Support your students as they explore the art of sentence construction and storytelling with our engaging and collaborative Story Building: Complex Sentence Activity! This small-group writing task gives students the opportunity to develop complex sentence fluency while working together to construct a cohesive, themed narrative. By incorporating prompts and structure, this activity strengthens both grammar and creative writing skills in a fun and purposeful way.

Students work in groups to co-author a narrative centred on one of three exciting themes: space exploration, medieval kingdom or deep sea exploration. Each student or pair is responsible for writing one part of the story — orientation, complication or resolution — with time allocated for group discussion to ensure consistency in plot and tone. To guide their writing, students select themed word prompt cards and are challenged to include a set number of complex sentences using subordinating conjunctions.

Story Building: Complex Sentence Activity supports your grammar and writing curriculum by encouraging the use of independent and dependent clauses in context. The collaborative nature of the task promotes teamwork, critical thinking and reflection, while the thematic prompts inspire rich, descriptive language and narrative cohesion. Whether you're building on sentence fluency or enhancing paragraph structure, this activity gives students the chance to apply grammar skills creatively and meaningfully.

This resource is part of our Year 4 English Unit: Complex Sentences & Conjunctions.

Key Learning Outcomes:

• ✅ Write complex sentences using subordinating conjunctions
• ✅ Incorporate sentence structure knowledge into narrative writing
• ✅ Collaborate effectively to plan and produce a cohesive paragraph
• ✅ Use themed word prompts to guide sentence development
• ✅ Reflect on how complex sentences enhance clarity, detail and cohesion

What’s Included:

• Themed prompt cards: space exploration, medieval kingdom and deep sea exploration
• Student instruction sheet for group-based narrative writing
• Guidelines for sentence structure expectations
• Suggested structure for narrative planning and paragraph division

Materials Needed:

• Printed prompt cards
• Student writing paper or lined books
• Pencils or pens
• Optional: printed rubric or peer review sheet

How to Use:

1. Introduce the activity and review the purpose of complex sentences in writing.
2. Assign students to groups and choose a narrative theme — or allow each group to select one.
3. Provide word prompt cards and sentence structure guidelines (e.g. use at least three complex sentences with specific conjunctions).
4. Give time for planning and collaboration to ensure the group’s story flows cohesively.
5. Students write their assigned paragraph, then share and revise as a group to complete the full story.

Ideas for Classroom Use:

• 💡 Use during your writing block to apply grammar concepts in a narrative context
• 💡 Include in small group writing stations to support sentence construction and teamwork
• 💡 Display final stories in your classroom or publish them as a class anthology
• 💡 Encourage oral storytelling by having groups present their stories aloud

Teacher Tips:

• 💛 Display an example paragraph on the board to demonstrate how simple and complex sentences can work together
• 💛 Use the activity as a follow-up to explicit lessons on conjunctions and clause structure
• 💛 Allow groups to write stories on the same theme or give each one a different narrative setting to diversify content
• 💛 Have groups illustrate and publish their final stories to share with a buddy class
• 💛 Use this task as an opportunity to reinforce narrative planning, editing and cohesive structure alongside grammar skills

Story Building: Complex Sentence Activity is a creative, collaborative and grammar-rich writing task that brings sentence construction to life — helping students write with greater detail, structure and purpose while building imaginative and cohesive stories.