The Elevator to Planet X

Year 6

The Elevator to Planet X is a free, NAPLAN-aligned 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.

Diego had always been curious about the back corner of the abandoned department store, where the old elevator stood, unused and forgotten. One rainy afternoon, as he wandered through the dusty aisles, he noticed something odd, a glowing button on the elevator’s control panel, labeled “X.” Without a second thought, Diego pressed it. The elevator hummed to life, the doors slid open, and instead of a dark basement, he was staring at a shimmering portal to the stars. As the elevator ascended, he could see planets, floating islands, and a dazzling light, taking him far from Earth to a place where kids, not adults, ruled the world.

The complication

  • The elevator portal begins to close each time it moves between worlds, and Diego realises he must find a way to keep it open before he becomes trapped on a floating island with no way home.
  • The kids who rule the world suspect Diego is an adult spy because he carries a grown-up raincoat, and they chase him to capture his elevator key.
  • A mysterious governor of the star-world wants the elevator for their own power and sends storm-like creatures to seize the elevator while Diego is inside.

Sentence starters

  1. Suddenly the elevator lurched, and Diego pressed his palms to the metal wall as stars streamed past the glass.
  2. Diego reached out and touched the glowing button again, his fingers tingling with electricity and possibility.

…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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