Hansel and Gretel Change the Story | Creative Writing & Story Planning Pack

What if Hansel and Gretel left a trail of glowing stones, discovered a floating spaceship or met a completely different villain?

Help children turn a familiar fairy tale into an adventure of their own. This printable creative writing pack uses Hansel and Gretel as a starting point, encouraging children to change key story elements while keeping a clear beginning, middle and ending.

Children explore six parts of the story:

• The main characters – Who goes on the adventure?

• Leaving a trail – What do they leave to find their way home?

• Getting lost – What happens to the trail, and where do they become lost?

• Finding the house – What unusual place do they discover?

• Meeting the villain – Who lives there, and what do they want?

• Escaping and the ending – How do the characters solve their problem?

Story spark prompts encourage original ideas, while planning activities help children connect their changes and develop a story that makes sense.

What is included?

• 12-page printable PDF, including a colour cover, teacher notes and terms of use.

• A traditional-story reference page and story spark ideas.

• A completed changed-story plan: Pip and Poppy’s Jungle Adventure.

• An ideas-gathering sheet and two storyboard options: guiding questions or sentence starters.

• Story-writing pages, a pupil checklist and prompts for sharing and improving work.

• Support and extension guidance, including talking, drawing and adult scribing for younger children.

Printing: A4, single-sided. The three storyboard pages are landscape; other pages are portrait. Interior pages use minimal colour and also work in greyscale.

Teacher note: The traditional tale includes abandonment, threats to eat a child and an oven escape. Guidance encourages adults to choose a suitable retelling and adapt discussion for their pupils.

Skills practised: generating ideas, developing characters and settings, sequencing events, solving story problems and planning creative writing.

Suggested ages: 5–9. Younger children can talk through and draw their ideas with adult support; older children can plan and write more independently.

Ideal for fairy tale topics, classroom literacy lessons and home learning.

Which Hansel and Gretel resource should I choose?

• Retell, Sequence and Write: for ordering pictures and retelling the original story in children’s own words.

• Read and Sequence: for practising reading and putting story events in order.

• Reading Comprehension: for reading the story and developing understanding through questions and activities.

• Change the Story: This booklet - for inventing and planning a new version of the fairy tale.

Digital download. No physical product will be sent.