The Missing Middle

This worksheet helps students in Grades 3, 4, and 5 practice narrative writing by completing the most challenging part of a story: the middle. Students read a provided beginning and ending about Jada discovering a mysterious wooden box and later sharing it during Show and Tell, then write a middle section that connects the two moments with clear story flow, logical events, and purposeful details.

Key Learning Objectives

• Writing Strong Narrative Middles (Grades 3-5)
  Create a middle that develops the plot and connects opening and ending events.
• Story Continuity and Flow
  Maintain consistent characters, setting, and tone while keeping the story easy to follow.
• Logical Event Progression
  Include actions, discoveries, or choices that realistically bridge the beginning to the conclusion.
• Creative Story Development
  Add original ideas while staying grounded in the story’s established details.

Instructional Benefits

• Teacher-Created Writing Challenge
  Designed to target a common narrative weakness with clear structure and purpose.
• Built-In Scaffolding
  The given beginning and ending reduce blank-page stress and support hesitant writers.
• Great for Drafting or Revision Practice
  Works well for writing workshop, assessment, small groups, or homework.
• Encourages Evidence-Based Creativity
  Students must invent, but also justify, what “must have happened” in between.

This activity strengthens sequencing, narrative coherence, and plot development by guiding students to think through cause-and-effect and realistic transitions. As students build a bridge between two fixed story points, they practice making intentional choices about actions, pacing, and details that keep a story moving smoothly. It’s a practical tool for both classroom and homeschool writing instruction focused on structure and storytelling craft.

This worksheet is part of our Story Structure (Beginning, Middle, End) Worksheets collection.