The great pumpkin adventure and the secrets of the moonlight patch

Year 5 · Spooky

The great pumpkin adventure and the secrets of the moonlight patch is a free, NAPLAN-aligned spooky writing resource for Year 5 students. It includes a story starter, complication, tiered vocabulary and scaffolds mapped to the Australian Curriculum (AC9).

Year 5 AC9E5LE05 AC9E5LA05 AC9E5LA08 AC9E5LA09 AC9E5LA04 AC9E5LY06

Supports the Year 5 achievement standard (creating written texts).

Australian Curriculum content descriptions © ACARA. Writesy is not affiliated with or endorsed by ACARA.

Under the shimmering light of a full moon, the pumpkin patch came alive with a soft, golden glow. Mia stood at the edge, her eyes wide with wonder as she gazed at the enormous jack-o'-lantern grinning back at her. It seemed to wink, as if inviting her to step closer and discover its secrets. With a heart full of curiosity and just a hint of bravery, Mia took a deep breath and ventured down the winding path that led into the shadowy school oval, ready for whatever magical adventure awaited her.

The complication

  1. Mia follows the grinning jack-o'-lantern and becomes lost in a maze of taller pumpkins that rearrange themselves each time she turns.
  2. A shadowy figure appears near the oval and claims the pumpkin’s light belongs to them, forcing Mia to decide whether to hide, bargain or stand her ground.
  3. The golden glow begins to fade unless Mia solves a riddle carved into the jack-o'-lantern’s grin, but the riddle is written in a language only she can partially remember.

Sentence starters

  1. As Mia stepped closer, the jack-o'-lantern’s grin seemed to widen and the air smelled of autumn leaves.
  2. Mia crouched down and reached out to touch the carved tooth, her fingers tingling with cold excitement.

…and 1 more with your free account.

What's in the full resource

  • Complications
  • Brainstorming Prompts
  • Vocabulary Support
  • Sentence Starters
  • Dialogue Prompts
  • Writing Challenges
  • Sentence Variety
  • Creative Twists
  • Writing Checklist
  • Reflective Questions
  • Collaborative Writing Ideas
  • Printable teacher and student PDFs

NAPLAN writing criteria this resource targets

Audience Text structure Ideas Character and setting Vocabulary Cohesion Paragraphing Sentence structure Punctuation Spelling

See how Writesy aligns to the NAPLAN writing criteria.

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