The Mystery of the Haunted House

Year 4 · Mystery

The Mystery of the Haunted House is a free, NAPLAN-aligned mystery 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.

I was so excited when my friends and I pulled up to the spooky house. It looked like something right out of a mystery story! The moon shone bright. Bats flew overhead. This made everything even creepier. The house had broken windows and crooked doors. There was even a cobweb hanging from the corner of the roof. “This is perfect!” I whispered as we all jumped out of the van. We were ready for a big adventure with ghosts, secret rooms, and maybe even a treasure. But as we walked up the path, I heard something inside the house. Was that a creak or a voice?

The complication

  1. As I stepped closer, a shadow darted past the window, making me question if we were truly alone in the spooky house.
  2. The door creaked open unexpectedly, revealing a dark hallway filled with strange noises that sent shivers down my spine.
  3. One of my friends suddenly decided to explore a different room, leaving me feeling anxious and unsure of what lay ahead.

Sentence starters

  1. Suddenly, I felt a chill run down my spine as I heard another creak from within the house.
  2. "Do you think we should go inside?" I asked nervously.

…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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