The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark: Narrative

This set of four narrative writing Year 3 English lessons inspires your class to generate ideas for, plan and then write a new chapter for The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark! There is a lesson specifically focusing on direct speech, which the children are challenged to use in their writing. They will also explore the structure of the chapters in this classic children's story and use this to build their own chapter of the story.

This narrative writing Year 3 planning pack comes fully planned and ready to deliver to your class. There are detailed lesson plans, slideshows for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and a range of fun and engaging printable resources.

Generating Ideas

In the first lesson of this narrative writing planning pack, your Year 3 class will begin by recapping the main events in The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark. They then identify and discuss the similarities in the structure of each chapter, and use this as a basis to generate ideas for a new chapter to be added in the middle of the book.

In the alternative activity, children are challenged to think of ideas for an extra chapter to be added to the end of the book, focusing on Plop's first hunting experience when he finally becomes a night bird.

This lesson pack comes with an easy-to-follow lesson plan, a slideshow for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable teaching resources.

View Lesson 1

Direct Speech

In this direct speech KS2 English lesson, your Year 3 children will explore the punctuation needed when writing direct speech. They will discuss examples from The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark, first identifying what punctuation has been used, then progressing to completing unpunctuated sentences.

Children continue to apply this knowledge in their independent activities. The alternative activity provides children with the opportunity to identify and correct punctuation errors in sentences involving direct speech.

A lesson plan, slideshow presentation, differentiation and printable teaching resources are all included in this ready-to-teach English lesson.

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Planning a New Chapter

In this lesson, children look at how to use their Ideas Cards/Sheets from the first lesson and the general chapter structure of The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark to plan a new chapter for the book.

When planning, they are encouraged to think about how to include descriptive language, characters' thoughts and feelings and a piece of direct speech.

This planning pack provides a lesson plan, a slideshow for the whole-class input, and a range of differentiated planning worksheets so they can plan their stories with ease.

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Writing a New Chapter

Before beginning to write the chapter they have planned for The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark, your Year 3 class will explore some of the features that can make their writing more interesting and engaging for the reader. They will focus on the use of personal pronouns to avoid repetition of proper nouns, and the use of conjunctions to join and extend sentences.

Children can then apply everything they have learnt to write their very own chapters!

This lesson pack includes an easy-to-follow plan, a set of engaging PDF slides for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and printable resources to support your class in their independent work.

View Lesson 4