Using Language to Create a Story Setting

The setting is the foundation of any piece of narrative writing. It grounds the reader in the story’s world, creating a vivid backdrop that makes the events and characters feel real.

This resource has been created by our team to give your students practice in describing a setting for a story. The pack features five visual story setting prompts. Once they have chosen a prompt, students begin by observing the image and brainstorming descriptive and sensory language: What can they see, hear, smell or feel in this setting? Students are also encouraged to think about the time and weather, what characters might be present, and the mood of the environment before blending their ideas to create a piece of descriptive writing.

The five story setting visual prompts contained within this resource are:

• The Spooky House
• The Deserted Island
• The Mushroom Forest
• The Candy Castle
• The Land of the Dinosaurs

This resource downloads as a colour PDF or editable Google Slides file. While the resource can be printed in greyscale if necessary, the colour is intended to help students when writing their story setting descriptions. If you’d like to save on colour printing, we recommend projecting the visual prompts onto your interactive whiteboard.

How to Use This Narrative Setting Resource

This resource can be used across the different stages of writing instruction to enhance your students’ descriptive writing skills. Here’s how:

• Modelled writing – Demonstrate how to complete the activity by working through one of the prompts as a class. Work collaboratively to brainstorm descriptive and sensory language, then create a jointly constructed passage together.
• Shared writing –  Have the students work in small groups or pairs to repeat the process with a different prompt. Once they have finished, have the students share their descriptive passages with the rest of the class.
• Independent writing – Allow students who feel confident with the process to work on one of the prompts independently. These students can swap their completed passages with a peer to identify descriptive words in their partner’s writing.

Create the Setting of a Story: Download to Get Started! 

Download these story setting worksheets instantly and start transforming your writing lessons! Use the Download button above to access your preferred version of this resource. Please note that Google users will need to make a personal copy of the file before accessing it.

With clear instructions and scaffolded activities, this resource is designed to slot easily into your existing English curriculum and provide ongoing value across multiple lessons.

More Setting a Story Resources for Your Classroom

Click below to explore more setting a story resource to use in your classroom.

teaching resource

Examples of Story Settings Teaching Slides

Discover engaging examples of story settings with this teaching presentation that introduces students to ten classic settings in children’s literature.

teaching resource

Story Settings Booklet

Explore common story settings in literature with this engaging 8-page mini book that helps students analyse settings from their own reading.

teaching resource

Narrative Setting Prompts Posters

A set of 2 posters giving ideas for the setting of a narrative.