Bring a children’s author into your classroom and help pupils turn surprising facts into imaginative, thought-provoking stories.
In this episode of Author In Your Classroom, author Frank Cottrell-Boyce (Noah’s Gold) explores how strange-but-true facts can spark compelling fiction. Drawing on real-world examples – from forgotten technologies to everyday assumptions about modern life – Frank shows how writers can take a single unusual idea and build tension, humour and adventure around it.
This teaching sequence gives pupils the opportunity to write their own stories inspired by a weird and wonderful fact. It supports children in developing original ideas, shaping a clear narrative and using humour to engage the reader, while encouraging them to question the world around them.
Short extracts from the podcast are suggested throughout the unit to introduce each stage of learning. These are optional, but highly motivating. They help pupils connect their classroom writing to the creative choices made by a professional author.
Resource pack contents
This free classroom pack supports a complete narrative writing unit and includes:
- A ready-to-use PowerPoint
- An extract from Noah’s Gold
- Weird and wonderful fact cards
- Planning sheets for ideas, development and plot
- Working wall images and author quotes
Teaching overview
Across four sessions, pupils will:
- Explore weird and wonderful facts: Discuss surprising real-world facts from the text, podcast and fact cards, and generate ideas of their own that could form the basis of a story.
- Develop an idea: Choose one fact and build possible events around it, learning how an unusual starting point can quickly lead to narrative tension and intrigue.
- Plan a short story: Plot a clear beginning, problem and resolution, considering how the chosen fact creates conflict and how it might be resolved. Pupils will also explore how humour can be used to lighten tense moments.
- Write, edit and improve: Write a complete short story inspired by their chosen fact, then edit and redraft with a focus on clarity, impact and reader engagement.
The unit also includes guidance for peer feedback, redrafting and using a working wall to support idea generation, humour and vocabulary.
How to listen
Search for Author In Your Classroom wherever you get your podcasts. A free resources pack is available with every episode.
Subscribe to hear more children’s authors share creative approaches that help pupils write with curiosity, confidence and imagination.
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