story starters for creative writing ks2

We’ve put together some good story starters for KS2 to help your pupils with writer’s block. We’ve also got KS1 story starters covered too, if you have some younger pupils.

Read past the story starters and you’ll also find a guide to free writing that you can use alongside the story starters. Jump start your story writing lessons in KS2 today!

What are story starters?

A word or words that begins a story. Intentionally opened ended, they point children towards a particular theme or situation and can remove the tricky initial phase of story writing.

Ideal story starters for KS2

• The three of them peered into the dark cave.
• Suddenly, it turned around and faced her.
• Time stopped. People stopped. Cars stopped. Everything around me paused, frozen in time.
• The creature screamed and ran towards them.
• Her stomach dropped.
• I had never seen an alien. But I guess there’s a first time for everything.
• Am I in hell?
• As he walked along the cold, dark night, a rustling began from the trees…
• Then, a flash.
• Ben is 8, but in his world, that means something very different.
• This time she woke up early to try and catch it out. The clock struck 7. It was time…
• A hot, tingling sensation worked it’s way up my spine. It couldn’t be, could it?
• It was exactly as I feared.
• “We’ve been waiting a long time” Mum said. “Where on earth has he got to?”
• I sat on the grass and watched as it flailed in the wind.
• It was the smell that hit her first. She knew, long before she could see it, exactly what was next.
• He dashed down the stairs, as fast as his legs could carry him. The post had arrived, but was it what he’d hoped for?
• “Help!” A frightened shriek came from inside. I crept towards the door…
• “Can you see that?” He asked. I could barely believe it, but…
• It was a cold and miserable morning. The clouds were low and chill and setting in. But still, we couldn’t stop due to the weather.
• “Welcome.” We all looked round in awe. “This is the future.”
• That familiar feeling returned, as if I was being watched. What was out there?
• The rumours were true. The warnings were real and the time has come. Were we ready for what was about to happen?
• The three friends set out on their journey, with nothing but each other to help them for what lied ahead.
• The car lurched down the road when suddenly a thud came from below.
• The tap on my shoulder woke me. “Shhh” she said with a finger pressed to her lips. “Follow me”.
• Outside, the sun was shining, with children and adults alike basking in its warm glow. For Caroline, she could only watch on with her nose pressed against the window.
• Sally looked around the spaceship, eyes widening with each step. She had never seen anything like it.
• “Will you keep it down!” Grandpa thudded from downstairs with his walking stick. But of course, it wasn’t me making all the noise.
• It was the first time I’d been on holiday. I stood for a moment and took it all in. The first thing I noticed was…
• Outside, the leaves were falling and the grass was turning into a murky brown. Out went summer barbecues and in came Autumn dew.
• I felt an odd sensation in my shoe.

All children need is a tiny prod in the right direction and they will come back with the most amazing tales for you to laugh, cringe, wince or cry at! Feel free to expand upon and adapt our examples; we are only prodding you to get the creative juices flowing.

Free writing to help with story writing

If after you have given children story starters, they are still struggling, it could be a confidence issue. Free writing is a fantastic way of freeing children of their own worries over their own writing.

Principles of free writing

Free writing is pretty much what it says on the tin. But there are some principles to stand by to ensure free writing has the desired effect of kick-starting creative juices. Children are given a writing implement (whatever they feel most comfortable with) and something to write on and told to write. Just write. Here’s a few pointers to make clear to children before they begin.

• Don’t stop writing during the allotted time.
• You’re going to time the free write and encourage those who stop to think to keep going.
• If that means writing the same word or letters over and over until a new thought comes into the writer’s head, then so be it.
• The work won’t be marked, or even looked at if the writer doesn’t want it to.
• Spelling, punctuation and grammar doesn’t matter.

Last tip: if your class are adhering to the rules okay, have a go yourself! It’s really good practice to have a go at the activity you expect your pupils to have a go at, plus it’s really enjoyable!

It’s good to start off with short one-minute bursts of free writing in the beginning. Demonstrate you mean what you say with marking, SPaG and reading out: it’s an unusual experience for pupils for their work not to be scrutinised. This activity will help pupils empty their head of worries, ruminating thoughts and distractions from their writing. It might also provide them with inspiration for story writing. Have a go at free writing before beginning any creative writing session, or even use it to begin a story. Provide them with the story starter and then get them to continue the story writing during the free write. It’s only a minute or two and could make all the difference to their writing.

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Mighty Writer Blog

How to use story starters to improve writing skills for ks2 pupils.

We know that encouraging children to write creatively is an essential part of their learning. However, it can be challenging to inspire children to write interesting and engaging stories. This is where story starters come in. Story starters are a fantastic way to help children get their creative juices flowing and improve their writing skills. Here's how to use them effectively in your classroom. 

What is a Story Starter? 

A story starter is a sentence or phrase that provides the beginning of a story. It's designed to get children thinking about the story they want to write and to provide them with a starting point. Story starters can be anything from "Once upon a time, there was a magical forest" to "The door creaked open, revealing a dark and mysterious room..." 

Story starters can be used in a variety of ways. For example, you might use them as a prompt for a creative writing task or to generate ideas for a longer piece of writing. They can be used in any genre, from fantasy to historical fiction. 

Using Story Starters in the Classroom 

One way to use story starters in the classroom is to provide each child with a different one and ask them to write a short story based on it. This is a great way to give children the opportunity to be creative and explore different genres and writing styles. It's also a great way to encourage children to work independently, as they'll be coming up with their own ideas and using their imagination. 

You could also use story starters to generate ideas for a longer piece of writing. For example, you might ask children to choose one of the story starters and use it as the beginning of a longer story. This is a great way to encourage children to think about character development, plot, and structure. 

Another way to use story starters is to ask children to work in pairs or small groups to create their own story starters. This is a great way to get children thinking creatively and to encourage them to work collaboratively. You might ask each group to come up with several story starters and then share them with the class. 

Choosing the Right Story Starters 

When choosing story starters to use with your pupils, it's important to consider their interests and abilities. You want to choose story starters that will engage your pupils and challenge them, but not overwhelm them. 

It can also be helpful to choose story starters that are relevant to the topics you're studying in class. For example, if you're studying the Romans, you might choose story starters that are set in Ancient Rome. 

It's a good idea to have a range of story starters available to your pupils, so they can choose one that resonates with them. You might have story starters that are funny, scary, adventurous, or mysterious. 

Using story starters is a fantastic way to improve your pupils' writing skills and encourage them to be creative. By providing them with a starting point, you'll be helping them to overcome writer's block and to explore different genres and writing styles. When choosing story starters, it's important to consider your pupils' interests and abilities and to have a range of starters available. Give it a try in your classroom and see how your pupils respond! 

Ready to learn more? Download our Free Teachers Guide by clicking the link below!

Classroom Stars

10 Creative Writing Activities to Spark Magic in Your KS2 Primary Classroom

• 12 Jun 2024

Keeping KS2 pupils engaged with writing can sometimes feel like wrangling a roomful of kittens. But fear not! This blog post is here to reignite the writing fire with ten exciting activities that will have your learners crafting captivating stories, persuasive arguments, and beautiful descriptions in no time.

In the age of instant messaging and short-form content, nurturing a love for expressive writing is more important than ever. These activities cater to various learning styles and interests, while sneakily reinforcing key literacy skills like vocabulary development, sentence structure, and creative thinking. So, grab a pen, gather your pupils, and get ready to unleash their inner wordsmiths!

Now, let’s dive into the 10 activities and explore how they can spark magic in your classroom:

Picture Prompts Find captivating images online or in old magazines. Historical scenes, fantastical landscapes, funny animals, or even abstract shapes all work well. Project the image on the board or provide individual copies. Give children a set amount of time to study the image and jot down any thoughts, ideas, or emotions it evokes. Then, have them write a story inspired by the image. Encourage them to consider the setting, characters, plot, and mood based on their observations.

Character Interviews This activity helps develop well-rounded characters with strong voices and personalities. Have pupils brainstorm character ideas – they could be historical figures, fictional heroes, or even everyday people with interesting jobs. Once they’ve chosen a character, learners can write a list of interview questions to get to know them better. What are their hopes and dreams? What are their biggest fears? Finally, children write the interview itself, embodying the voice of their character in their responses.

Setting Showdown This activity challenges pupils to adapt their writing style and vocabulary to fit different environments. Choose two contrasting settings – a bustling city square at rush hour versus a deserted island paradise, or a spaceship hurtling through space compared to a cozy cottage nestled in a forest. Have learners write a story that takes place in both of these contrasting settings. This could be a single character experiencing both environments or two separate stories linked by a common theme.

Sentence Swap This is a fantastic activity to show learners the power of sentence structure and word order. Write a short paragraph on the board, with several sentences. This could be the opening of a story, a news report, or a descriptive passage. Challenge children to swap the sentences around in different orders. Have them read the paragraph aloud after each swap to see how it changes the flow and meaning of the text. Discuss as a class how sentence order can build suspense, create emphasis, or simply improve the rhythm of the writing.

News Flash! This activity brings historical events or fictional scenarios to life and helps children with factual writing and research skills. Present learners with a historical event they might not be familiar with (the invention of the printing press, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius) or a fictional headline from a fantasy world ( “Dragons Take Over Local Bakery!”). Have pupils research the event or brainstorm the details of the fictional scenario. Then, have them write a news report on the event, complete with a catchy headline, factual information, and quotes from “witnesses” (real or imagined).

Poetry in Motion This activity is a wonderful way to bridge the gap between visual imagery and written language. Show pupils a short video clip that is particularly evocative or visually stimulating. This could be a nature documentary scene, a silent movie chase sequence, or even an abstract animation. After watching the clip, give learners some time to think about what they saw and how it made them feel. Then, have them write a poem capturing the essence of the video clip. Encourage them to use vivid language, figurative speech, and sound devices to bring their poem to life.

Dear Diary… This activity is a fantastic tool for character development and creative storytelling. Ask children to choose a historical figure, fictional character, or even an inanimate object (a tree in the schoolyard, a forgotten toy in the attic). Have them write a series of diary entries from the perspective of their chosen subject. These diary entries should reflect the character’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences. For historical figures, pupils can research real diaries or letters to guide their writing.

The Persuasion Game This activity hones persuasive writing skills and encourages pupils to think critically about different viewpoints. Give learners a product, idea, or policy (flying cars, a four-day school week, uniforms in school) and have them choose whether they are for or against it. Then, have them write a persuasive letter arguing their chosen viewpoint. This letter should be addressed to a specific audience (e.g., the government, parents). Pupils should use strong arguments, factual evidence, and persuasive language to convince the reader of their point of view.

Comic Strip Capers This activity is a fun and engaging way to introduce learners to graphic novels and comic book storytelling. Provide pupils with a simple comic strip template, with a set number of panels. Challenge them to write a short story using illustrations and dialogue within the panels of the comic strip. This can be a humorous story, a dramatic scene, or even a factual account of a historical event.

Six-Word Stories This activity is a fantastic challenge for creative thinking, conciseness, and impactful writing. Challenge children to write a complete story in just six words! This forces them to think carefully about their plot, characters, and setting, and to deliver their message in an impactful way. Six-word story prompts can be provided to get pupils started (e.g., “Lost princess finds happy robot friend”, “Last human wanders through ruined city”).

Remember, the key is to make writing fun, engaging, and relevant to your children’s interests. With a little creativity, you can transform your classroom into a vibrant writing workshop where imaginations soar, and words truly come alive!

If you liked this post, you may like Beyond the Classroom Walls: 15 Outdoor Learning Activities for Key Stage 1 .

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• Creative Writing Prompts Activities And Resources For Ks1 And Ks2 English

Creative writing prompts – Best activities and resources for KS1 and KS2 English

Fed up of reading 'and then…', 'and then…' in your children's writing? Try these story starters, structures, worksheets and other fun writing prompt resources for primary pupils…

What is creative writing?

How to develop opportunities for writing with choice and freedom, creative writing resources for the classroom, creative writing prompts.

According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, ‘creative’ is ‘producing or using original and unusual ideas’, yet I would argue that in writing there’s no such thing as an original idea – all stories are reincarnations of ones that have gone before.

As writers we learn to be expert magpies – selecting the shiny words, phrases and ideas from other stories and taking them for our own.  

Interestingly, the primary national curriculum does not mention creative writing or writing for pleasure at all and is focused on the skill of writing.

Therefore, if writing creatively and for pleasure is important in your school, it must be woven into your vision for English.

“Interestingly, the Primary National Curriculum does not mention creative writing or writing for pleasure at all”

Creative writing in primary schools can be broken into two parts:

• writing with choice and freedom
• developing story writing

Writing with choice and freedom allows children to write about what interests and inspires them.  

Developing story writing provides children with the skills they need to write creatively. In primary schools this is often taught in a very structured way and, particularly in the formative years, can lack opportunities for children to be creative.

Children are often told to retell a story in their own words or tweak a detail such as the setting or the main character.  

Below you’ll find plenty of creative writing prompts, suggestions and resources to help develop both writing for choice and freedom and developing story writing in your classroom. 

Here’s an interesting question to consider: if the curriculum disappeared but children still had the skills to write, would they?

I believe so – they’d still have ideas they wanted to convey and stories they wanted to share.

One of my children enjoys writing and the other is more reluctant to mark make when asked to, but both choose to write. They write notes for friends, song lyrics, stories and even business plans.

So how can we develop opportunities to write with choice and freedom in our classrooms?

Early Years classrooms are full of opportunities for children to write about what interests them, but it’s a rarer sight in KS1 and 2.  

Ask children what they want to write about

Reading for pleasure has quite rightly been prioritised in schools and the impact is clear. Many of the wonderful ideas from The Open University’s Reading For Pleasure site can be used and adapted for writing too.

For example, ask children to create a ‘writing river’ where they record the writing they choose to do across a week.

If pupils like writing about a specific thing, consider creating a short burst writing activity linked to this. The below Harry Potter creative writing activity , where children create a new character and write a paragraph about them, is an example of this approach.

If you have a spare 20 minutes, listen to the below conversation with Lucy and Jonathan from HeadteacherChat and Alex from LinkyThinks . They discuss the importance of knowing about children’s interests but also about being a writer yourself.

'The confidence Crisis in Creative Writing.' Lucy and Jonathan chat with Alex from @LinkyThinks https://t.co/VClYxiQhcf — HeadteacherChat (@Headteacherchat) August 9, 2022

Plan in time to pursue personal writing projects 

There are lots of fantastic ideas for developing writing for pleasure in your classrooms on The Writing For Pleasure Centre’s website .

One suggestion is assigning time to pursue personal writing projects. The Meadows Primary School in Madeley Heath, Staffordshire, does this termly and provides scaffolds for children who may find the choice daunting.

Give children a choice about writing implements and paper 

Sometimes the fun is in the novelty. Are there opportunities within your week to give pupils some choices about the materials they use? Ideas could include:

• little notebooks
• a roll of paper
• felt tip pens
• gel pens  

Write for real audiences 

This is a great way to develop children’s motivation to write and is easy to do.

It could be a blog, a class newsletter or pen pals. Look around in your community for opportunities to write – the local supermarket, a nearby nursing home or the library are often all good starting points.

Have a go yourself

The most successful teachers of story writing write fiction themselves.

Many adults do not write creatively and trying to teach something you have not done yourself in a long time can be difficult. By having a go you can identify the areas of difficulty alongside the thought processes required.  

Treat every child as an author

Time is always a premium in the classroom but equally, we’re all fully aware of the impact of verbal feedback.

One-to-one writing conferences have gained in popularity in primary classrooms and it’s well-worth giving these a go if you haven’t already.

Set aside time to speak to each child about the writing they’re currently constructing. Discuss what’s going well and what they could develop.

If possible, timetable these one-to-one discussions with the whole class throughout the year (ideally more often, if possible).  

Free KS2 virtual visit and resources

Bring best-selling children’s authors directly into your classroom with Author In Your Classroom. It’s a brilliant free podcast series made especially for schools, and there’s loads of free resources to download too.

More than 20 authors have recorded episodes so far, including:

• Sir Michael Morpurgo
• Dame Jacqueline Wilson
• Michael Rosen
• Joseph Coelho
• Lauren Child
• Frank Cottrell-Boyce
• Benjamin Zephaniah
• Cressida Cowell
• Robin Stevens

Creative writing exercises

Use these inspiring writing templates from Rachel Clarke to inspire pupils who find it difficult to get their thoughts down on the page. The structured creative writing prompts and activities, which range from writing a ‘ through the portal story ‘ to a character creation activity that involves making your own Top Trumps style cards, will help inexperienced writers to get started.

Prompts for creative writing

This  free PDF  features a range of classroom games, ideas and prompts for creative writing from The National Literacy Trust. The activities can be completed independently, in pairs or in small groups. They’re perfect for National Writing Day.

Create confident writers

Use this inspiring KS2 lesson plan to help children write creatively with confidence. It focuses on eliminating the pressure of writing and turning writing tasks into fun games.

Storyboard templates and story structures

Whether it’s short stories, comic strips or filmmaking, every tale needs the right structure to be told well. This storyboard template resource will help your children develop the skills required to add that foundation to their creative writing.

Ten-minute activities 

The idea of fitting another thing into the school day can feel overwhelming, so start with small creative writing activities once a fortnight. Below are a few ideas that have endless possibilities.

Character capers

You need a 1-6 dice for this activity. Roll it three to find out who your character is, what their personality is and what job they do, then think about the following:

• Can you draw them?
• What questions would you ask them if you met them?
• What might their answers be?
• If they were the main character in a story, what might happen?

Download our character capers worksheet .

Setting soup

In this activity pupils Look at the four photos and fill in a mind map for one of the settings, focusing on what they’d see, hear, feel, smell and feel in that location. They then write an ingredients list for their setting, such as:

• A dollop of calmness 
• A drizzle of a beautiful sunset 
• A generous helping of a still ocean 
• Copious amounts of smooth sand 
• A spattering of lush, green palm trees 

Download our setting soup worksheet .

Use consequences to generate story ideas

Start with a game of drawing consequences – this is a great way of building a new character.

Next, play a similar game but write a story. Here’s an example . Download our free writing consequences template to get started.

Roll and write a story

For this quick activity, children roll a dice three times to choose a setting and two characters – for example, a theme park, an explorer and a mythical creature. They then use the results to create an outline for a story.

Got more than ten minutes? Use the outline to write a complete story. Alternatively, use the results to create a book cover and blurb or, with a younger group of children, do the activity as a class then draw or write about the outcome.

Download our roll and write a story worksheet .

Scavenger hunt

Give children something to hide and tell them they have to write five clues in pairs, taking another pair from one clue to the next until the 5th clue leads them to the hidden item.

For a challenge, the clues could be riddles.  

Set up pen pals. This might be with children in another country or school, or it could simply be with another class.

What do pupils want to say or share? It might be a letter, but it could be a comic strip, poem or pop-up book.  

You need a log-in to access Authorfy’s content but it’s free. The website is crammed with every children’s author imaginable, talking about their books and inspirations and setting writing challenges. It’s a great tool to inspire and enthuse.  

There are lots of great resources and videos on Oxford Owl which are free to access and will provide children with quick bursts of creativity.  

Creative writing ideas for KS2

This free Pie Corbett Ultimate KS2 fiction collection is packed with original short stories from the man himself, and a selection of teaching resources he’s created to accompany each one.

Each creative writing activity will help every young writer get their creative juices flowing and overcome writer’s block.

WAGOLL text types

​Support pupils when writing across a whole range of text types and genres with these engaging writing packs from Plazoom , differentiated for KS1, LKS2 and UKS2.

They feature:

• model texts (demonstrating WAGOLL for learners)
• planning guides
• writing templates
• themed paper

Each one focuses on a particular kind of text, encouraging children to make appropriate vocabulary, register and layout choices, and produce the very best writing of which they are capable, which can be used for evidence of progress.

If you teach KS2, start off by exploring fairy tales with a twist , or choose from 50+ other options .

Scaffolds and plot types

A great way to support children with planning stories with structures, this creative writing scaffolds and plot types resource pack contains five story summaries, each covering a different plot type, which they can use as a story idea.

It has often been suggested that there are only seven basic plots a story can use, and here you’ll find text summaries for five of these:

• Overcoming the monster
• Rags to riches
• Voyage and return

After familiarising themselves with these texts, children can adapt and change these stories to create tales of their own.

Use story starters

If some children still need a bit of a push in the right direction, check out our 6 superb story starters to develop creative writing skills . This list features a range of free story starter resources, including animations (like the one above) and even the odd iguana…

Use word mats to inspire

Help pupils to write independently by providing them with helpful vocabulary sheets that they can pick and choose from when doing their own creative writing.

Download our free creative writing word mats here , including:

• Create a spooky atmosphere
• Write an adventure story
• Describe a character’s appearance
• Describe a character’s personality
• Describe how a character moves
• Describe how a character speaks
• Describe a mythical beast

Websites to inspire reluctant writers

I use this Breaking News picture generator in class to stimulate writing of news scripts, then film the pupils reading their script as newscasters.

Classtools also has this amazingly realistic Facebook page creator . Use it to create profile pages for historical figures. You’ll be amazed how much effort pupils put in to creating a ‘Fakebook’ page compared to what they would have done if they’d have been writing a plain biography.

Fotojet has an excellent magazine generator that allows your photo to be placed on actual magazine titles, such as  Time  and  Rolling Stone . Big Huge Labs  will convert a photograph into a printable magazine cover.

P ulp-O-Mizer is especially useful when teaching the science fiction genre. You can generate a series of fabulous 1950s pulp-inspired book covers which look the part and are highly customisable, allowing you to change the title, text, colour and illustrations to produce a very professional-looking cover.

Instead of creating boring drawer labels in Word, why not use a  Star Wars  or  Harry Potter  font instead? Let children generate their own personalised name tags using some of the typefaces from famous films, bands or brands.

Julian Wood is a deputy headteacher in a Sheffield primary school, a  CAS  Master Computer Teacher and a  Microsoft Innovative Educator.

Creative writing pictures

Using images as writing prompts is nothing new, but it’s fun and effective.

Pobble 365 has an inspiring photo for every day of the year. These are great inspiration for ten-minute free writing activities. You need to log in to Pobble but access to Pobble 365 (the pictures) is free.  

Choose two pictures as prompts (you can access every picture for the year in the calendar) or provide children with a range of starter prompts.

For example, with the photo above you might ask children to complete one of the following activities: 

• Continue the story using the story starters on Pobble. 
• Write down what your dream day would include. 
• Create a superhero called Dolphin Dude.  
• If you didn’t need to breath when swimming underwater, what would you do? Write about your dream day. It might include rivers, lakes, swimming pools, the seas or oceans.  
• If you had a super power, what would it be and why?  

The Literacy Shed

Website The Literacy Shed has a page dedicated to interesting pictures for creative writing . There are winter scenes, abandoned places, landscapes, woodlands, pathways, statues and even flying houses.

The Literacy Shed also hosts video clips for inspiring writing and is choc-full of ways to use them. The Night Zookeeper Shed is well worth a visit. There are short videos, activities and resources to inspire creative writing.

Once Upon a Picture

Once Upon a Picture is another site packed with creative writing picture prompts , but its focus is more on illustrations than photography, so its offering is great for letting little imaginations soar.

Each one comes with questions for kids to consider, or activities to carry out.

How to improve creating writing

Developing story writing .

If you decided to climb a mountain, in order to be successful you’d need to be well-equipped and you’d need to have practised with smaller climbs first.

The same is true of creative writing: to be successful you need to be well-equipped with the skills of writing and have had plenty of opportunities to practise.  

As a teachers you need to plan with this in mind – develop a writing journey which allows children to learn the art of story writing by studying stories of a similar style, focusing on how effects are created and scaffolding children’s writing activities so they achieve success.  

• Choose a focus When planning, consider what skill you want to embed for children and have that as your focus throughout the sequence of learning. For example, if you teach Y4 you might decide to focus on integrating speech into stories. When your class looks at a similar story, draw their attention to how the author uses speech and discuss how it advances the action and shows you more about the characters. During the sequence, your class can practise the technical side of writing speech (new line/new speaker, end punctuation, etc). When they come to write their own story, your success criteria will be focused on using speech effectively. By doing this, the skill of using speech is embedded. If you chose to focus on ALL the elements of story writing that a Y4 child should be using (fronted adverbials, conjunctions, expanded noun phrases, etc), this might lead to cognitive overload.
• Plan in chances to be creative Often teachers plan three writing opportunities: one where children retell the story, one with a slight difference (eg a different main character) and a final one where children invent their own story. However, in my experience, the third piece of writing often never happens because children have lost interest or time has run out. If we equip children with the skills, we must allow them time to use them.
• Utilise paired writing Children love to collaborate and by working in pairs it actually helps develop independence. Give it a go!  
• Find opportunities for real audiences Nothing is more motivating than knowing you will get to share your story with another class, a parent or the local nursing home.
• Use high-quality stimuli If your focus is speech, find a great novel for kids that uses speech effectively. There are so many excellent children’s stories available that there’s no need to write your own.
• Use magpie books This is somewhere where children can note down any great words or phrases they find from their reading. It will get them reading as a writer. 

Below is a rough outline of a planning format that leads to successful writing opportunities.

This sequence of learning takes around three weeks but may be longer or shorter, depending on the writing type.  

Before planning out the learning, decide on up to three key focuses for the sequence. Think about the potential learning opportunities that the stimuli supports (eg don’t focus on direct speech if you’re writing non-chronological reports ).  

Ways to overcome fear of creative writing

Many children are inhibited in their writing for a variety of reasons. These include the all-too-familiar ‘fear of the blank page’ (“I can’t think of anything to write about!” is a common lament), trying to get all the technical aspects right as they compose their work (a sense of being ‘overwhelmed’), and the fact that much of children’s success in school is underpinned by an ethos of competitiveness and comparison, which can lead to a fear of failure and a lack of desire to try.

Any steps we can take to diminish these anxieties means that children will feel increasingly motivated to write, and so enjoy their writing more. This in turn will lead to the development of skills in all areas of writing, with the broader benefits this brings more generally in children’s education.

Here are some easily applied and simple ideas from author and school workshop provider Steve Bowkett for boosting self-confidence in writing .

• Keep it creative Make creative writing a regular activity. High priority is given to spelling, punctuation and grammar, but these need a context to be properly understood. Teaching the technicalities of language without giving children meaningful opportunities to apply them is like telling people the names of a car engine’s parts without helping them learn to drive.
• Model the behaviour In other words, when you want your class to write a story or poem, have a go yourself and be upfront about the difficulties you encounter in trying to translate your thoughts into words.
• Go easy on the grammar Encourage children to write without them necessarily trying to remember and apply a raft of grammatical rules. An old saying has it that we should ‘learn the rules well and then forget them’. Learning how to use punctuation, for instance, is necessary and valuable, but when children try and apply the rules consciously and laboriously as they go along, the creative flow can be stifled. Consideration of rules should, however, be an important element of the editing process.
• Keep assessment focused Where you do require children to focus on rules during composition, pick just one or two they can bear in mind as they write. Explain that you will mark for these without necessarily correcting other areas of GaPS. Not only will this save you time, but also children will be spared the demotivating sight of their writing covered in corrections (which many are unlikely to read).
• Value effort If a child tries hard but produces work that is technically poor, celebrate his achievement in making an effort and apply the old ‘three stars and a wish’ technique to the work by finding three points you can praise followed by noting one area where improvements can be made.
• Leave room for improvement Make clear that it’s fine for children to change their minds, and that there is no expectation for them to ‘get it all right’ first time. Show the class before and after drafts from the work of well-known poets and extracts from stories. Where these have been hand written, they are often untidy and peppered with crossings out and other annotations as the writers tried to clarify their thoughts. If you have the facilities, invite children to word process their stories using the ‘track changes’ facility. Encourage children to show their workings out, as you would do in maths.
• Don’t strive for perfection Slay the ‘practice makes perfect’ dragon. It’s a glib phrase and also an inaccurate one. Telling children that practice makes better is a sound piece of advice. But how could we ever say that a story or poem is perfect? Even highly experienced authors strive to improve.
• Come back later Leave some time – a couple of days will do – between children writing a piece and editing or redrafting it. This is often known as the ‘cooling off’ period. Many children will find that they come back to their work with fresh eyes that enable them to pick out more errors, and with new ideas for improving the piece structurally.
• Try diamond 9 Use the diamond ranking tool to help children assess their own work. Give each child some scraps of paper or card and have them write on each an aspect of their writing, such as creating strong characters, controlling pace and tension, describing places and things, using ‘punchy’ verbs etc. Supply these elements as necessary, but allow children some leeway to think of examples of their own. Now ask each child to physically arrange these scraps according to how effectively they were used in the latest piece of work. So two writing elements that a child thinks are equally strong will be placed side by side, while an aspect of the work a child is pleased with will be placed above one that he / she is not so happy with.
• Keep it varied Vary the writing tasks. By this I mean it’s not necessary to ask children always to write a complete story. Get them to create just an opening scene for example, or a vivid character description, or an exciting story climax. If more-reluctant writers think they haven’t got to write much they might be more motivated to have a go. Varying the tasks also helps to keep the process of writing fresh, while the results can form resource banks (of characters, scenes, etc) for future use.
• Help each other Highlight the idea that everyone in the class, including yourself, forms a community of writers. Here, difficulties can be aired, advice can be shared and successes can be celebrated as we all strive to ‘dare to do it and do our best’.

Browse more ideas for National Writing Day .

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Choose a Story Starters theme:

• Inspire your young writers
• Moderate writing online

The Pobble blog

• Teaching and Learning

Writing prompts and story starters for every genre

• by: Anna from Pobble
• On: 19, Jan 2021
• Teaching and Learning (99)
• Pobble Power (31)
• Guest blogs (25)
• Printable resources (11)
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• Moderation (5)
• Competition (4)

We all have an innate love of stories. They spark magical thoughts and improve willingness to communicate feelings, thoughts and experiences. A good story stays with you and can shape understanding, language development and writing motivation.

When writing stories, the difficult part is often getting started. That's where story starters or writing prompts come in. Story starters spark children's imagination, helping them to imagine the plot, the setting, or the characters and then build their own story around them.

When we launched  Pobble , we didn’t know just how popular it would become. Now, we have a community of hundreds of thousands of teachers around the world logging on to find our free, daily writing lesson ideas to inspire their young writers.

Every day, we give teachers access to a free engaging image, with a story starter, questions and writing activities for your class. You can save these lessons to use later, edit t best suit your needs and easily share in a number of ways.

Here are some of our favourites for your class, whatever genre you’re looking to teach:

Adventure  

Can your class continue the story?

See all 6 writing activities that accompany this image. 

“ She had been following the trail of clues for days, and she had finally reached her destination. Were the stories true? ”

Can your class continue the story? 

“ This beach was cursed, no one knew why. For years now, whenever the sun glowed orange, a wreckage of a ship would wash up along the isolated stretch of sand... ”

Science fiction

“They had arrived out of the blue, catching everyone completely unaware... ”

Myths and legends

" Ulrik grew up to be the best blacksmith in the whole country. Anything you wanted making, he could make it! That was until a fateful evening on a snowy night when he was visited by a darkly-cloaked, mysterious man… ”

Can your class continue the story of The Blacksmith?

Looking for a different genre? You'll find it on Pobble! 

Have you discovered Pobble yet? Inspire your young writers with a free , ready-made writing prompt every day!

Think writing, think pobble.

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    A Starter for ten . The perfect place for story starters and writing inspiration .     Check out the latest pictures and story starters below.     Click on the picture of your choice for a full screen image.     Click on the pdf link to go straight to the downloadable  comprehension,                 - ideal for guided reading sessions. Over 11,000 downloads from TES ! - and counting.

Check out the     't eaching ideas' page. -  inspiration for using the story starters . if you'd like your writing published then submit your next 100 words on the ' 100 word challenge page' .   need the webpage in a different language use the translator tool below .

• Choose an image from the GALLERY page, or the images below, and imagine where it could take you.
• Check out the 100 word story starters linked through the PDF and continue the story.
• Download and use the ready prepared pdf comprehension / guided reading and research activities.
• Send in your next 100 words and have it published on the YOUR WORK page. 

The boathouse

Thomas had been here countless times as he grew up. The old boathouse stood as a reminder that this had once been a proud fishing village sadly forgotten by time. When he was old enough he would leave and get as far away as possible. There was nothing here that could make him stay.

A look of disbelief filled his face as the boat house door was open. Temptation overtook him. He crept forward, stepped inside and waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.

Silently, the door closed behind him. A booming voice asked, “Can I help you?” 

My son is an animal. To be more precise, I have a son who is a squirrel!

I couldn’t believe he’d disappeared again. One minute we’re enjoying ourselves in the park, the next he’s gone, exploring, racing off and climbing trees, maybe he was meant to be a squirrel after all.

I heard my daughter squeal, a squeal of excitement. “Look at the cute squirrel dad. He looks so friendly.” I looked closely, those sad eyes, full of confusion staring at me, like it was trying to talk to me.

T  hat’s when I realised I was looking at my son! 

Signs and symbols

The school trip, the clockwork spyder.  , christmas elves, the rainbow, stone circle, the gardener's door ., clocks (the power of dreams), pumpkins. .

Castle Siege

A race against time., the secret room, perfect friend or perfect enemy , the headmaster's office, bobby's statue (words of wisdom), love street, on the horizon, the red lighthouse, burnt dreams, deal with a dragon., keeping the faith, turned to stone, flying free, the house on the hill., under the bridge -, the haunted cellar, what's in a name, the underpass,                cracked    earth , a journey back in time.,  a walk in the woods, an unlikely hero..

             Journey into the Egyptian tomb.

The cabinet of curiosities., future suggestions.

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KS2 Descriptive Creative Writing Paragraph Model - Thunderstorm! Word Doc.

Subject: English

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Worksheet/Activity

Last updated

24 October 2024

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KS2 Descriptive Writing Paragraph -Thunderstorm!

Creative/descriptive writing example.

Key Features:

Modelling creative language choices/figurative language; kS2 grammatical features such as varied sentence starters and structures; fronted adverbials; expanded noun phrases; varied punctuation.

Used when working with small groups of Year 6 pupils tasked with writing their own short narrative paragraph(s).

Suitable for KS2. Further descriptive paragraphs can be found at following: Dragons:

https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12959414 (word doc) https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12959437 (ppwerpoint)

KS2 Descriptive Writing Paragraph – Abandoned House in Forest: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12960501 Same paragraph as a powerpoint https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12978017

Also, a resource with ideas of how to make descriptive/creative writing more exciting using figurative language: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12986538

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