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

Here's the Week 3 verbal 'writing' task to help with 11+ Creative Writing at home!

I hope the Week 1 and 2 tasks for the forest and beach were useful.

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).

So, here's another set of three short tasks to try.

This week's setting is … the river. It could be bubbling with excitement, resentment or confusion – you decide!

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

So, here goes…

Task 1

Say (or write) a sentence starting with the conjunction ‘As’.

Example using some of the vocabulary listed below: As dawn arrived, the dark quiet of the liquid soul dissipated, and soft, watery murmurs bobbed from rock to rock.

Task 2

Say (or write) a sentence explaining the whiteness and coldness of the froth.

Example using some of the vocabulary listed below: Ribbons of icy froth as white as a winter’s moon weaved their way down the river.

Task 3

Say (or write) a sentence including a simile in the description.

Example using some of the vocabulary listed below: Like billions of silver sequins, droplets of morning light showered the moss-green waters.

Vocabulary suggestions

Actions: weaved, surfed, danced, bounded

Metaphor: a liquid soul, a pumping heart

Simile: like billions of sequins, like tiny crystals

Colour: as white as a winter’s moon, halo-white froth, electric-blue, bat-black, paradise-green, moss-green

I hope you enjoy the challenges. 

Anna