In year 1, the National Curriculum for English expectation is that pupils should begin 'sequencing sentences to form short narratives'. In year 2, pupils are expected to 'write narratives about personal experiences real and fictional.' Here are some KS1 story writing ideas that will get your pupils writing with enthusiasm.
Inspiring KS1 Story Writing Prompts
Finding the right starting point for KS1 story writing is crucial. An intriguing well-chosen story writing prompt will appeal to pupils and get them excited aboout sharing their ideas. On the other hand, a poor one will leave them unmotivated and reluctant to write! Here are five KS1 story writing ideas that could provide inspiration for a story:
- Imagine that you wake up and you've turned into an animal!
- Your fairy godmother visits and grants you a wish..
- An evil witch casts a spell that...
- Zara opened the magic box and...
- Sami is enjoying his first sailing trip but then he sees a pirate ship approaching!
Questions to Help Plot Development
Once you've provided your pupils with an exciting story writing prompt, asking questions will help them begin to develop an outline of their story. The three key questions that will get them thinking and help them to organise their thoughts are:
- What might happen first?
- What might happen next?
- What might happen in the end?
You could try using the Think-Pair-Share method of eliciting discussion. First, allow time for pupils to consider their individual thoughts. Next, encourage them to share their ideas in pairs. Finally, follow this with a whole class discussion.
When children first begin story writing, keeping the organisation simple is best. If pupils get overly carried away and try to write long complex stories at this stage, their work is likely to end up being very difficult to understand.
These questions will help pupils begin to consider what might happen at the beginning, middle and end of their story. You might also like to use the video below to help your pupils strengthen their understanding of how stories are structured.
Pictures to Spark the Imagination
Using pictures can serve to grab pupils' attention and help provide them starting point from which their ideas can develop. Providing a picture can help to inspire young writers and provide some relief to them. It can mean that some details do not have to be imagined and they won't have to think of absolutely everything. Simply providing a picture on its own without context might not be enough to get creative juices flowing. Combining pictures with a writing prompt and questions works well. Here are examples of three picture writing prompts which are taken from our KS1 Story Writing Kit. Scroll to the end of the article to find out more.
Capturing Ideas
During discussion, the pupils will be going through the process of verbally planning their stories. In order to remember their ideas pupils will need to record them on paper. Planning frames divided into sections for pupils to write an outline of the beginning, middle and ending of their story can be useful for this.
You might also consider asking pupils to draw what is going to happen at the beginning, middle and end of their story. This is a fantastic way to completely avoid pupils following the inclination to begin writing the story during the planning stage. In addition, drawing helps pupils to visualise the events they will be describing. Drawing is also a wonderful way for pupils who struggle with writing to convey their ideas.
KS1 Story Writing Tips
Once you've sparked the children's imagination and they've recorded their ideas in a logical fashion, it's time to get them writing. Here are some tips to aid the process and help them to produce their best work.
- Give pupils the time to build the story gradually. Working on the beginning middle and end of the story could be spread over three days. It is often easier not to leave all the editing to the end. For example, writing the beginning and then proof reading and improving it could take place in one session.
- Model the writing process. Inspire pupils by demonstrating how the ideas contained in planning can be built upon. Ensure that the teacher model produced is not intimidating to pupils. Models should not be overly long and complex. Pupils should be left feeling confident that they can produce something similar.
- Remind pupils about the importance of adding description. Explain that the reader should be able to imagine the story and see characters and settings through their descriptions. Provide pupils with vocabulary lists to help them bring to life the characters and settings they see in their imagination.
- Be liberal with praise. Try walking around with a highlighter and marking examples of great vocabulary. Read good examples of writing at the end of (or in the middle of) the session. Ensure children are aware of what works well in story writing.
You might like to try showing your pupils this fun video to help them to understand the importance of including exciting words in their writing.
Looking for more story writing ideas which will inspire your pupils and get them writing with confidence and enthusiasm? You might like our KS1 Story Writing Kit. It includes a PPT with 10 motivating illustrated writing prompts (including the ones referred to in this article), 3 different styles of planning sheet, a useful wordmat containing KS1 story writing vocabulary and a self/peer assessment checklist. Click the images below for more details.
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