A 30-minute writing task for your YEAR 4 child - bats

🌟 Week Eight Writing Challenge! 🌟
This week, we’re taking to the night sky — because Halloween is nearly here! 🦇✨
Our focus: Bats — mysterious, swift, and full of character.

Last week, your child explored the eerie, ancient tree — a scene filled with shadows and whispers.
Now, we’ll stay in the same spooky mood, but this time, we’re looking up.
What flits between the trees when the moon is high? What shapes swoop across the stars?
It’s time to bring these fascinating night creatures to life through words. 🌌

(If you’ve missed earlier weeks, links are in the comments 😊)

🦇 This week’s theme: Bats and the Night Sky
Your Year 4 child will practise using movement, sound, and atmosphere to describe something alive and in motion.
They’ll build suspense, create vivid imagery, and capture that magical Halloween feeling. 🎃

Below you’ll find:
✅ A short practice extract
✅ A writing toolkit (for describing bats and flight)
✅ A practical 30-minute task to try at home

📝 Try this at home (about 30 minutes)

Reading prompt:
A dark shape darted between the trees — too fast to follow.
The air whispered with wings, and the moonlight flashed across a pair of tiny eyes.
Then, silence. Only the faint rustle of leaves gave away that something was still watching.

Task:
Describe a bat flying through the night.
What do you see, hear, and feel?
Does the bat seem eerie, graceful, or clever? What might it be searching for under the moonlight?

💡 Tip:
Watch a short video of bats in slow motion or look at a photo.
Notice the shapes their wings make, how quickly they move, and the sounds they create.

🌘 Writing Toolkit: bats and the night

Adjectives: swift, silent, velvety, sleek, tiny, darting, shadowy, glimmering
Verbs: fluttered, swooped, circled, hovered, vanished, dived, flickered, rustled
Similes: wings like silk fans, eyes like polished stones, a shadow gliding like smoke
Onomatopoeia: flutter, whoosh, squeak, rustle
Personification: the night held its breath, the bat danced through the darkness
Metaphors: a whisper of the forest, a ghost of the sky, a shadow come alive
Alliteration: midnight movement, swift shadow, flickering flight

🎃 Parent Tip
Encourage your child to think about motion and sound — how the bat moves through the air and how the night feels around it.
Ask:
➡️ What makes bats seem mysterious or magical?
➡️ How can you make the reader feel they’re there, under the same moonlit sky?

For example:
The bat darted through the darkness, its wings slicing the air with a soft whisper, as if the night itself had come alive.

Next week, we’ll round off our Halloween theme with something truly spooky! 👻
Until then, have fun exploring the night skies — and keep an ear out for fluttering wings! 🌙

—
Anna Donovan
Group Admin | Qualified Teacher (QTS 2005) | Specialist 11+ Exam Essay & Creative Writing Tutor