English Home Learning

Write your own stories

We have so far learnt four different story structures.

Warning story Wild Dragon Cliff (based on How To Train Your Dragon)

Defeating a Monster story Wonder We also studied Beowulf

Suspense story The Manor House(We also studied The Curse of Cogston House)

Write your own story…In your pack you will find the class text we studied along with teaching notes that you had in lessons and a planning grid with underlying pattern to support you with writing each section.

Wild Dragon Cliff

Teaching notes to remind you what you learned!

We practiced descriptive writing, choosing five key features and developing our description around those. Here is the example we looked at of a cat… You then wrote your own for a dragon.

We practiced writing speech… We watched a clip of Max and Duke from The Secret Life of Pets

We learned how to use dropped in -ed clauses.

We changed our warning story to be about Komodo Island in Indonesia…

Copy of the text

Wild Dragon Cliff

“Don’t go to Wild Dragon Cliff, Hiccup,” warned Dad. “It’s meant to snow heavily today and the dragons are hibernating. If you make any noise you will wake them and you could get seriously hurt.” Did I listen? Of course I didn’t. Everyday after Viking school, the cliff is exactly where Fishlegs and I went.

I am the heir to the throne for the tribe of Hairy Hooligans but everyone always under estimates me; teasing me about my height, my hair, my lack of hardiness. Yet what they don’t know is that I’m an expert on dragons. They fascinate me. At this time of year, when the land is covered in snow and ice, the cliff seems the warmest place to be on our bleaker than bleak island as the breath of three thousand sleeping dragons seeps out of the cave entrances warming the bitter air. The cliff face is riddled with tiny tunnels leading to great caverns and tiny dragon nurseries.

Heading towards the shadowy north, we trudged through deep snow drifts. The journey here seemed longer than before as snow continued to fall, steadily heavier and heavier. We climbed higher and higher up the uneven, sheer cliff face, always slipping on inky hints of rock beneath black ice. Suddenly, I felt my heart race as I my foot slipped, my frozen fingers desperately clasping onto the rock face as my body swung precariously over the drop. My shoulders burnt as I descended faster than a boulder down the mountain. I landed. My ankle twisted, broken. Fishlegs clambered down after me, panic across his face.

He pulled me to my feet. However, staying there was now a monumental task of sheer will-power and determination. He assisted me into one of the tiny tunnels which led to the dragon nursey. Inside, a thousand baby dragons slept soundly. Pain seared down my leg and I knew this was the biggest trial of my life. As I slumped into a heap on the floor, I couldn’t help but let out an anguished scream. A rumble came from deep inside the cave… the thousand dragons, and potentially their parents, all awoken from their deep, celestial slumbering. The event that followed was the most terrifying of my life. Scrambing to my feet, Fishlegs and I knew we had to escape.

As we reached the mouth of the tunnel, Gobber the Belch, who must have been alerted by the premature cacophony of noise coming from the cliff, was there wielding his axe. I’d never been so pleased to see my brutish teacher and his dragon. He was coated in a light dusting of snow, like icing sugar, yet there was nothing sweet about this seven foot, burly giant. “You can explain to your father Hiccup,” he growled gravely, scooping us both up onto the back of his dragon. We soared through the biting, North wind. Glancing back, the invisible cliff was now a swarm of aggrieved, resentful reptiles. I was for it now.

As Gobber half pushed and half carried me to my home, I gulped as I anticipated what was coming.

“You stupid boy Hiccup!” yelled Dad. “How on earth can you become the leader of the tribe if you make such blundering errors? I can’t believe you would put the whole tribe in such grave danger!” His voice bellowed across our hut and I could barely breathe to apologise.

“Go to your room at once and Gobber? He is not to go near that cliff again. Not until he is as mature as the other boys!”

The worst punishment – forbidden to see my precious dragons. The worst insult – being told I was less grown up than Snotface Snotlout, Dogsbreath the Duhbrain and Wartihog. The savage bullies who made every day a living hell.

Can you answer these questions about the text?1.) Where was Hiccup warned not to go?2.) Why was Hiccup warned not to go there?3.) What does Hiccup spend his days doing?4.) What characteristic is most likely to affect Hiccup becoming a successful leader of the Hairy

Hooligans?5.) What time of year is it on the Isle of Berk? What evidence tells you this?6.) In which part of the island would you find Wild Dragon Cliff?7.) In paragraph 3, which word means unstable?8.) From paragraph 4, find and copy two phrases which tell the reader Hiccup was hurt.9.) How did the dragons feel about being woken from hibernation?10.) How did Dad react to Hiccup when he returned home? Which vocabulary choices tell the

reader how Dad was feeling?

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Warning Story Planning GridWild Dragon Cliff Bare Bones My story

Hiccup told not to go to Wild Dragon Cliff because the weather is too bad and they might wake the dragons.

MC told not to do something.

Hiccup and Fishlegs go to Wild Dragon Cliff

MC ignores the warning

Hiccup slips, hurts his ankle and lets out a scream. The dragons wake up…

Something bad happens

Gobber the Belch has to rescue Hiccup and Fishlegs.

MC needs to be rescued or freed

Hiccup is told off by his father for ignoring his warning and putting the whole tribe in danger.

MC is told off

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