The Great Penguin Heist

Year 4

The Great Penguin Heist is a free, NAPLAN-aligned writing resource for Year 4 students. It includes a story starter, complication, tiered vocabulary and scaffolds mapped to the Australian Curriculum (AC9).

Year 4 AC9E4LE05 AC9E4LA06 AC9E4LA04 AC9E4LA12 AC9E4LA11 AC9E4LY06

Supports the Year 4 achievement standard (creating written texts).

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

It was a quiet day at the aquarium, or at least that’s what Ethan thought. He’d always loved the penguins, watching them waddle, slide, and dive through the water. But today, something was different. From the corner of his eye, he noticed one penguin leading the others in a strange, synchronised march. With a small map tucked in its flippers, the penguin seemed to be guiding the group toward a hidden tunnel. Ethan blinked, unsure if he was imagining it, but the more he watched, the clearer it became, something big was happening in the penguin exhibit, and he was the only one who could help.

The complication

  • The penguin leading the march could be lost from its group and the map might be torn, so Ethan must decide whether to follow and risk getting stuck in the tunnel.
  • A zoo staff member or security guard notices Ethan near the exhibit and thinks he is causing trouble, so Ethan must persuade them to trust him and help instead of stopping him.
  • The hidden tunnel could lead to an area with dangerous equipment or a locked gate that only a key or code can open, and Ethan needs to find the key before the penguins get trapped.

Sentence starters

  1. Suddenly, Ethan grabbed the edge of the glass and leaned closer to see the penguins slip into the tunnel.
  2. The air smelled of salt and fish as the penguins marched in a perfect line toward a dark hole beneath the rocks.

…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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