This Year 3 writing unit from our Real Writing collection immerses pupils in the life and work of Mary Anning, the famous fossil hunter.
All texts in Real Writing are written by published children’s authors, ensuring engaging, accurate and age-appropriate content. Each unit follows a carefully mapped framework and includes two to three weeks of detailed lesson planning, making it easy for teachers to deliver.
Curriculum links
The unit links closely to Year 3 writing objectives while offering cross-curricular connections to science, particularly rocks. Pupils will explore the etymology and morphology of dinosaur names and practise using a range of conjunctions, adverbials and prepositions to express the passage of time.
They'll revisit subordination, the correct use of past and present tense and noun phrases. They also explore prepositional phrases, the present perfect tense, paragraphs organised around time, space or theme and organisational features such as headings and subheadings.
Resources
Teachers receive a full set of resources to support lesson delivery, including:
- Model text by professional author Loretta Schauer in three formats (plain, illustrated and annotated)
- Annotated and non-annotated PowerPoint presentations
- Vocabulary cards
- Activity sheets for vocabulary, grammar and writing
- ‘How to write a personal recount’ poster and margin planners for structuring diary entries
Year 3 vocabulary
Tier 2 words: discover, magnificent
Tier 3 words: ammonite, belemnite, excavate, fossil, geological, limestone, ichthyosaur, plesiosaurus, rock, specimen
Year 3 spellings: actually, appear, complete, decide, enough, suppose, thought, although, woman
Key teaching activities
Begin by showing pupils a video about Mary Anning’s life. Discuss how she might have felt during her discoveries and how the scientific community responded to her work.
Next, read the model diary entry together, exploring its first-person perspective, past and present perfect tense and organisational features. Pupils can highlight examples of pronouns, verbs, conjunctions, adverbials and prepositions.
Vocabulary lessons focus on etymology and morphology, using dinosaur names and fossil terminology. Pupils match words to meanings, explore root words and apply new terms in sentences.
Grammar activities encourage using conjunctions, adverbials and prepositions to indicate the passage of time, while composition lessons guide pupils in creating paragraphs and writing with a formal, descriptive tone.
Pupils will plan and draft their own diary entries as Mary Anning, using the model text and video for reference. They'll practise writing over several lessons, editing for grammar, punctuation, vocabulary and clarity.
Outcomes
By the end of the unit, pupils will:
- Write a well-structured diary entry in the first person as Mary Anning
- Use extended sentences with conjunctions, adverbials and prepositions
- Apply past and present perfect tense correctly
- Demonstrate understanding of fossil-related technical vocabulary
- Organise writing into paragraphs with clear headings and subheadings
- Use descriptive language to convey character and historical context
- Read their writing aloud with confidence and appropriate intonation
This unit provides teachers with a practical, engaging and fully resourced plan to inspire pupils while meeting Year 3 English and science curriculum objectives.