The only cure for a deadly plague sweeping the country is the crystal fang of a dragon that has terrorised the surrounding countryside for many years. Until now, the location of its den on Dragon Ridge Mountain has remained a mystery. In a race against time, Jack battles through a storm to reach the top of Dragon Ridge Mountain. With Merlin to guide him, Jack enters the dragon’s den and comes face to face with the monstrous beast. This is a story of courage, magic and one boy’s brave quest to fulfil a destiny foretold by the legends of long ago. Join Jack on his journey as he writes the story with the assistance of the magician Merlin and Punctua, the Fairy Godmother of Writing, to punctuate properly and become a bestselling author. Descriptosaurus Punctuation in Action Years 4–6: Jack and the Crystal Fang is part of a short series of age-specific, beautifully illustrated stories that can be read for pleasure and/or used as a contextualised resource, containing a step-by-step guide to teaching punctuation. The characters from each story are used to demonstrate a range of punctuation rules in a fun and engaging way appropriate to the book’s age group. Areas covered include: formulating punctuation rules. the use of misconceptions to highlight common errors. teaching tips to provide a punctuation model. The book explores the impact of punctuation on reading, understanding, meaning and effect, and can be used as a basis for pupils’ own punctuation or included in their ‘Writer’s Toolkit.’ These new Descriptosaurus stories are an indispensable teaching aid for making punctuation fun for all primary teachers and literacy coordinators.

Reviews of the first edition "This book is a treasure trove of descriptive language... Highly recommended for both teachers and parents. I wish I’d had a copy of this book when I was a full time English teacher! Invest in a copy today; you’ll be glad you did." Sue Cowley, bestselling author, teacher and teacher trainer "Help to banish 'blank page syndrome' for ever, with this innovative book... Created by teacher, Alison Wilcox, this inspirational book will build children's confidence in their writing ability." Literacy Times Plus "A real ‘godsend’ to hard-pressed teachers, parents and pupils." Denis Hayes, author of Foundations of Primary Teaching ? Reviews of the second edition ‘...the addition of the CD is perfect for the modern day classroom... fantastic!’ ?Emma Palastanga, primary deputy head ‘The... book/CD, will be so helpful to teachers who are struggling to think of different ways to say things and will enhance their planning and teaching. As a classroom resource it will be invaluable.’ Elaine Smitheman, primary school teacher ? Now available with a CD-ROM for classroom use, Descriptosaurus is the first book for creative writing that is a thematic expansion of a dictionary and a thesaurus. It provides children with a comprehensive resource with which to expand their descriptive vocabulary, experiment with language and sentence structure and build up narratives based around the following areas: Settings – landscapes, settlements and atmosphere, Characters – appearance, emotions and personality, and Creatures – appearance, abilities and habitats. New features for the second edition include: IWB compatible CD-ROM containing all the main elements of the book New VCOP coverage Expanded coverage of adverbs and connectives New planning sheets to help children organise and structure descriptions Character cards, games and mountain pyramid vocabulary builders The Descriptosaurus model was created and refined over a number of years as a result of feedback from children inside and outside the classroom as to the resources they required to inspire and assist them with their writing. For reluctant writers or those faced with blank page syndrome, it provides essential starting points to encourage putting pen to paper. Using Descriptosaurus will not only inspire children, it will build their confidence and dramatically improve the content of their writing. This is an ideal resource for all KS2 primary and KS3 secondary English teachers, literacy coordinators and parents keen to support their childrens’ creative writing. It would also make an excellent classroom book for PGCE students, particularly Primary PGCE with English specialism.

Descriptosaurus Story Writing provides a resource for younger pupils that will not only expand their descriptive vocabulary but also provide them with models that demonstrate ‘language in action,’ in a genre that is popular and familiar to children aged 5–9. Providing the essential building blocks to create a narrative text, alongside contexualised banks of vocabulary, phrases and sentence types, this book is designed to provide young pupils with the opportunity to see how a text is constructed using words, phrases and sentences. This exciting new resource: Provides vocabulary for setting, character, ‘show not tell’ and sensory descriptions with clearly defined progression Demonstrates how to use this vocabulary in different contexts using set sentence structures Offers four model narratives written in different styles and level of difficulty Presents modelled sentences with exercises so that pupils can expand their vocabulary Enables young pupils to develop their understanding of how sentences are constructed and become more confident about using these skills in their own story writing This is an ideal resource to dramatically improve children’s knowledge and understanding of language, grammar and punctuation for all KS1 and KS2 primary English teachers, literacy coordinators and parents. This easily accessible guide will also be helpful for teachers to use in preparation for Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG) alongside a creative writing task.

Descriptosaurus Punctuation in Action Year 2: Captain Moody and His Pirate Crew is part of a short series of age specific, beautifully illustrated stories that can be read for pleasure and/or used as a contextualized resource, containing a step by step guide to teaching punctuation.

Descriptosaurus: Myths & Legends builds on the vocabulary and descriptive phrases introduced in the original bestselling Descriptosaurus and, within the context of myths and legends, develops the structure and use of the words and phrases to promote colourful cinematic writing. This essential guide will enable children to take their writing to the next level, combine their descriptions of setting and character and show how the two interact. Children can then experiment with heroes, gods and supernatural beings to create a legendary story. This new system also provides a contextualised alternative to grammar textbooks and will assist children in acquiring, understanding and applying the grammar they will need to improve their writing, both creative and technical.

Descriptosaurus Personal Writing provides young writers with an opportunity to link their personal lives and school experiences and gives writing a meaningful and personal context. It is a resource that will guide students to produce powerful and meaningful personal text and will dramatically improve the their writing.

Descriptosaurus: Fantasy builds on the vocabulary and descriptive phrases introduced in the original bestselling Descriptosaurus and within the context of fantasy develops the structure and use of the words and phrases to promote colourful, cinematic writing. This essential guide will enable children to take their writing to the next level. It incorporates the essential skills and creative devices that are used in other genres while extending to themes of battle, sieges, magic and mystery to unleash children’s imaginations. This new system also provides a contextualised alternative to textbook grammar and will assist children in acquiring, understanding and applying the grammar required to improve their writing, both creative and technical.