A Wild Ride
Steampunk
A Wild Ride is a free, NAPLAN-aligned steampunk writing resource for Australian primary students. It includes a story starter, complication, tiered vocabulary and scaffolds mapped to the Australian Curriculum (AC9).
The storm raged overhead, but I barely noticed. All I could see was the colossal machine barreling down the tracks ahead of me—half train, half shark. Its great metallic teeth gleamed in the flickering light of the storm, and steam hissed from its sides, like a creature waking from a long slumber. My heart raced as I heard the distant clank of its wheels turning faster and faster. The shark train was coming closer, and I had to get aboard before it disappeared into the dark, stormy night.
The complication
- The storm is so fierce that the train is swerving and shaking. Can I stay on track, or will the storm knock me off course?
- The train seems alive, with gears and pistons moving as if it has its own mind. Will it help me reach my destination—or is it trying to trap me inside forever?
- A shadowy figure stands at the end of the train, waiting to block my way. Who is it? And what do they want with the steam-powered shark?
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
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