Treasures Transition Pack
Resources to support the use of Treasures as a P7 – S1 transition project
Created by Scottish Book Trust
Contents
For schools
P2...... Introduction for schools
P3...... Outline of activity
P5...... Template letter for parents/carers
For pupils and parents
P7...... Activities/worksheets for pupils and parents
P12...Tips for parents of children with ASN
Introduction for schools
This pack has been designed alongside the main Treasures schools resources, to support secondary schools who would like to use the Treasures theme as the basis for a transition project.
Scottish Book Trust’s Treasures campaign encourages adult members of the public to submit pieces of writing based around their treasured possessions to the SBT website. Schools are encouraged to take part as well. It is important for us to make you aware that the final date for submission of entries to the SBT website is 31st July.Therefore, learners using this pack in the manner we have suggested will not be able to submit their stories to the SBT website in time for the deadline. The main purpose of this pack is to allow you to harness the potential of the Treasures theme in a transition project. However, if you want to encourage other pupils to submit pieces of writing to the website, we’ve got resources available to help with that too: have a look at the main Treasures resources to get some ideas about how to use the project in class.
We know that every school and every class is different, so we’ve made sure the activities aren’t too prescriptive; we have, however, tried to provide as much structure as possible in the activity guides and worksheets for pupils and parents, since of course these will be undertaken at home during the summer without teacher guidance.
We’ve also included a template letter which may help you get a head start on communicating with parents and carers. You will almost certainly want to modify this, however, to reflect your own needs.
In the activity guides and worksheets for pupils and parents, we’ve referred to CFE Experiences and Outcomes at levels 3 and 4, to help build parents’ familiarity with what pupils will be expected to work towards in S1 and beyond.
Finally, it’s worth remembering that the Treasures theme is intended to be accessible to everyone. You might wish to encourage parents to write alongside their children, or even write a piece yourself, to model yourself as a writer to your new pupils. See our Teachers as Writers resource pack for more information about this:
We’re always delighted to hear from teachers and answer queries. Drop us a line at if you need help with finding any more resources, or just want to let us know about what you’ve done!
Outline of activity
Write an imaginative essay
You can choose to do the planning and ideas in class with the pupils and get them to write over the holidays, or you might want to just get them to do the planning over the holidays and write when they come back to class.
If you want to do the planning and ideas in class, you can use the activities in the main Treasures schools resource to help with this.
It’s important to remember that pupils don’t need to write about an object which belongs to them. They can use an unfamiliar object as a stimulus for an imaginative story, for example. The resources below can help with this:
National Museum of Scotland online collections:
Victoria and Albert Museum online collections:
You can generate ideas by using and/or modifying some of the activities in the main Treasures schools resource. In addition to thinking about who an object’s owner might be, you can use the following strategies to help pupils develop creative ideas:
- Ask them to use the ‘Five W’s’ (What, Where, When, Who, Why) to generate questions about the object. For instance, where might the object have been found? Who found it? When was it used last?
- Ask them to think about ‘what ifs’: for instance, what if lots of different people were looking for the object? What if the object belonged to someone important? What if the object might incriminate someone? What if the object was buried deliberately? What if the character had lost their memory, and the object trigged a return of their memory?
- Other questions they could ask might include: do you think the object looks different now to how it looked when it was new, and what has caused it to look different? Does the object hold bad memories for someone?
If you want pupils to work on writing over the holidays, Scottish Book Trust has some helpful creative writing resources they can draw on to develop their skills:
Keith Gray’s Creative Writing Masterclass videos:
Cathy Forde’s Creative Writing Masterclass videos:
Lari Don’s creative writing blog series: Lari is always keen to hear from pupils and teachers looking for advice on writing: why not encourage pupils to leave a comment on her blog asking for a bit of help?
In the section for parents and pupils, we’ve included some worksheets to help with ideas, planning, and writing a good essay.
When they come back after the summer, you could work with the class on collating their stories into a book, and even hold a book festival to celebrate its completion! Check out this blog post for more information about one school who did this:
To help new pupils feel part of the school community, you could ask current S1 pupils to peer assess the upcoming S1s’ pieces of writing, so they can pass on what they’ve learned about writing in S1.
School Address 1
Address 2
Address 3
Address 4
Postcode
DD/MM/YYYY
Holiday writing project
Dear Parent/Guardian,
We’d like to take this opportunity to welcome you and your child to [school name].
To help create a smooth transition for your child from primary to secondary, we’d like your child to work on a piece of writing over the holidays. Work on this piece of writing has already begun during your child’s visit to us before the summer break, and we’ll be continuing to focus on it when S1 begins in August.
The piece of writing is based on Scottish Book Trust’s Treasures campaign, where adult members of the public are invited to write about their treasured possessions and submit their writing to the Scottish Book Trust website.
Informed by the theme of Treasures, we would like your child to write a fictional story inspired by an object. Although the story has to be fictional, your child can use any object they choose as an inspiration: for instance, they could choose one of their own treasured objects, or they could choose an object they have found out about in a museum, or online.
Don’t worry: we’ve included all the materials your child will need! In this pack you will find worksheets with clear guidelines to help your child both to find an object and write their story. We’ve also suggested some web pages which give some great advice about the basics of story writing.
We’ve also included a section which gives advice and different options to parents of children with additional support needs and also children with English as a second language.
Finally, why not support your child by doing your own piece of writing alongside them? One of the best ways to motivate young people to read and write is to ensure that they have role models – i.e., that they see the adults around them reading and writing. Have a look at for more information about how you can submit your own piece of writing to Scottish Book Trust before the end of July.
We hope you find this project to be an enjoyable way of creating a link between P7 and S1, and we look forward to welcoming you and your child back in August!
Yours faithfully,
Task 1 – Find an Object!(Curriculum for Excellence: Lit 3-14a – I can find and use information from different sources and use this for different purposes).
Your story has to be inspired by an object of some kind. If you already have a treasured possession or some other object in mind, great – you can go to Task 2!
If you don’t have an interesting object in mind already, don’t worry – there are lots places to go and find some. You could visit a local museum, or have a look at these web pages:
National Museum of Scotland online collections:
Victoria and Albert Museum online collections:
BBC resource on world objects:
Once you’ve found an interesting object (or two!), you can move on to Task 2 below.
Task 2 – Get Some Ideas(Curriculum for Excellence: Lit 3-25a – I can use notes to come up with ideas and develop them)
Most writers get their ideas from looking at things around them and asking questions about those things. Read this blog from children’s author Lari Don about how she comes up with ideas by asking questions:
N.B: Lari welcomes comments and questions from pupils, parents and teachers looking for advice with stories: why not encourage your child to leave her a comment at the bottom of the blog?
Now, it’s time for you to ask some questions about your object. Look at the questions below and answer them on a separate piece of paper. Hopefully they will help you to get some ideas for a story!
You do not need to answer all the questions. Only answer the ones which you feel help you to get ideas.
Questions about your chosen object
Task 3 – come up with your characters(Curriculum for Excellence: Eng 3-31a (Having explored the techniques writers use, I can create texts by creating interesting and convincing characters)
In this task, you’re going to think of who your main character (or characters) might be.
Many writers say that you should ‘get to know’ your characters as fully as you possibly can. This way, you can have a better idea of how they will behave in your story. Also, if you know your characters inside out, it will help you to bring them to life for your readers.
Again, the key is to ask questions. So look at the questions below and answer them on a separate sheet of paper.
One final tip: you don’t have to come up with a name straight away if you don’t want to. Some people find it easier to think of a name after they have answered the questions below.
Task 4 – come up with a plot(Curriculum for Excellence: Eng 3-31a - Having explored the techniques writers use, I can create texts by using convincing and appropriate structures)
The best way to think of a plot is to think of it as a journey. Again, children’s author Lari Don explains more about this in her blog, so give it a read before you start this task:
It’s important that things have changed by the end of the story. Your character should feel different at the end than they do at the start. For instance, if your character feels sad at having lost an object at the beginning, they will feel relieved and happy to have got it back by the end.
Also, your character must face obstacles as they try to get what they want. Lari’s blog explains this in a lot of detail, so again, make sure you have read it before you start.
Your first task is to answer the questions below, to help you get ideas for a plot.
Your next task is to plan the events for your story in one of the three ways Lari talks about in her blog:
Option 1 – draw a map of where the story takes place, and put the obstacles your character faces on the map.
Option 2 – Make two lists: one of all the obstacles your character faces, and one of the potential solutions your character might find for each obstacle.
Option 3 – Plot out the events of the story on a timeline. There is an example below so you can see how it’s done.:
One final tip about plot
When we say that a plot is a journey, remember that this doesn’t have to mean it’s a physical journey. The character does not have to end up in a different location than the one they started out in: as long as something has changed for the character by the end of the story, we can still call that a journey!
As Lari says in her blog, the story could be about ‘a journey in someone’s head’. For instance, imagine a story where a character is trying to deal with an emotionally difficult situation, like being bullied. This character needs to move from being afraid of bullies to being confident enough to find a solution to the bullying. So their journey has involved a change from fear to courage and confidence.
Tips for parents of children with additional support needs
- Children with dyslexia often find it helpful to see pictures to help them come up with ideas. You’ll find pictures of objects using the links in Task 1, but if you want to find some pictures of people to give ideas for characters, try the following Scottish Book Trust resources:
Drawing A Veil learning resources (check page 5 for pics):
You can also search the internet for lots of different images of people to give your child ideas for a character. Encourage them to ask questions about the person as outlined in Task 3.
- Drawing spider diagrams and mind maps can really help children to note down their ideas and develop them.
- When planning a story, it can help some children to create something more visual. You can encourage them to plot a story by storyboarding: get them to divide a piece of paper into six boxes, then get them to plan their story by drawing six pictures of the key moments in their story. On the next page, you’ll find a blank storyboard if you prefer to use this instead.
Useful links for pupils and parents
Nick Ward’s tips for writing adventure stories:
Joanne Owen’s tips for writing mystery stories:
Lazlo Strangolov’s tips for writing spooky stories:
Anthony Lishak’s tips and exercises for creating characters:
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Blank Storyboard
After you have thought about some of the questions in Task 4, use the storyboard below to draw pictures of what might happen in your story.
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