The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark English Pack

#TheCompleteEnglishPack20lessons

In these The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark lesson plans, your Year 3 children will meet Plop, a baby barn owl with a big problem – he is afraid of the dark. Your class will read this classic children's story together during the reading comprehension lessons, before going on to write non-chronological reports about barn owls, write a new chapter of the book, complete diary entries as Plop and compose their own poems about the dark.

This planning pack is full of engaging activities that are closely tailored to the Year 3 English curriculum, and the best part is that it is fully planned so that you don't have to spend hours compiling the lessons! Each lesson comes with a detailed plan, a slideshow for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable resources, such as worksheets, extracts, challenges and much more. It's all there, ready for you to deliver to your class, so sit back and enjoy reading and exploring the story of Plop with your KS2 children!

Please be aware that, for copyright purposes, we are unable to provide the full text for this scheme of work. Extracts are provided where appropriate.

#AllREADINGCOMPREHENSIONLessonsinPack

These The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark comprehension lessons for Year 3 will guide your class through all seven chapters of this book and challenge them to answer reading comprehension questions in a variety of ways, including using inference, analysing descriptive language and retelling the story in their own words.

This series of six Year 3 reading comprehension lessons gives your KS2 class the chance not only to get to know this lovable baby barn owl and the story of how he turned from a day bird to a night bird but also to fine-tune their reading comprehension skills through differentiated comprehension activities. And it's all fully prepared and ready for you to teach!

Please note that, for copyright purposes, we are unable to provide the full text. Short extracts are provided where necessary.

#AllNONCHRONOLOGICALREPORTSLessonsinPack

This non-chronological reports planning pack for Year 3 is based around the beloved children's story The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark. In this series of 4 lessons, your Year 3 class will look at some examples of non-chronological reports for some of the nocturnal animals that are mentioned in the story, such as bats and hedgehogs, and explore the features of this genre of writing.

As the lessons progress, they will build up the skills they need to write their own non-chronological reports on barn owls, just like Plop! They will learn how to gather facts, how to plan a report and finally write a report independently.

This four-lesson non-chronological reports planning pack provides everything you need to deliver these fun and engaging lessons, including detailed lesson plan, slideshows for the teaching inputs, differentiated activities and a range of printable teaching resources.

#AllDIARYENTRIESLessonsinPack

This series of three lessons based on The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark explores the character of Plop and his experiences in learning about the dark through diary entries.

Your class will explore some of Plop’s diaries for themselves, looking at the language and grammatical features used, before improving a diary entry using what they have learnt and finally writing their own diary entries as Plop!

This series of three lessons, linked closely to the Year 3 English objectives, contains everything you need to teach these lessons to your KS2 class. There are detailed lesson plans, slideshows for the whole-class teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable teaching resources.

#AllNARRATIVELessonsinPack

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.

#AllPOETRYLessonsinPack

This Year 3 poetry planning pack, based on the beloved story of The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark, will help teach your children how to carefully select and arrange words to create interesting and effective poems, inspired by Plop's feelings towards, and discoveries about, the dark!

Across the lessons, they will gather vocabulary to describe the dark, then use this vocabulary to help them create diamond poems and cinquains.

Each lesson in this Year 3 poetry planning pack comes with an easy-to-follow lesson plan, a fun slideshow for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable resources to support their independent learning.

#Lesson1ReadingComprehensionDarkisExciting

The first lesson in this series The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark reading comprehension lessons introduces your Year 3 class to the lovable Plop as they read the first chapter of this classic story. They will use what they have read to answer comprehension questions to assess their understanding, then use clues from the text to infer information about Plop’s character.

This lesson comes ready to teach with a detailed lesson plan, an engaging slideshow for the whole-class input, differentiated comprehension activities and a range of printable teaching resources.

#Lesson2ReadingComprehensionDarkisKindandFun

Children will read chapters 2 and 3 of The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark in this Year 3 reading comprehension lesson and answer comprehension questions on what they have read. They will discuss questions, characters and events orally, giving reasons for their choices and using the text to back up their responses.

This fun and ready-to-teach lesson (that covers the 'Dark is Kind' and 'Dark is Fun' chapters) provides everything you need to deliver this lesson, including a lesson plan, an engaging slideshow for the whole-class input, differentiated comprehension questions and a range of printable teaching resources.

#Lesson3ReadingComprehensionAnsweringQuestionsinFullSentences

The focus of this lesson is answering questions in full sentences. After your Year 3 class read chapters 4 and 5 of The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark together, they will answer some simple questions to assess their understanding, led by the provided slideshow for the teaching input. They will then go on to explore how they can answer comprehension questions in full, detailed sentences, using all the information within the question to make their answers clear and concise.

Not only will your class learn why 'Dark is Necessary' and 'Dark is Fascinating' in this reading comprehension lesson for Year 3, but also how to improve the way in which they answer comprehension questions.

#Lesson4ReadingComprehensionDarkisWonderful

Your Year 3 class will be making reading predictions in this lesson as they continue to read and explore the story of The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark. They will recap what has happened in the story so far and identify themes and events common to all chapters.

They will then read the first few paragraphs of chapter 6 and make reading predictions about what will happen in the rest of the chapter, based on clues from the text and prior knowledge of chapter structure. Once they have made their predictions, they can then read the rest of the chapter and see how close their predictions were!

#Lesson5ReadingComprehensionDarkisBeautiful

Children will read the final chapter of The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark in this lesson and look specifically at the descriptive language used to describe night. Your Year 3 class will identify expanded noun phrases, similes and metaphors within the text and consider the effect this has on the reader.

This Year 3 reading comprehension lesson comes completely planned and ready for you to deliver to your class. There's a detailed lesson plan, a fun slideshow for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable teaching resources.

#Lesson6ReadingComprehensionRecappingtheStory

Now that your class have read the whole story of The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark, they will have the chance to recall the main events and characters and think about what they most enjoyed about the story and why.

During their independent learning tasks, they can then retell the story in a variety of ways (using a The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark Story Map to help them), or complete a book review of this story.

The final lesson in this Year 3 reading comprehension series comes with an easy-to-follow lesson plan, a slideshow for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable teaching resources.

#Lesson7NonchronologicalReportsFeatures

Your Year 3 class will explore the features of non-chronological reports in the first lesson of this series.

They will start off by identifying what kind of owl Plop is and finding out that over the next few lessons they will be exploring, planning and writing a non-chronological report on barn owls.

They will then explore the features of non-chronological reports, and the purpose of these features, through examples of non-chronological reports about some of the nocturnal animals Plop meets on his adventures, such as bats and hedgehogs.

#Lesson8NonchronologicalReportsTakingNotes

In the second lesson of this series, your class will do some research to find out some factual information about barn owls in preparation for writing their own non-chronological reports. They will learn how to pick out the important information in a sentence and use short bullet-pointed notes to record the facts they find out. They can also try using blackout sentences to get rid of unnecessary information in a sentence.

This Gathering Facts lesson, themed around The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark, comes with all the resources you need to deliver a successful lesson and will soon have your Year 3 class taking succinct and coherent notes.

#Lesson9NonchronologicalReportsPlanningaReport

Now that your KS2 class know all sorts of facts about barn owls, it’s time to plan their non-chronological reports! The slides will remind children of the features on a non-chronological report and discuss what they need to include in their plan.

During their independent learning time, they can then arrange the information they have gathered into paragraphs (with sub-headings), plan the images and captions they will use, and prepare to write their non-chronological reports about barn owls.

#Lesson10NonchronologicalReportsWritingandEditing

In the final lesson in this four-part series, your class will be writing non-chronological reports on barn owls, based on the plan they created in the previous lesson.

The included slideshow presentation for the teaching input will show them a bad example of a report for them to improve. This is to get them thinking about the features they need to include in their own reports and to stop them falling into common pitfalls.

They can then write their own non-chronological reports either on paper, using word processing or as a multimedia presentation. The printable resources include differentiated checklists so that your Year 3 class can be sure that they have included all the necessary features of a non-chronological report.

#Lesson11DiaryEntriesReadingPlopsDiary

In the first lesson of this diaries planning pack, your class will read a diary entry written by Plop about his adventures with fireworks in the first chapter of the The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark. They will explore the features of diary entries as a class using the provided slideshow for the teaching input and look at the type of language Plop has used.

During their independent work, they choose sentences Plop might say in his diary, based on what they have learnt, or highlight given features.

This lesson contains an easy-to-follow lesson plan, a slideshow, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable teaching resources.

#Lesson12DiaryEntriesImprovingDiaries

Now that your class can identify the features of diary entries, they will start thinking about how they could write their own diary entry as Plop.

During the whole-class input, they will look at a badly written example on the slides and explore how they can improve it, one sentence at a time, using adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, clauses and other features. There is also the chance to investigate how to improve sentences using the fun spiral sentence method!

This diary entries lesson contains a lesson plan, slideshow, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable resources.

#Lesson13DiaryEntriesWritingDiaryEntries

In the final lesson of this three-part series, your Year 3 class will recap what they have learnt about diaries. Your children will then follow the provided diary plans to write a diary entry as Plop for one of the remaining chapters of the story.

They will write some starting sentences as a class, then work independently to write a diary entry of their own. There is also the option to record these diary entries as vlogs!

This lesson contains a detailed lesson plan, a slideshow for the whole-class teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable resources.

#Lesson14NarrativeGeneratingIdeas

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 on which 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.

#Lesson15NarrativeDirectSpeech

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.

#Lesson16NarrativePlanningaNewChapter

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.

#Lesson17NarrativeWritingaNewChapter

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!

#Lesson18PoetryWordChoice

In this Year 3 poetry word choice lesson, your class will learn the importance of carefully selecting words and vocabulary when writing a poem. Together, they will discuss how words can create positive or negative thoughts and images about the noun that they are describing.

In their independent activities, children are then challenged to generate their own verbs and adjectives associated with 'the night', and sort them according to whether they are 'positive' or 'negative'.

This lesson contains a lesson plan, a whole-class slideshow presentation, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable teaching resources.

#Lesson19PoetryDiamondPoems

Your Year 3 children will learn to create their own diamond poems in this lesson!

During the whole-class input, they will explore how their word choices can affect the feelings and imagery created by the diamond poem. Then, in their independent activities, they will experiment with word choice and word order before writing their own diamond poem about the night. The alternative activity challenges children to write a diamond poem in which night changes to day.

This diamond poetry lesson for KS2 comes with everything you need to have your class creating impressive poetry in no time. There's an easy-to-follow lesson plan, a slideshow for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable teaching resources.

#Lesson20PoetryCinquains

In this Cinquain Poems KS2 English lesson, your Year 3 children will explore and discuss the structure of cinquain poems, looking at the different content and number of syllables in each line.

In their independent activities, children will choose from a list of 'Plop-related' subjects to write their own cinquain about. There is also the opportunity of working in pairs to write two opposing cinquains reflecting Plop's feelings towards the dark, both at the beginning and the end of the story.

This KS2 Cinquain Poems planning pack comes with a detailed lesson plan, a slideshow for the whole-class teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable worksheets and resources to support your class as they write their own amazing cinquain poetry.

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Curriculum Objectives covered

• listening to and discussing a wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks
• reading books that are structured in different ways and reading for a range of purposes
• increasing their familiarity with a wide range of books, including fairy stories, myths and legends, and retelling some of these orally
• identifying themes and conventions in a wide range of books
• preparing poems and play scripts to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action
• discussing words and phrases that capture the reader’s interest and imagination
• recognising some different forms of poetry [for example, free verse, narrative poetry]
• checking that the text makes sense to them, discussing their understanding and explaining the meaning of words in context
• asking questions to improve their understanding of a text
• drawing inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence
• predicting what might happen from details stated and implied
• identifying main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph and summarising these
• identifying how language, structure, and presentation contribute to meaning
• retrieve and record information from non-fiction

• discussing writing similar to that which they are planning to write in order to understand and learn from its structure, vocabulary and grammar
• discussing and recording ideas
• composing and rehearsing sentences orally (including dialogue), progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures (English Appendix 2)
• organising paragraphs around a theme
• in narratives, creating settings, characters and plot
• in non-narrative material, using simple organisational devices [for example, headings and sub-headings]
• assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggesting improvements
• proposing changes to grammar and vocabulary to improve consistency, including the accurate use of pronouns in sentences
• read aloud their own writing, to a group or the whole class, using appropriate intonation and controlling the tone and volume so that the meaning is clear

• extending the range of sentences with more than one clause by using a wider range of conjunctions, including when, if, because, although
• choosing nouns or pronouns appropriately for clarity and cohesion and to avoid repetition
• using conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to express time and cause
• using and punctuating direct speech

• Expressing time, place and cause using conjunctions [for example, when, before, after, while, so, because], adverbs [for example, then, next, soon, therefore], or prepositions [for example, before, after, during, in, because of]
• Introduction to paragraphs as a way to group related material
• Headings and sub-headings to aid presentation
• Use of the present perfect form of verbs instead of the simple past [for example, He has gone out to play contrasted with He went out to play
• Introduction to inverted commas to punctuate direct speech
• preposition, conjunction
• direct speech
• inverted commas (or ‘speech marks’)