The Mountain: Quick oral tasks to help with 11+ creative writing

Here's the Week 4 verbal 'writing' task to help with 11+ Creative Writing at home! 

Did you get a chance to use weeks 1, 2, and 3 for the forest, beach, and river? I hope they were helpful.

And, as last week, the printable version of this post is in the FILES section of this page, or the link is in the chat below.

These weekly posts are to help children develop their writing skills with short and snappy verbal exercises.

Verbal tasks can help your child to think on their feet and support them in orally rehearsing an idea before putting pen to paper (great if your child's writing often has missing words or sometimes doesn't make sense).

Here's another set of three short tasks to try.

This week's setting is … a mountain.

All three tasks use the picture on this post, and there are vocabulary suggestions to help.

Task 1

Say (or write) a sentence starting with the simile, 'Like the tip of an arrow,…'.

Example using some of the vocabulary listed below: Like the tip of an arrow, the mountain pea pierced the thick, grey sky.

Task 2

Say (or write) a sentence explaining the size and shape of the snow-covered mountain.

Example using some of the vocabulary listed below: The indomitable snow-cloaked mountain seemed to rise like a hulking dragon's back.

Task 3

Say (or write) a sentence with a sound metaphor in the description.

Example using some of the vocabulary listed below: With a catacomb silence, the roughly hewn mountain gazed down at the town.

Vocabulary suggestions

Similes: like the tip of an arrow, like a stalactite, like a harpoon tip

Size (big): colossal, immense, mammoth, hulking

Shape: crumpled, dragon's back, craggy

Snow: powdery snow, a necklace of white, snow-cloaked

Sound metaphor: nirvana quiet, catacomb silence, cocoon quiet

I hope you enjoy the challenges. Share any ideas in the chat if you can!

Anna