Dogs versus cats

Year 4 · Youth

Dogs versus cats is a free, NAPLAN-aligned youth 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.

Barkley the brave dog plane zoomed through the sky. His propellers were spinning fast. He had just taken off from Dogtown when he spotted the enemy. The cat planes flew toward Barkley. They were moving fast. He knew they were up to something bad. Barkley knew he had to protect his town, but he wondered if he could do that.

The complication

Barkley discovers that the cat planes are using a secret weapon that could destroy Dogtown if he doesn't act quickly.
Just as Barkley prepares for battle, his propellers begin to malfunction, leaving him vulnerable to the enemy.
A sudden storm brews overhead, threatening to force Barkley to land before he can protect his town.

Sentence starters

Just as Barkley tightened his grip on the controls, he spotted a glimmer in the distance that made his heart race.
"I won't let Dogtown down!" Barkley barked confidently, determination shining in his eyes.

…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.

Last updated 18 July 2026

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