Help your students write letters and stories

1. By Lucía Ábalos

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Dear _______________,
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First write the date
And don’t forget the comma!
Who is the letter to? Write the name here.
2. Who is the letter to?2. Who is the letter to?
1. What day is it today?1. What day is it today?

9. _________________________
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Dear _______________,
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Hi, how are you doing? I know that
you’ve just
moved up a year at school. What’s
your new
teacher like?
You’re writing to a
friend or relative
so you can be
chatty and friendly
in your opening
paragraph.
3. What do you want to
tell the other person?
3. What do you want to
tell the other person?

10. _________________________
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Dear _______________,
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I’m one of the best ones in Literacy
which is great. My two best friends in
class are in my
classroom too so we have a lot of fun.
I’ve just
started to use a pen to write with, so
my handwriting’s getting really neat.
In your first
paragraph you
could tell your
friend some
exciting news…
4. Do you want to
say something
else?
4. Do you want to
say something
else?

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Dear _______________,
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I’m very happy at school because I have
a lot of friends who I can play with at
breaktime.
Sometimes I feel sad because my brother
fights
with me, but I am generally very good.
In your second
paragraph you
could tell your
friend how
you’re feeling…
5. How are you feeling?5. How are you feeling?

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Dear _______________,
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But there is also someone I don’t like.
Can you keep a secret? Don’t tell
anybody, please! She is a girl who
doesn’t like to play football and she is
also rude to me.
In your third
paragraph you
could tell your
friend a
secret…
5. Do you want to tell a secret?5. Do you want to tell a secret?

13. _________________________
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Dear _______________,
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Lots of love,
Lucía
6. Say goodbye and
your name.
6. Say goodbye and
your name.
Lots of loveLots of love
Love fromLove from
Best wishesBest wishes
Thinking of
you
Thinking of
you
Take careTake care
See you soonSee you soon
At the end of your letter,
don’t forget to sign off.
Finally, sign your name.

14. 2. Who is the letter to?
3. What do you want to
tell the other person?
4. Do you want to say
something else?
5. How are you feeling?
7. Say goodbye and your name.
8. Did you forget something?
1. What day is it today?
6. Do you want to tell a secret?Lots of
love
Lots of
love
Love fromLove from
Best wishesBest wishes
Thinking of
you
Thinking of
you
Take careTake careSee you
soon
See you
soon

15. Now, it’s
your time to
write a
letter

18. Dear Buster,
Hey! I just saw your picture in the Elwood City Times. Totally
cool! Of course, I guess that's what happens when you win the
Annual Elwood City Pie-Eating Contest!
So, how does it feel to be a celebrity? Do you have to wear dark
glasses everywhere you go? If you do, be careful! Remember that
thorn bush you crashed into last time? Ouch!
Anyway, congratulations! I knew you could do it! : - )
Your proud friend,
Arthur
P.S. I sent this e-mail to Brain, Francine, Binky, and Muffy, too. I
know they'll want to see your picture in the paper!
And don’t forget the comma!
Who is the email to? Write the name here.

19. Dear Buster,
Hey! I just saw your picture in the Elwood City
Times. Totally cool! Of course, I guess that's
what happens when you win the Annual Elwood
City Pie-Eating Contest!
So, how does it feel to be a celebrity? Do you have to wear dark
glasses everywhere you go? If you do, be careful! Remember that
thorn bush you crashed into last time? Ouch!
Anyway, congratulations! I knew you could do it! : - )
Your proud friend,
Arthur
P.S. I sent this e-mail to Brain, Francine, Binky, and Muffy, too. I
know they'll want to see your picture in the paper!
What do you want to tell the other person?

20. Dear Buster,
Hey! I just saw your picture in the Elwood City Times. Totally
cool! Of course, I guess that's what happens when you win the
Annual Elwood City Pie-Eating Contest!
So, how does it feel to be a celebrity? Do you
have to wear dark glasses everywhere you go?
If you do, be careful! Remember that thorn
bush you crashed into last time? Ouch!
Anyway, congratulations! I knew you could do it! : - )
Your proud friend,
Arthur
P.S. I sent this e-mail to Brain, Francine, Binky, and Muffy, too. I
know they'll want to see your picture in the paper!
Do you want to say something else?
Start a new paragraph!

21. Dear Buster,
Hey! I just saw your picture in the Elwood City Times. Totally
cool! Of course, I guess that's what happens when you win the
Annual Elwood City Pie-Eating Contest!
So, how does it feel to be a celebrity? Do you have to wear dark
glasses everywhere you go? If you do, be careful! Remember that
thorn bush you crashed into last time? Ouch!
Anyway, congratulations! I knew you could do
it! : - )
Your proud friend,
Arthur
P.S. I sent this e-mail to Brain, Francine, Binky, and Muffy, too. I
know they'll want to see your picture in the paper!
Emoticons show emotions: how are you feeling?

22. Dear Buster,
Hey! I just saw your picture in the Elwood City Times. Totally
cool! Of course, I guess that's what happens when you win the
Annual Elwood City Pie-Eating Contest!
So, how does it feel to be a celebrity? Do you have to wear dark
glasses everywhere you go? If you do, be careful! Remember that
thorn bush you crashed into last time? Ouch!
Anyway, congratulations! I knew you could do it! : - )
Your proud friend,
Arthur
P.S. I sent this e-mail to Brain, Francine, Binky, and Muffy, too. I
know they'll want to see your picture in the paper!
Closing and signature: say goodbye and your name.

23. Dear Buster,
Hey! I just saw your picture in the Elwood City Times. Totally
cool! Of course, I guess that's what happens when you win the
Annual Elwood City Pie-Eating Contest!
So, how does it feel to be a celebrity? Do you have to wear dark
glasses everywhere you go? If you do, be careful! Remember that
thorn bush you crashed into last time? Ouch!
Anyway, congratulations! I knew you could do it! : - )
Your proud friend,
Arthur
P.S. I sent this e-mail to Brain, Francine, Binky,
and Muffy, too. I know they'll want to see your
picture in the paper!
Did you forget something? Write it here.

24. 2. Who is the email to?
3. What do you want to
tell the other person?
4. Do you want to say
something else?
5. How are you feeling? Emoticons
7. Say goodbye and your name.
8. Did you forget something?
1. What day is it today?
6. Do you want to tell a secret?
Lots of
love
Lots of
love
Love fromLove from
Take careTake care
Best wishesBest wishes
Thinking of
you
Thinking of
you
See you
soon
See you
soon

25. Now, it’s
your time
to write
an email.

28. 1. Who is the postcard to?
2. What do you want to tell
the other person?
3. How are you feeling?
Emoticons
4. Say goodbye and your
name.Lots of
love
Lots of
love
Love fromLove from
Take careTake care
Best wishesBest wishes
Thinking of
you
Thinking of
you
See you
soon
See you
soon

29. Now, it’s your time to write a card!

33. Lots of loveLots of love
Love fromLove from Best wishesBest wishes
Thinking of
you
Thinking of
you
Take careTake careSee you soonSee you soon

37. Now, it’s your time to write a postcard!

38. Hello everybody I’m Sarah Zhang. As you might guess, I’m not English, I’m from
China. There are a lot of Chinese people in London now. Some of them have been
here for a long time and some of them are quite new here, so I don’t feel lonely.
I always have someone I can speak Chinese to and there are some great restaurants
here so I don’t have to eat English food all the time. I have some Chinese friends here
but I also have lots of other friends, some from Britain and some from other places as
well. The crowd in Tony’s café. London is full of people from all over the world.
So, more about me. I’m 26 and I first came to Britain 4 years ago. I’m from Shanghai
originally. I studied fine art in Shanghai and now I’ve come to London to carry on my
studies. It’s a great place to study. There are lots of students here. And some good
universities.
Sometimes, I get a bit lonely and I miss my family and friends in China. And London
can seem unfriendly at first. It’s difficult to find a nice place to live here and it’s very
expensive. But there are lots of great galleries and museums here with classic and
contemporary art so that means lots of opportunities for work.
I like it a lot in Europe. Now, I feel quite divided between the European way of life and
the Chinese one. When I’m not studying, well, I like to visit museums and galleries,
you already guessed that, oh, and I like shopping. Shopping is great here. Some really
interesting fashion; and great designers. I met my friend Olivia when I went to buy
some shoes at her shop next door to the café. I also write pieces for a website,
dimsum.co.uk about Chinese life in the UK. Oh, and I like to hang out with my friends
at Tony’s.

39. Hello everybody - my name’s Magda. Magda Gozinski - that’s quite difficult to
pronounce - so everyone just calls me Magda.
I’m from Poland but I’ve been living in London for two years now. I’m trying to
improve my English so I apologise if I make mistakes sometimes or if I don’t
understand you.
I’m here studying architecture - I’m doing a post graduate degree. I want to
become an architect and design buildings but it’s quite difficult.
I hope I’ll get a job when I finish my studies so then I can stay in the UK or
perhaps go somewhere else. I’d like to travel a lot but I haven’t really been
anywhere yet, apart from Poland and Britain. Johnny tells me that I should go to
China - perhaps I will.
London is great - so many people from all over the world. But it’s very expensive
and money’s a problem for me - I’m a poor student - a lot of people here in
London only seem to be interested in money. I don’t like that attitude. I think
there are more important things in life than money. Friendship, for example.
Sometimes I miss my family in Poland - but I’m happy here I’ve got a great
bunch of friends here. Sarah is my best friend. She has lots of the same interests
as me and we often visit museums or go to shows together. Olivia is a good
friend as well. She’ll always help when you’ve got a problem. Ha - the boys are
funny too!
We always meet up in Tony’s cafe. It’s not far from where I live so it’s a good
place to hang out.
The weather in England isn’t great - it rains a lot, so it’s good to have a place
inside where we can all be together. Tony makes good coffee too.

40. Welcome everybody. I’m Fadi, good to meet you. Yeah, you’re right. Fadi isn’t a
typical English name. That’s because my family is from Lebanon. I was born
there too, but I’ve lived in London ever since I was a kid. Now I think of myself
as being both, Lebanese and English. Mostly, I’m a Londoner. London is full of
people from all over the world so I fit in perfectly here.
What do I do? Well, ideally, I mean, if the world was perfect, I wouldn’t do very
much at all. Play football… watch TV… play video games… hang out with my
friends. But unfortunately the world isn’t perfect so I have to work. I work for our
family business. We’re suppliers to restaurants, so we import foods from
different parts of the world, the Mediterranean and Middle East mostly, and then
sell them on to restaurants. It’s ok, not my ideal job but, well it’s the family
business so I have to be part of it really.
I get to travel quite a bit for my job too, which is ok. I wouldn’t like to be sitting in
an office all day.
I love London like I said, there’s loads going on, people from everywhere, even
if the weather here is lousy. I’m 24 now. My mother keeps on asking me when
I’m going to get married. But it’s not going to happen for a few years yet. I think
24 is way too young to marry and besides, there are too many beautiful girls in
this city, even if I’m not going out with any of them at the moment.
What else, er… not much really. I like nice clothes, night clubs, Arsenal football
club, oh and hanging out with the people at Tony’s Café.

41. Hi everybody - welcome to London. My name‘s Olivia, pleased to meet you. My surname
is Barbieri which is an Italian name because my grandparents were from Italy, but I'm
English. I've always lived in London because I really like it here. It's an expensive city but
it has lots to offer. I don't think I'd like to live anywhere else. I`m 28, which means I'm a
little bit older than most of my friends and sometimes I think they see me as their mum or
aunt or older sister, especially because a lot of my friends are a long way from their
families. They're always asking me to help them out with their problems, but I don't mind it
at all. In fact, I quite like it. I work in a small shop. It doesn't sound like a very exciting job,
but I love it. I own the shop and we sell shoes, but they're not ordinary shoes. They're all
special shoes, hand-made by craftsmen. We have lots of different kinds of shoes, some
very posh ones for parties and some everyday shoes. But they're all unusual; funky I call
them. It's not easy to get shoes like this so some of them are quite expensive.
Business is good at the moment but sometimes I get bored of my job and dream about
doing something else, but I'm not sure what else I‘d like to do. I really want to start up a
website so I can sell our shoes online all over the world and so I can spend less time in
my shop. What else can I tell you? Oh well, ah, in my free time I like reading and going to
the cinema, and going for walks in the park, oh, and I hate sports of any kind. I really like
my life here. I guess because I've got so many good friends. We all hang out together in
Tony's cafe, which is right next door to my shop, fortunately, and ugh, by the way, I have a
small nephew called Joe. He's five and he's a bit of a terror. I often look after him when
my sister is busy - so watch out for him.

42. Hi all, I'm Harry. Pleased to meet you. I'm from London, nowhere else, just London.
It's strange, I've lived here all my life and now most of my friends are people who
originally come from somewhere else. You don't often meet original Londoners any
more. But that's not a problem for me though, I love it. The crowd I hang out with at
Tony's for example, they're from all over the world really. But once you're in London,
then you're a Londoner as far as I'm concerned.
Anyway, enough of that - what about me? Well, I'm 23 years old. My friend Olivia
keeps on telling me I'm still only a kid but sometimes I feel old, I tell you. Too much
work! I quite like my job - I'm an IT systems consultant but sometimes I think I'd like
to change. I'm not sure what else I could do though and IT is a good field to be in,
even if you have to constantly keep up with all the changes. Being a consultant
means that I'm always working on
different projects which is good because it never gets boring but it also means that I
never really know if I'm going to have any work when the project I'm working on
finishes. So that's a bit of a downside. Everyone thinks that I must have lots of
money because I work with computers but unfortunately, that's not true. I'm just a
technician really; I'm not like my friend Johnny, now he makes tons of money.
What else? Well, when I'm not working or spending too much time in Tony's café, I
like to go to the gym. I try to work out there at least three times a week - keep myself
in trim. Sometimes, I have a game of football with the boys too. I'm not a great player
but I enjoy it. I ride my bike around London too. Partly because it helps me keep in
shape, partly because it's more ecologically friendly and just because it's easier no
worries about traffic jams or parking. I like music a lot hip hop and RnB mostly but I'll
listen to anything really. And that's about it. See you soon.

43. Hi, my name’s Johnny Chan from Hong Kong, very pleased to meet you.
I came to Britain four years ago. I was going to study here, but I didn’t get very
far with my studies. There were too many other things to do and the chance to
make lots of money. I was lucky, I got offered a job with a big Chinese venture
capital company here in London, in the bit they call ‘the city’. It’s the financial
centre of Britain and Europe and possibly one of the most important in the
world right now.
I work really hard, sometimes seven days a week from early in the morning till
late at night and sometimes all night if I have to be on the phone to China, but
I love it. The money is great obviously and I love the high pressure of the job,
it keeps me going.
So, I work hard but I play hard too. When I’m not working I’m a sports fanatic,
any kinds of sports, anything that involves hitting or kicking a ball, anything
that involves running or throwing. Naturally, I’m really excited about the
Olympic in Beijing. I hope to be able to get back to China to see some of the
games, mostly though its football I like.
I like to play football with my friends Fadi and Harry here and I like to watch
games too. My favourite team is Manchester City, not a London team at all,
but they have Sun Jihai in their team and he’s from China.
Britain’s okay, but I plan to return to China as soon as I’m rich, in three years
time, that’s what I always tell everyone.

59. One day..
That afternoon...
Late one night....
While they slept.....
Anyway in the forest....
Once upon a time...
One foggy day...
It all began...
Early one frosty morning in ..
Suddenly from the darkness....
At that moment....
Without warning....
In a flash....
However she didn't realise.....
Immediately he.....
So....
As soon as.....
Whenever a princess kisses a frog...
Problem
Opening
Buildup
Resolution
Finally....
Eventually....
At last.....
Ending
STORY PLANNING

60. Planning a Story.
Who, What, Where.

61. Planning a Story
It’s always a good idea to
plan your story before
you begin to write it.

62. Who…
Who are the characters involved in your
story?

63. Possible characters
Goat
Squirrel
Canary
Shepherd
Baby
Turtle

64. Jellyfish
Shark
Diver OctopusAnt Dog
Sheep
Possible characters

65. What…
You need to think about what is going to
happen in your story (Plot).

66. Where…
Decide where your story is going to take
place (Scene).

69. Beginning, a Middle and an End
• A story always needs a beginning a
middle and an end.
• It important that before you start
writing your story you have a good idea
how it is going to end!

70. BEGINNING

71. HOW TO START A STORY
1) “Once upon a time”…Or with a twist: “Once upon a particularly terrifying time…”
2) “One day…” Or perhaps “One gloomy day…” “One sunny day…”
3) With direct speech- e.g. “Hurry up,” yelled Mum, “the taxi will be here any minute…”
4) Starting with a question. E.g. “Have you ever wondered why belly button fluff is always blue?”
5) How about a sound effect? E.g. “Eeeeek,” went the brakes as the car skidded sideways.
6) Go straight into the action. e.g. “ A vicious right hook caught me just above the eye.”
7) Characters can introduce themselves e.g. “ Hello, my name is Sid. I’ve go a brain like a computer
and a photographic memory. I’ve been following you now
for three weeks, two days, seven hours and thirty-two minutes.”
8) Start with a statement e.g. “ Michael was miserable.”
9) A description of a place, a character or a smell can be a good place to start.
“ The acrid smell of smoke drifted towards me.”
10) Time can start a story e.g. “It was midnight….” Or “The clocks struck thirteen.”
11) Weather? “The rain came down like a hail of bullets on the roof of our car.”
12) Flashback e.g. “As I wondered the lonely cliff path my mind went back twenty years to that
terrible stormy night when my life changed forever.”

72. END

73. HOW TO END A STORY
1) It had all been a dream. (Not your teacher’s favourite)
2) We went home and had tea. (Also not your teacher’s favourite.)
3) We went to bed. (Actually your teacher isn’t wild about this either.)
4) Cliff hanger ending. “ There was a terrible cackle just behind me. Would I survive the
night?”
5) Circular ending back to the beginning. “I would never again wonder what was behind
the secret door.”
6) Moral ending. “ That was the last time I would ever lie to my friend” The lesson has
been learned.
7) An ending refers back to an earlier incident.
8) Happily ever after. Or perhaps you could change it slightly to make it more interesting.
“We all lived angrily ever after.
9) Tragic ending
10) Open ended. “Or was it…”
11) Twist in the tail. (This one is really hard to do, but can be very effective if you can do
it)
12) Really final ending. “And that was the end of that.” Or “ And the rest is history.”

77. STORY BUILDER

78. First step
• Get into groups of four people.
• We will see pictures of objects, places,
characters, animals and transports.
• We will read the names of the pictures.
• Each group will choose a picture of each type.

79. PLACESPLACES

80. Forest Island

81. LondonMedieval village

82. OBJECTS

83. Lamp Wand

84. Magic bookSword

85. CHARACTE
RS

86. FiremanWarrior

87. PirateWitch

88. ANIMALS

89. EagleSnake

90. Wolf Hamster

91. TRANSPOR
TS

92. Ship Cart

93. TrainBalloon

94. 1. Choose a place...

95. 2. Choose an object…

96. 3. Choose a character…

97. 4. Choose an animal…

98. 5. Choose a transport ...

99. Now each group thinks and
writes a story.

100. READ THE STORY
Finally the
groups will read
their story to the
rest of his
classmates.