay with your child completing Mad Libs online, then here are some great sites to do just that!
Funny Fill-In: The Mad Inventor -National Geographic Kids helps students fill in the blanks to create their own silly story right on their site.
Mad Libs for Kids – This story builder lets kids choose from over 100 mad libs and then fill in the blanks online before revealing the final silly story.
Online Mad Libs for Kids – Just pick ten words, click the generate button, and read your own silly story!
Free Mad Libs Megalibs Online – Will your story be funny? Who knows! Fill in the online word generator and then see how your story ends up.
Free Christmas Mad Libs Printables
Free Printable Christmas Mad Libs – Here are three holiday-themed Mad Libs to try: Polar Express, Grinch Grows a Heart, and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.
Christmas Mad Libs Fill-in Word Game Printables – Find over a dozen Christmas-themed printables here.
Christmas Mad Libs Printable – Grab your own Dear Santa Mad Lib and see what silly letter your child writes to Santa!
Free Printable Christmas Mad Libs – Here’s another Dear Santa option.
Christmas Mad Libs Printable – This site offers yet another Dear Santa Mad Lib, plus links to their Thanksgiving and Halloween Mad Libs as well.
Christmas Mad Libs – Here’s a fun Let It Snow Remix Mad Lib for your holiday cheer.
Halloween Mad Libs Printables
The Funniest Mad Libs for Halloween – Grab your funny Mad Libs just in time for Halloween.
Halloween Mad Libs Printable – Here are some more Halloween Mad Libs, plus additional Halloween-themed printables and coloring pages.
Halloween Mad Libs – Download this printable from Scholastic: The Best Halloween Party Ever.
13+ Free Holiday Mad Libs Pages (Halloween, Christmas, etc.) – You’ll find Halloween Mad Libs, plus other holidays too including Mother’s Day, Christmas, and more.
Halloween Mad Libs – Grab these three printables: Trick or Treat, Adventures in Pumpkin Carving, and Halloween Night.
Free Thanksgiving Mad Libs Printables
Thanksgiving Mad Libs Printable – Here are some fun seasonal stories, like Thanksgiving from a Kid’s Point of View, Family Visit, and Turkey Dinner. Plus, you can grab a few other Thanksgiving printables.
Free Thanksgiving Mad Lib Printables – Gather the kids and the adults to help with this hilarious Thanksgiving Mad Lib.
Thanksgiving Mad Libs Fill in Game Printables – You’ll find more than six Thanksgiving-themed options here, including Oh My! Thanksgiving Pie! and The First Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving Mad libs Printable Game – Keep your kids entertained while the turkey is cooking. This is a fun one to print out for the kids’ table at your Thanksgiving feast.
Free Thanksgiving Mad Lib Printable – Here’s another great option to print out and bring to your Thanksgiving dinner for everyone to enjoy.
