LKS2 Writing Unit: Tombful of Trouble – Detective Story

Brand new for 2025 is this awesome writing unit for LKS2.

This unit an extract from the book Tombful of Trouble by Pip Murphy as a stimulus to support children with writing their own detective stories!

Intended to be used over a period of three weeks, there are a variety of vocabulary, oracy and writing tasks designed to build the children’s knowledge, understanding and application of the elements of the LKS2 writing curriculum.

The unit covers a range of National Curriculum writing objectives including:

• Listen to and discuss a wide range of fiction texts.
• Identify and discuss themes and conventions in a text.
• Use descriptive language to create settings, characters, and atmosphere.
• Organise paragraphs around a theme.
• Use a growing range of vocabulary accurately in context.
• Identify language and structure choices that create suspense.
• In narratives, create settings, characters, and plot.
• Use fronted adverbials, expanded noun phrases, and varied sentence structures.
• Use inverted commas and punctuation to indicate direct speech.
• Group related ideas into paragraphs.
• Use apostrophes for singular and plural possession.
• Plan writing by discussing and recording ideas.
• Propose changes to grammar and vocabulary to improve consistency, including the accurate use of pronouns.
• Use appropriate vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation to enhance meaning.