A 30-minute writing task for your YEAR 4 child - the eerie tree

🌟 Week Seven Writing Challenge! 🌟
This week, we’re returning to the forest — but this time, the mood changes. 🌘
Our focus is the Eerie Tree — ancient, strange, and full of mystery.

Last week, your child described a calm, gentle tree filled with light and life.
This week, we’ll take that same idea and explore its opposite — a tree that feels alive in a different way: watchful, whispering, and a little bit haunting.

By now, your Year 4 child has practised describing many settings — lakes, caves, markets, beaches, and forests — learning how words can change the mood of a scene. Now they’ll use those skills to create atmosphere through a single image: the eerie, ancient tree.

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

🌲 This week’s theme: the eerie and ancient tree
This week, your child will practise building suspense and mystery in their writing — creating a setting that feels dark, powerful, and full of secrets.

Below you’ll find:
✅ A short practice extract
✅ A writing toolkit (for the eerie mood)
✅ A practical 30-minute task to try at home

📝 Try this at home (about 30 minutes)

Reading prompt:

The tree loomed at the edge of the path, its twisted branches clawing at the moonlight. Frost clung to its bark, and a soft creak echoed through the still night air.

Task:
Describe a tree that feels eerie and ancient. What does it look like in the moonlight? What sounds might you hear? How does it make you feel to stand beneath it?

💡 Tip: Look at a picture of a bare, winter tree. Notice the shapes of the branches, the shadows, and how the light makes it look alive in strange ways.

🌑 Writing Toolkit: eerie and ancient tree
When you want your tree to feel mysterious, old, or spooky.
Use dark colours, sharp contrasts, and words that create tension or curiosity.

Adjectives: twisted, hollow, ancient, grey, skeletal, cracked, shadowy, ghostly
Verbs: loomed, groaned, reached, whispered, shivered, clawed, swayed
Similes: branches like bony fingers, roots like coiled snakes, bark rough as dragon scales
Onomatopoeia: creak, snap, moan, crack
Personification: the tree watched in silence, its roots clung to secrets in the frozen earth
Metaphors: a sleeping giant, a ghost of the forest, a tangle of time
Alliteration: ghostly grove, twisted trunk, shadowed sentinel

🌲 Parent Tip
Encourage your child to imagine sound and movement. A single “creak” or a flicker of moonlight can make a scene come alive.
Ask: Does the tree feel friendly or frightening? What might it be guarding or hiding?

For example:

The tree’s hollow heart groaned in the wind, as if whispering a warning to anyone who dared to come close.

Next week, we’ll move on to a new creative challenge — but for now, enjoy exploring the forest’s darker side! 🌒

I hope you and your child have fun bringing the eerie tree to life.

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