What's included in the Spooky Story Writing Prompts resource and why is it useful?

KS2 Halloween Spooky Story Writing Prompts is a PowerPoint with seven spooky story openings. Children pick the one they like best and write what happens next. It works as a full English lesson, but you can also use it for a quicker piece of writing during Halloween week.

The early slides explain what a story prompt is and show children how to build on one by asking who, what, where and why. They're also reminded to think about the five senses. Before children choose their own prompt, you can model how to plan a story using an example about an old key left on a doorstep. There's a modelled sentence for it in the slide notes.

The Seven Story Writing Prompts

Every prompt comes with two questions to help children plan their story.

1. The Haunted House. Children go inside the house on the hill that nobody else will enter.

2. The Pumpkin that Glowed. One pumpkin in the patch starts glowing at sunset and whispers the writer's name.

3. Trick-or-Treat Gone Wrong. The door of the last house on the street opens, and whoever answers it isn't human.

4. The Whispering Graveyard. Walking past a graveyard at dusk, children hear someone call their name.

5. The Witch's Missing Spellbook. The village witch is convinced the writer has stolen her spellbook.

6. The Costume with a Mind of its Own. A party costume slowly turns the wearer into whatever it is.

7. The Potion Mix-Up. The wrong ingredients go into a potion and something unexpected happens.

Vocabulary Bank

There's a word bank of adjectives, verbs and sentence starters children can borrow for their own writing, such as "eerie", "crept" and "As the clock struck midnight...".

Peer Review

At the end, children swap opening paragraphs with a partner. Questions on the slide help them check the first line, the setting and characters, and how well the tension builds. Each child then tells their partner one thing that worked and one thing to add.

How do our Halloween story writing prompt resources work?

The prompts are written for KS2, so you can use them with any year group from Year 3 to Year 6. You could use them:

• as a one-off Halloween English lesson

• for short-burst or quick-write sessions in October

• as a writing stimulus for morning work

• in a writing club or as homework

Children practise writing narrative openings, creating settings, characters and atmosphere, and evaluating and improving their own and others' writing.

You can find more Halloween resources on our website.