ks2 creative writing lesson plans

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Home > Resources > KS2 RESOURCE PACK: Creative Writing with Jacqueline Wilson

KS2 RESOURCE PACK: Creative Writing with Jacqueline Wilson

Key stage and subjects, what’s the story.

Jacqueline Wilson has written over 100 books – so now it is over to you! This pack includes creative writing advice from Jacqueline Wilson, broken into five sections so you can create your story over a series of lessons.

This resource pack includes:

Lesson 1: Big ideas

• Individual warm-up
• Setting the scene

Lesson 2: creating characters

• Small group warm-up: freeze frame 3d characters
• Character wheels

Lesson 3: the beginning – starting a story

• Warm-up: classroom adventure
• Analysing the opening of ‘my mum tracy beaker’

Lesson 4: The middle – making something happen

• Discussion warm-up: fairy tale problems
• Solving problems
• Storyboarding

Lesson 5: The end – finishing the story

• Small group warm-up: film trailers
• Completing a plot graph The final touches

Work sheets

• Story hat ideas
• Storyboard template Plot graphs

Get the KS2 RESOURCE PACK: Creative Writing with Jacqueline Wilson

Related books, four children and it, my mum tracy beaker.

Jacqueline Wilson, Nick Sharratt

The Get Creative Journal

Jacqueline Wilson, Nick Sharratt (Illustrator)

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Creative Writing: Simile and Metaphor

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Lesson details

Key learning points.

• In this lesson, we will introduce simile and metaphor and practise using these techniques in our own writing.

This content is made available by Oak National Academy Limited and its partners and licensed under Oak’s terms & conditions (Collection 1), except where otherwise stated.

Starter quiz

5 questions, 6 questions, lesson appears in, unit english / creative writing: poetry.

Week One Creative Writing Lesson Plans: Expert Guide

Looking for creative writing lesson plans? I am developing creative writing lesson ideas! 

I’ve written and revamped my creative writing lesson plans and learned that the first week is vital in establishing a community of writers, in outlining expectations, and in working with a new class.

What are some good creative writing exercises?

Some good creative writing exercises include writing prompts, free writing, character development exercises, and fun writing games.

The first week, though, we establish trust—and then we begin powerful creative writing exercises to engage young writers and our community.

How can add encouragement in creative writing lesson plans?

I’ve found students are shy about writing creatively, about sharing pieces of themselves. A large part of the first week of class is setting the atmosphere, of showing everyone they are free to create. And! These concepts will apply to most writing lesson plans for secondary students.

Feel free to give me feedback and borrow all that you need! Below, find my detailed my day-by-day progression for creative writing lesson plans  for week one.

Creative Writing Lesson Day One: Sharing my vision

Comfort matters for young writers. I’m not a huge “ice breaker” type of teacher—I build relationships slowly. Still, to get student writing, we must establish that everyone is safe to explore, to write, to error.

Here are some ideas.

Tone and attitude

For day one with any lesson plan for creative writing, I think it is important to set the tone, to immediately establish what I want from my creative writing students. And that is…

them not to write for me, but for them. I don’t want them writing what they think I want them to write.

Does that make sense? Limitations hurt young writers. My overall tone and attitude toward young writers is that we will work together, create and write together, provide feedback, and invest in ourselves. Older kiddos think that they must provide teachers with the “correct” writing. In such a course, restrictions and boundaries largely go out the window.

Plus, I specifically outline what I believe they can produce in a presentation to set people at ease.

The presentation covers expectations for the class. As the teacher, I am a sort of writing coach with ideas that will not work for everyone. Writers should explore different methods and realize what works for them. First, not everyone will appreciate every type of writing—which is fine. But as a writing community, we must accept that we may not be the target audience for every piece of work.

Therefore, respect is a large component of the class. Be sure to outline what interactions you find acceptable within your classroom community.

Next, as their writing coach, I plan to provide ideas and tools for use. Their job is to decide what tools work for their creative endeavors. My overall message is uplifting and encouraging.

Finally, when we finish, I share the presentation with students so they can consult it throughout the semester. The presentation works nicely for meet-the-teacher night, too!

After covering classroom procedures and rules, I show students a TED Talk. We watch The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Adichie. My goal is to show students that I don’t have a predetermined idea concerning what they should write. This discussion takes the rest of the class period.

Establishing comfort and excitement precedents my other creative writing activities. Personalize your “vision” activities for your lessons in creative writing. Honestly, doing this pre-work builds relationships with students and creates a positive classroom atmosphere.

Creative Writing Lesson Day Two: Activating prior knowledge

Students possess prior knowledge concerning creative writing, but they might not consider that. Students should realize that they know what constitutes a great story. They might not realize that yet. An easy lesson plan for creative writing that will pay off later is to activate prior knowledge. Brainstorm creative, memorable, unforgettable stories with students. Share your thoughts too! You will start to build relationships with students who share the same tastes as you (and those that are completely different!).

Activation activity

During this activity, I want to see how students work together, and I want to build a rapport with students. Additionally, activating prior knowledge provides a smooth transition into other creative writing activities.

This creative writing activity is simple:

I ask students to tell me memorable stories—books, play, tv shows, movies—and I write them on the board. I add and veto as appropriate. Normally doing these classroom discussions, we dive deeper into comedies and creative nonfiction. Sometimes as we work, I ask students to research certain stories and definitions. I normally take a picture of our work so that I can build creative writing lessons from students’ interests.

This takes longer than you might think, but I like that aspect. This information can help me shape my future lessons.

With about twenty minutes left in class, I ask students to form small groups. I want them to derive what makes these stories memorable. Since students complete group and partner activities in this class, I also watch and see how they interact.

Students often draw conclusions about what makes a story memorable:

• Realistic or true-to-life characters.
• Meaningful themes.
• Funny or sad events.

All of this information will be used later as students work on their own writing. Many times, my creative writing lessons overlap, especially concerning the feedback from young writers.

Creative Writing Lesson Day Three: Brainstorming and a graphic organizer

From building creative writing activities and implementing them, I now realize that students think they will sit and write. Ta-da!  After all, this isn’t academic writing. Coaching creative writing students is part of the process.

Young writers must accept that a first draft is simply that, a first draft. Building a project requires thought and mistakes. (Any writing endeavor does, really.) Students hear ‘creative writing’ and they think… easy. Therefore, a first week lesson plan for creative writing should touch on what creativity is.

Really, creativity is everywhere. We complete a graphic organizer titled, “Where is Creativity?” Students brainstorm familiar areas that they may not realize have such pieces.

The ideas they compile stir all sorts of conversations:

• Restaurants
• Movie theaters
• Amusement parks

By completing this graphic organizer, we discuss how creativity surrounds us, how we can incorporate different pieces in our writing, and how different areas influence our processes.

Creative Writing Lesson, Days Four and Five: Creative Nonfiction

Students need practice writing, and they need to understand that they will not use every word they write. Cutting out lines is painful for them! Often, a lesson plan for creative writing involves providing time for meaningful writing.

For two days, we study and discuss creative nonfiction. Students start by reading an overview of creative nonfiction . (If you need mentor texts, that website has some as well.) When I have books available, I show the class examples of creative nonfiction.

We then continue through elements of a narrative . Classes are sometimes surprised that a narrative can be nonfiction.

The narrative writing is our first large project. As we continue, students are responsible for smaller projects as well. This keeps them writing most days.

Overall, my students and I work together during the first week of any creative writing class. I encourage them to write, and I cheer on their progress. My message to classes is that their writing has value, and an audience exists for their creations.

And that is my week one! The quick recap:

Week One Creative Writing Lesson Plans

Monday: Rules, procedures, TED Talk, discussion.

Tuesday: Prior knowledge—brainstorm the modeling of memorable stories. Draw conclusions about storytelling with anchor charts. Build community through common knowledge.

Wednesday: Graphic organizer.

Thursday and Friday: Creative nonfiction. Start narrative writing.

Students do well with this small assignment for the second week, and then we move to longer creative writing assignments . When classesexperience success with their first assignment, you can start constructive editing and revising with them as the class continues.

These creative writing activities should be easy implement and personalize for your students.

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Are you interested in more creative writing lesson ideas? My Facebook page has interactive educators who love to discuss creative writing for middle school and high school creative writing lesson plans. Join us!

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Story Mountain – Teaching this story structure in KS2 creative writing

Careful story planning doesn't mean children have to squash their creativity – quite the opposite, in fact....

By Sue Drury

Last updated 11 September 2020

Writing a story should be like an enjoyable journey. You should know where you’re starting and where you’re going to finish. You should also plan some interim destinations along the way. Precisely how you get to each staging post is up to you and could even be partly led by your characters.

Nevertheless, you need to start with a plan and this is something that is especially important to drill into your pupils. Children tend to love telling or writing stories and their instinct is to launch straight into each new tale with unbridled enthusiasm.

However, if you’ve ever had the misfortune to hear or read a child’s unplanned story, you’ll know exactly what we mean.

Here are a few tips for helping to ensure that you won’t be wearing a painfully fixed smile or propping your eyelids up with matchsticks next time you encounter an enthusiastic young storyteller.

Which story plan?

As with so many things in life, there are plenty of ways to plan a story. Different approaches often suit particular genres and it helps to pick and choose accordingly.

Basic story structure

Even so, a story needs a beginning, a middle and an end. To expand this a little further, many stories follow the ‘story mountain’ approach, whereby the dramatic tension of the plot starts low, then climbs steadily to its apex before returning, more or less to normality – sea level, if you like.

Depending on the particular story mountain template you use, this journey is often broken into five stages: opening (where you introduce the characters and setting), build up, problem(s), climax and resolution.

Early steps with familiar stories

A good way to introduce young writers to the idea of story structure is through oral storytelling, which also addresses those objectives about saying aloud what you intend to write. We have an attractive set of storytelling cards for Key Stage 1 pupils to help them spark these discussions and take their first steps along the road to effective planning. There are even some blank ones to allow pupils to come up with their own characters, settings and so on.

Story planning resources

The importance of rehearsing your ideas before you write does not diminish when the pupils reach Year 3, even if the expectation might be for them to have started putting plans down on paper. That is why we offer storytelling cards for lower key stage 2 children as well. These offer suggestions as to what might be happening at any of the stages on the story mountain and can be used as part of a class discussion or put on display as a constant reminder.

Use prompts for creative writing exercises

One of the main pitfalls of pupils’ planning is the temptation to blur the lines between the plan and the story itself. To overcome this, advise them to make notes, preferably as bullet points rather than full sentences. Also, provide planning templates with prompts to make them think clearly about each stage of the story. As well as breaking down the story into its main parts, it could also pose relevant questions about what is happening and why. Just make sure that they don’t confuse the story stages with paragraphs. It might be that the two concepts overlap when they are novice writers but, especially as they get older and produce more, they will need to understand the difference.

Story Mountain structure can be flexible

A story plan is not a legally binding contract. Although you might not state it in those terms to your pupils, it is appropriate to tell them that sometimes your ideas change while you’re in the process of moulding a plan into a story. Just urge them to adapt their plan accordingly so that it still follows a coherent plot.

Famous story structure

It is often said that there are seven basic plots in literature: overcoming the monster, rags to riches, the quest, journey and return, comedy, tragedy and rebirth. You can unpick what these mean at your leisure; the point is that different plots have different key ingredients. It therefore makes sense for writers to adapt their planning style accordingly and not feel they have to struggle up and down the story mountain in the traditional sense.

We offer a variety of resources, complete with planning sheets, that will help pupils appreciate different approaches to planning, depending on the genre of the story they are writing. For example, our ‘Timing a Plot’ pack encourages pupils to focus on the chronology of the key events in their story. Our ‘Hero’s Journey’ pack provides a 12-stage template for planning a story in the style of myths, legends and fantasy adventures. We even have a resource for creating a historical story set in a particular time and place, namely the wild west . Yippee-i-ay!

Make sure that your pupils do not underestimate the importance of the resolution. The story mountain idea can really help here as it is a very visual illustration of how things return to normal. Loose ends will need to be tied up in a way that satisfies the reader and there should be some indication as to how life will carry on for the characters. Incidentally, the protagonists might well live ‘happily ever after’ but this is never an acceptable ending except for a traditional tale. If you’re feeling really draconian, ban the words ‘The End’. If it is not clear to the reader that the story has finished, you could argue that they have not written a good enough resolution.

We hope you now feel fully equipped to help your class to tackle the spectacular peaks of the story mountains. Just remember, it might take what seems like extra effort at the beginning but it will be well worth it in the end.

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7 techniques for generating story writing ideas in ks2, key stage 2 is a great time for children..

Typically, they will have settled into the flow of learning new subjects, and as KS2 teachers you get to help them flourish by practising, repeating and refining their learnt skills. When it comes to teaching literacy this also means encouraging your class’s creativity. 

However, on occasion creativity can be hard to come by and story writing lessons might not produce the outcomes you were hoping for. To help you combat this, here are some techniques and ideas to help you inspire your class with creative writing tasks.  

1. Create a Classroom Story Generator 

Write the ideas on paper and cut them out, then fold them up so you can’t see what’s written on them.

Find three bags (or any kind of container). Place all the folded character ideas in the first bag, the scenes in the second and the situations/tasks in the third. Ask each pupil to come up and draw a folded piece of paper from each bag. This will be the start of their story. Alternatively, you could build up five story-starting sentences from the bags and write them on the board. Your class could then choose which story they want to write.

Here are some examples to get you started:

You can tailor the ideas to suit your pupils’ abilities, age and preferences, which should really help to spark their imaginations.

2.  Watch or Listen

It doesn’t have to be long or have any dialogue, but showing a short film to your class may help to trigger inspiration. Luckily there are literally millions of free videos available for this kind of thing. Vet them first to make sure they are completely suitable for your class, then turn down the lights and press play. You can show the video more than once, maybe asking the children to write notes on the second viewing which will help to inspire their stories. 

Alternatively try playing a piece of instrumental music and ask your class to imagine what might be happening. Write their ideas and thoughts on the board and ask them to use this as the inspiration for a story.

3.  Folklore and Fairy Tales 

4.  Storyboards

You’re not asking your class to be artists; they can use simple stick figures and words to get their ideas down on paper. But asking your class to draw out their ideas will help them generate some interesting story twists. By getting the structure of their stories down on paper in a sequence, they will know the beginning, middle and end of their stories so when they come to start writing it out there’s not an ounce of KS2 writers block in sight!

5.  A Newspaper Clipping

Newspapers can be a huge source of inspiration. Interesting or unusual stories can be cut out and stuck into a scrap book to bring out and show your class in times of creative need! Alternatively, you could show your whole class a newspaper clipping and ask them all to write a story about the same extract.

6.  Rewrite A Known Story 

Rewriting a known story with a different ending or a different character is a great way to generate inspiration. This technique for generating story ideas can’t fail to produce results since the possibilities are endless!

For example:

• What if Little Red Riding Hood lived in a jungle instead of a forest?
• What if the three little pigs were the three little wolves instead, and the big bad pig wanted to eat them for his dinner?
• What if Hansel and Gretel were actually the bad ones and wanted to eat the old lady?
• What if you asked your class to swap the characters in one story with the characters in another – Snow White and the Magic Beans, Jack and the Seven Dwarves. Let your class’s imaginations run free and look forward to reading the end results!

7.  Let the Children Choose

Set some homework for the children to go away and think of something they care about, something they are interested in, something which makes them happy, sad or angry and why that is. You could ask them to find a picture or a news story themselves which sparks their interest or emotion.

From the ideas generated at home, ask them to write a story in class. Passion is a wonderful muse after all, so if the children choose a topic that they really care about you should end up with some very good results!

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Creative Writing Through Wordless Picture Books

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

Wordless picture books offer a wonderful foundation for creative writing. Often, students struggle with ideas and topics for writing. This genre of books offers a platform for students to develop their writing skills. In this lesson, students are exposed to wordless picture books and begin developing story lines orally and in writing. Educators can easily incorporate various instructional strategies into students' writing, such as use of dialogue, setting development, character descriptions, sequencing of events, and story development. An online, interactive story map is used to assist students in developing story lines.

Featured Resources

Interactive Story Map : Students will love this interactive resource that helps them generate story ideas.

From Theory to Practice

• David Wiesner (author of Tuesday ) identifies one of the most valuable characteristics of wordless books-the endless possibilities for creative interpretations.  
• Wordless books enhance creativity, vocabulary, and language development for readers of all ages, at all stages of cognitive development, and in all content areas.  
• The creativity stimulated by wordless books encourages older students to look more closely at story details, to carefully consider all story elements, and to more clearly understand how text is organized so that a story develops.
• Through discussion and critical examination of the details of the illustrations, students wrote sentences that effectively complemented the pictures.  

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
• 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

Materials and Technology

• You Can't Take a Balloon Into the National Gallery by Weitzmann and Glasser (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2000)
• Sticky notes (3 X 5 size, lined is preferred)
• Student response journals
• Various wordless picture books: Wordless Picture Books (Reading Rockets) and Wordless Picture Books (Book Riot)

Peer Critique Rubric

Preparation

Student Objectives

Students will

• Explore various wordless picture books  
• Develop oral story lines for wordless picture books  
• Develop written story lines for wordless picture books  
• Critique story lines developed by peers  

Opening activity

Read a wordless picture book to the class by developing a story line to go along with the pictures. After reading, ask students if they would have created a different story for the book. Reread the same book asking students to volunteer to develop a story line for each page. Explain how everyone can have a different interpretation of a book.

Paired reading

Group students in pairs to select and read a wordless picture book together. Students should have the opportunity to create their own story line for the book and tell the story to their partner.

Small-group activity

Gather three to four students in a small group to develop a story for the book You Can't Take a Balloon Into the National Gallery. Explain that the story line should be created as a group. Each group should read through the book first, discuss ideas, and then develop a story line to go along with the illustrations. The text for each page should be written on sticky notes and placed on the coordinating pages of the book.

Whole-class discussion

Invite each group to read aloud their original story for the book You Can't Take a Balloon Into the National Gallery. Discuss the similarities and differences between each group's interpretation of the story. During the discussion, help students identify the setting, main character, conflict, and resolution, and model how to use the interactive Story Map tool.

Response journal activity

Have students complete a journal entry in response to the whole-class discussion about story lines for You Can't Take a Balloon Into the National Gallery. Ask them the following questions:

• Which story line was your favorite?  
• Why was it your favorite?  
• What made it enjoyable?

Independent work

Students select a wordless picture book from the classroom library to read and develop an original story line. Using the interactive Story Map tool, students begin to write their story line by identifying the setting, main character, conflict, and resolution. Once students complete the online Story Map, each map should be printed and used as a guide to further develop their story. Stories should incorporate elements of writing that include, but are not limited to:

• Use of dialogue  
• Setting development  
• Character descriptions  
• Sequencing of events  
• Story development

Pair-and-share conference

Students share their story lines with another student for critique. Comments and suggestions are provided for further story development. Students use a Peer Critique Rubric to complete this task.

Independent revision

Any revisions that are necessary are made based on the pair-and-share conference.

Whole-class sharing

Students read their original story to the class.

How does the museum on the website differ from the museum presented in the book?   What does the author do well in portraying the museum?   What is the most realistic illustration or part in the book?

• Have students create Character Trading Cards for the characters in the stories they have written. These can have multiple applications - for example, students can exchange them and write their own original stories incorporating each other's characters or they can use them as a tool to help them revise their stories.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• Teacher observation of student participation in whole-class and small-group activities  
• Journal response entries  
• Calendar Activities
• Student Interactives

The Story Map interactive is designed to assist students in prewriting and postreading activities by focusing on the key elements of character, setting, conflict, and resolution.

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Eight Free Creative Writing Lessons

February 17, 2012 by Ami 17 Comments

I know I throw around the word favorite all the time. But this is the truth: teaching creative writing lessons is my favorite. 

I have taught creative writing enrichment for summer school students. I have taught creative writing in various homeschool settings and co-ops. I have taught big students and little students. And I love it. 

Since I love to share homeschool co-op class ideas , I have compiled the creative writing lessons from a co-op class that I taught. 

Creative Writing Lessons for a Homeschool Co-op Class

First, please remember that any teacher can use these creative writing lessons. You don’t need to be teaching homeschoolers. You can be a classroom teacher or a homeschool teacher at home with one student. You can even be a librarian who needs a fun program series.

Second, I used these creative writing lesson plans with upper elementary students (with maybe a few 7th graders thrown in). However, you can adapt and use them for older students or younger students!

Creative Writing Lesson Plans

Creative writing lesson one.

The first lesson focuses on cliché and metaphor. It prompts students to consider how words matter.

Grab lesson one here .

Creative Writing Lesson Two

The second lesson teaches students about sensory details: why they are important and how to include them in their writing. Students will begin using sensory details to evoke smells and sounds and sights.

Grab lesson two here.

Creative Writing Lesson Three

The third lesson introduces showing vs. telling. Students learn how to recognize authors who utilize showing, and students are able to articulate the difference between showing and telling.

Grab lesson three here.

Creative Writing Lesson Four

The fourth lesson teaches students how to capture images. We use examples of poetry and prose to discuss this important writing skill.

Grab lesson four here.

Creative Writing Lesson Five

The fifth lesson introduces the story elements of character and conflict.

Note: You may choose to split this lesson into two lessons since it covers two big elements. I only had nine weeks with my students, so I had to jam character and conflict together.

Grab lesson five here.

Creative Writing Lesson Six

The sixth lesson introduces the students to point of view and perspective. We have fun reading poems and using pictures to write descriptions from different points of view.

Grab lesson six here.

Creative Writing Lesson Seven

The seventh lesson puts everything we’ve learned together. I read the students some fractured fairy tales, and we watch some, too. Students then use the prewriting activities and their imaginations to begin drafting their own fractured fairy tales.

Grab lesson seven here.

Creative Writing Lesson Eight

The eighth lesson focuses on revision. After a mini-lesson, students partner up for peer editing.

Grab lesson eight here .

For our final class day, students bring revised work, and I host coffee shop readings. This is a memorable experience for students (and their teacher).

Creative Writing Lessons FAQ

Since posting these creative writing lessons, I have had lots of questions. I decided to compile them here in case you have the same question.

Q: What are copywork quotes? A: Copywork quotes are simply great quotes that students copy as part of their homework assignments. You can use any quotes about writing. I’ve included my favorites throughout the printable packs.

Q: Can I use this with a younger or older student? A: Absolutely! Just adapt it to meet the needs of your student.

Q: Can I use this for my library’s programming or my homeschool co-op class? A: Yes! I just ask that it not be used for profit.

Do you have any questions about teaching creative writing? What’s your biggest hang-up when it comes to teaching creative writing? I’d love to hear from you and help you solve the issue.

January 7, 2016 at 1:57 pm

Hi Theresa,

As long as you are not profitting from using them, they are yours to use! Enjoy! Wish I could be there to help facilitate all those young writers! 

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World War 2 Introduction Lesson Pack || KS2 WW2 History Unit Lesson

Subject: History

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Lesson (complete)

Last updated

24 August 2024

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**This pack includes **

• Multiple lesson ideas with linked resources and brief lesson plans for week of lessons
• Learning objectives
• Must, Should, Could success criteria
• Full introductory lesson plan with assessment ideas
• Powerpoint presentation with animations to introduce WW2 and evacuation
• Self-produced worksheet for main activity
• Starter activity that is differentiated
• Writing frame for Lower Ability for factfile

If you have any questions, or feel it needs anything extra, please contact me and I’ll be happy to oblige,

Miss Austin (:

Tes paid licence How can I reuse this?

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