The Creature in the Attic

Year 5 · Mystery

The Creature in the Attic is a free, NAPLAN-aligned mystery 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.

It was late at night, and the house was quiet, too quiet. I had been playing with my toys when I heard a strange noise coming from the attic. It sounded like something was scratching and shifting, like it was trying to get out. I tried to ignore it, but the noise kept getting louder and closer, until it was impossible not to be curious. Holding my lantern tightly, I slowly made my way up the creaky wooden stairs to the attic. The air was cold and filled with dust. The moment I stepped into the dim light of the attic, I saw it, a tiny creature, peeking out from behind an old trunk. It looked as surprised as I was, and its big eyes blinked at me in the darkness.

The complication

  • The tiny creature suddenly scampers deeper into the attic and triggers an old trunk to fall, blocking the only way back down the stairs.
  • The creature cries out and attracts another, larger animal or creature that is less friendly, forcing me to decide whether to hide or help.
  • A loose roof tile shifts and lets in rain, flooding part of the attic and revealing a hidden letter or map that explains why the creature is there.

Sentence starters

  1. Suddenly, I reached out a trembling hand and the creature froze, its little body as tense as a coiled spring.
  2. The attic smelled of old wood and mothballs, and every shadow seemed to watch us as we stared at each other.

…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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