Download these ready-made sentence starters by teacher Collette Waddle to give your pupils a host of imaginative ideas to dip into…
Sentence starters

The resources cover 12 different writing genres, including:
- Advertisements
- Biographies
- Diaries
- Discursive writing
- Explanations
- Non-chronological reports
- Instructions
- Letter writing
- Narrative
- Newspaper reports
- Persuasive writing
- Recounts
- They’re easy to make, adapt and readily available.
- Starters provide scaffolding for pupils who need additional support and more time to think.
- Conversations become more vocabulary- and content-rich. Pupils build on each other’s ideas.
- They create a supportive environment where pupils encourage one another.
- They can be adapted for individual SEND aims to allow all pupils to access learning.
- Familiarity with them can help to decrease anxiety and encourage a positive mindset to get started.
- Like the joy of a good pick ‘n’ mix sweet selection, a budding writer can really experiment and learn new ways of expressing themselves.
- Sentence starters often work like a ‘word map’ to help explain struggles when pupils need help. They are a great tool for children who are non-verbal – I found this to my absolute delight!
- You can use them for games and spelling when you have a few spare minutes.
Collette Waddle is a UKS2 teacher and resource creator. Follow her on Twitter @ColletteR. Read more about using sentence openers in the classroom.
