±«Óătv

Watch: Fiction and non-fiction

An illustration of a young girl writing at a desk.

Fiction is made up, you need to use your imagination when you are writing it. Types of fiction include plays, stories and poems.

There are many different types of non-fiction writing, such as newspapers, adverts, brochures, reference books and biographies. A non-fiction book is about facts. You can't just make it up.

An illustration of a young girl writing at a desk.

Learn about the differences between fiction and non-fiction.

Back to top

Activity 1

Back to top

Activity 2

Back to top

Activity 3

Back to top

Activity 4

An illustration of a young girl thinking with question marks around her.

Watch this video about Britain in winter.

You are going to be writing about what happens in it, so watch carefully.

An illustration of a young girl thinking with question marks around her.

Learn all about winter in Britain.

Write four sentences about things you saw in the video as if they were in a non-fiction text.

Remember, non-fiction texts use facts so only use what you are told in the video. Don’t make anything up!

Top tip!

You could write about:

  • what animals do in winter

  • what people do in winter

  • the weather in winter

  • anything else you noticed

For example:

Winter in Britain is a very cold time. It is often icy and can even snow. When it snows, people like to make snowmen from the freshly fallen snow and go sledging down hills.

Back to top

Activity 5

An illustration of a young boy smiling with question marks around him.

Now write four sentences about things you saw in the video as if they were in a fiction text.

Remember, fiction is made up like a story. Use the video to inspire you and let your imagination run wild!

You could:

  • Write a setting description.
  • Choose a person or animal and write a character description.
  • Write a short story or poem about anything else that you thought was interesting.
An illustration of a young boy smiling with question marks around him.
Winter scene through a window

For example:

The snow-covered mountains shone like diamonds in the early morning sunshine. Slowly, the herd of deer woke up, quickly shaking off their snowy blankets. Icicles hung from the towering trees and rivers were frozen solid. Winter had arrived.

Top tip!

Fiction writing often includes:

  • adjectives and adverbs
  • lots of description
  • similes and metaphors
Back to top

Play our fun English game Crystal Explorers. game

Use grammar, punctuation and spelling skills to explore jungles, caves and tombs on your mission!

Play our fun English game Crystal Explorers
Back to top

More on Writing

Find out more by working through a topic