FREE STORY STARTERS · KEY STAGE 2 · AGES 7–11
KS2 story starters and story openers
Here are KS2 story starters and story openers for Years 3 to 6 (ages 7–11): a generator with 224 starters, six ways to open a story, one opener at all four year levels, how writing grows from Year 3 to Year 6 and annotated example openings.
Six ways to open a KS2 story
An opener is how a story begins: its first sentence, sometimes two. These six techniques are common ways in, and children will spot them in the books they read. Each example was written for this page; the year note says which part of the curriculum the grammar comes from. Teach one at a time, then let children choose.
1. Years 3–4
Start with action
Kofi was halfway up the climbing frame when it began to sink slowly into the sand.
The reader lands in the middle of something happening and catches up as they go. The time conjunction “when” carries the surprise; using conjunctions to express time is part of Year 3 grammar.
2. Years 3–4
Start with speech
“Whatever you do, don’t feed the tortoise after six o’clock,” said Mrs Okafor, and left the room.
One line of speech introduces a character and sets up a problem at once. Inverted commas for speech are introduced in Year 3.
3. Years 3–4
Start with the setting
Through the steamed-up window of the bakery, the whole of Market Street glowed orange.
The fronted adverbial (“Through the steamed-up window of the bakery”) puts the reader in the scene before anything happens. Fronted adverbials, and the comma after them, are Year 4 grammar.
4. Any KS2 year
Start with a question
Have you ever wondered where all the lost umbrellas go?
It speaks straight to the reader and promises an answer. It works at any age but wears thin quickly, so save it for a story that really does answer the question.
5. Years 5–6
Start with a flashback
Long before the river rose and the old bridge was closed, Nell had made her grandfather a promise.
“Had made” sends the reader back in time, and the rest of the story can explain the promise. Using the perfect form of verbs to mark time and cause is in the Years 5 and 6 programme.
6. Years 5–6
Start by holding something back
Everyone at the picnic agreed it had been a perfect afternoon – everyone except the seagull.
The dash delays the twist until the very end of the sentence, so the reader has to keep going. Dashes are taught in Years 5 and 6.
For openers that start with speech, there are words to use instead of “said”, grouped by feeling, in the synonyms for said word bank.
One idea, four years
The same opening, written the way a confident writer in each KS2 year might write it, using that year’s new grammar.
- Year 3When Mia got to school, there was a red door in the playground that hadn’t been there yesterday.
- Year 4Early on Monday morning, a small red door appeared in the playground wall.
- Year 5The door, which had certainly not been there on Friday, was small, red and slightly open.
- Year 6The door had been painted, hung and locked overnight; nobody in the school could explain who had done it.
How story writing grows across KS2
Over four years, children go from writing a story in paragraphs for the first time to choosing every word, sentence and punctuation mark for its effect on a reader. Here are six parts of that change, from the start of Year 3 to the end of Year 6. Our descriptions are a guide, not an assessment scale; under each, the statutory wording from the National Curriculum in England, which sets out KS2 writing in two phases: Years 3 and 4, then Years 5 and 6.
Sentences
- Start of Year 3
- More ideas fit into one sentence, joined by a growing set of conjunctions. “Although” joins the list for the first time, and it lets a writer set two things against each other.
- End of Year 6
- Writers pack a lot into a few words: “the girl from the flat upstairs who never spoke” tells the reader something without a whole extra sentence.
“extending the range of sentences with more than one clause by using a wider range of conjunctions, including when, if, because, although”
Years 3 and 4, Writing – vocabulary, grammar and punctuation (statutory)
“using expanded noun phrases to convey complicated information concisely”
Years 5 and 6, Writing – vocabulary, grammar and punctuation (statutory)
Dialogue
- Start of Year 3
- Characters start to speak on the page, and children learn where the inverted commas and the comma go.
- End of Year 6
- Speech does a job: it shows what a character is like and pushes the story forward, instead of reporting what everyone said.
“using and punctuating direct speech”
Years 3 and 4, Writing – vocabulary, grammar and punctuation (statutory)
“in narratives, describing settings, characters and atmosphere and integrating dialogue to convey character and advance the action”
Years 5 and 6, Writing – composition (statutory)
Paragraphs and cohesion
- Start of Year 3
- Pronouns replace repeated names (“Kofi … he … the boy”) so the writing flows, and each paragraph keeps to one part of the plot.
- End of Year 6
- Paragraphs link to each other: an adverbial, a repeated detail or a time shift carries the reader from one to the next.
“choosing nouns or pronouns appropriately for clarity and cohesion and to avoid repetition”
Years 3 and 4, Writing – vocabulary, grammar and punctuation (statutory)
“using a wide range of devices to build cohesion within and across paragraphs”
Years 5 and 6, Writing – composition (statutory)
Time and tense
- Start of Year 3
- Writers notice the difference between “he went” and “he has gone”, and keep a story in the right tense.
- End of Year 6
- The perfect form lets a writer step back in time inside a sentence (“she had already left”), which is how flashbacks and hidden backstories work.
“using the present perfect form of verbs in contrast to the past tense”
Years 3 and 4, Writing – vocabulary, grammar and punctuation (statutory)
“using the perfect form of verbs to mark relationships of time and cause”
Years 5 and 6, Writing – vocabulary, grammar and punctuation (statutory)
Improving a draft
- Start of Year 3
- Editing starts with proof-reading: spellings, full stops, capital letters and speech punctuation.
- End of Year 6
- Editing becomes judging: does this paragraph do what I wanted? Is the tension in the right place? What could go?
“proof-read for spelling and punctuation errors”
Years 3 and 4, Writing – composition (statutory)
“assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing”
Years 5 and 6, Writing – composition (statutory)
Reading it aloud
- Start of Year 3
- Reading their own story aloud to a group, with the voice changing to match the meaning.
- End of Year 6
- Performing it, with pace, volume and movement chosen to bring the story to life for an audience.
“read aloud their own writing, to a group or the whole class, using appropriate intonation and controlling the tone and volume so that the meaning is clear”
Years 3 and 4, Writing – composition (statutory)
“perform their own compositions, using appropriate intonation, volume, and movement so that meaning is clear”
Years 5 and 6, Writing – composition (statutory)
What good looks like: two KS2 openings
Two openings to the same starter, one at the start of Year 3 and one at the end of Year 6. Both were written by Litsee to show how much changes across the key stage: they are not real pupils’ work, and they are not official exemplification or assessment standards.
Starter: “The library book was ten years overdue, and the name on the card was Mum’s.”
Example written by Litsee · Start of Year 3
When I opened the library book, a card fell out. It had Mum’s name on it and it was ten years late! I ran to the kitchen to show her. Mum went red. “I wondered where that went,” she said.
What is working
- “When” tells the reader when it happened, and the events are in a clear order.
- The exclamation mark shows the narrator’s surprise.
- Speech is punctuated with inverted commas, new in Year 3, and Mum’s words make the reader smile.
- It is one complete opening paragraph that sets up a question: why did Mum keep the book?
Next step: Add one sentence about how the narrator felt, and begin the next paragraph with a time word such as “Later”.
Example written by Litsee · End of Year 6
The book had been hidden at the back of Mum’s wardrobe for ten years; I only found it because I was looking for the wrapping paper. Inside the cover, in faded blue ink, was her name – and a stamp from a library in a town she had always said she’d never visited. I put the book back exactly where it had been. Some questions, I decided, were better asked at teatime.
What is working
- The passive (“had been hidden”) keeps quiet about who hid it, so the reader starts asking.
- The semi-colon joins two linked clauses, and the dash saves the surprise for the end of the sentence.
- The perfect form (“had always said”) hints at a story from before the book was hidden.
- Commas around “I decided” slow the final sentence, and the narrator’s choice to wait makes the reader want to know more.
Next step: Give the reader one clue about why Mum kept the book, through what she says or does rather than through the narrator explaining.
Choosing and differentiating starters for a mixed KS2 class
Choose the starter for the story it sets up, then set the challenge through the grammar and the planning. A mixed Year 3 and 4 or Year 5 and 6 class, or any class with a wide range of writers, can share one opening and still be working on different things.
For a whole class, look for a starter with a clear problem and room to grow: one that names a character, puts them somewhere specific and holds one thing back. A starter that hides too much can leave a less confident writer with nowhere to go; one that explains everything leaves a confident writer nothing to work out.
Set the generator above to KS2, or to Years 3–4 or Years 5–6, and switch on choose-your-path mode if you want groups to take the same opening in different directions.
One starter, three ways in
“The class tortoise had escaped again, and this time it had left a note.”
- More support
- Talk the story through with a partner, then plan four boxes: opening, problem, events, ending. Write the opening paragraph with a word bank and a speech frame: “Where are you going?” asked …
- On track
- Plan five boxes and write the opening and the build-up as two paragraphs. Begin the second with a fronted adverbial and punctuate one line of speech.
- Ready for more
- Write the note first and open the story with it. Keep back who really wrote it until the last paragraph, use “had” to show what happened overnight, and cut ten words in the edit.
Mix the groups for the edit: a partner who planned a different story often spots what a reader would miss.
Year 3 to Year 6 and theme pages
This page covers KS2 as a whole. For full lists of starters, open a year page or a theme.
- Year 3
The first year of KS2: starters that use time and cause words, speech marks and a four-paragraph plan.
- Year 4
Openers built on fronted adverbials, and a story skeleton made from them.
- Year 5
Relative clauses, modal verbs and brackets or dashes, taken apart one sentence at a time.
- Year 6
Openings that hold information back, using the passive and the semi-colon.
Every theme page has eight starters for Years 3–4 and eight for Years 5–6, with a story recipe and twelve theme words:
- Mystery: missing trophies, secret messages and a diary entry nobody remembers, for practising clues
- Adventure: maps, tides and collapsing bridges, a natural fit for a paragraph-by-paragraph journey
- Fantasy: spells with a price, talking shadows and a kingdom where it snows in June
- Space: strange signals, colony ships and a garden shed drifting past the window
- Dragon: treaties, true names and a dragon that sulks, good for character
- Pirate: rival crews, ship’s logs and secret maps, with plenty of room for dialogue
- Dinosaur: fossils that are warm, digs with rules and a time machine with a Do Not Press button
- Football: cup finals, captain’s armbands and hard choices about fair play
- Christmas: lights that go out and a clock that strikes thirteen (seasonal, so the generator offers them only when you choose Christmas)
- Winter: an iced-up harbour, the northern lights and a snowflake that will not melt, with no Christmas in them