The Magic Paintbrush

Year 6 · Fantasy

The Magic Paintbrush is a free, NAPLAN-aligned fantasy writing resource for Year 6 students. It includes a story starter, complication, tiered vocabulary and scaffolds mapped to the Australian Curriculum (AC9).

Year 6 AC9E6LE05 AC9E6LA05 AC9E6LA08 AC9E6LA09 AC9E6LA04 AC9E6LY06

Supports the Year 6 achievement standard (creating written texts).

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

I could hardly believe my eyes as the blue bird I’d painted fluttered out of the canvas and into the air. I’d always dreamed of creating something magical, but I never imagined it would be this real, this alive. I watched in awe as its glowing wings shimmered in the dim light of my studio, but as it soared, I realised, something wasn’t right. The bird wasn’t just flying. it was pulling the air around it, making everything swirl and sparkle. I hadn’t meant for this to happen. Was I ready for what was going to happen next?

The complication

  • The painted blue bird begins to change the studio’s air in dangerous ways, pulling small objects and paper into a growing whirlpool that threatens to suck in my sketchbook and art supplies.
  • Neighbourhood animals and people start to feel the bird’s pull. a curious cat and a visiting friend get tangled in sparkling currents, and I must decide whether to try to stop the bird or follow it.
  • The bird’s magic attracts something else from the painting, a shadow or a second, darker creature, that competes for the studio’s air and creates a storm of conflicting enchantments.

Sentence starters

  1. Suddenly I grabbed my brush and reached for the bird as the air began to spin around my feet.
  2. The studio smelled like turpentine and wet paint, and the light trembled like a held breath while the blue bird hovered above my table.

…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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