Literacy: writing the end of a story

 We read the beginning of the story Mystery at Musket Bay, and we thought about what might happen next.  The crew of the Saucy Sally have received a mysterious message in a bottle, from someone shipwrecked on Dead Man's Island.  We began our work by drawing a map of Dead Man's Island.  My map is shown above.  Yours might be different, according to your imagination.

Next we planned what was going to happen in our continued stories.  The first thing to plan is the ending.  Have the ending in your mind before you start to write.  Also plan any problems your characters will have to solve before they reach the ending.  My planning notes are shown on the board above.  I made up two characters, one good and one bad.

At home please spend half an hour working on your story.  If you do not manage to finish the story in that time, do not worry.  Here are some points to remember:

• Write in sentences with full stops.  Read your work aloud to hear where the full stops go.
• Plan ahead.  Do not make it up as you go along.
• Use speech only once or twice.  Most of the story should NOT be speech.
• Make the ending worthwhile.  It could be a surprise, or a happy ending, or something that the reader has guessed might happen because of clues you have written.

Enjoy writing your story.