This Year 3 writing unit from our Real Writing collection is built around an original model text by published children’s author Jo Franklin. Pupils will read Cave Challenge, a narrative set in the Palaeolithic period, and use it as a model to explore historical storytelling.
The text is available as a PDF in three versions – plain, illustrated and annotated – and comes with annotated and non-annotated PowerPoint presentations to support teaching.
Curriculum links and objectives
Over this two-week unit, pupils will explore vocabulary connected with Palaeolithic cave painting, investigate how the author uses noun phrases for description and learn about the suffixes -er and -or.
They will plan and write their own story based on a cave painting theme. The unit supports history topics covering changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.
Key skills mapped to Year 3 writing objectives include:
- Using suffixes -er and -or to extend vocabulary and understanding of word formation
- Writing expanded noun phrases to add description and detail
- Using progressive verb forms for action
- Applying commas for lists, including lists of adjectives
- Using apostrophes to show contraction
- Extending sentences with a wider range of conjunctions
- Using conjunctions, adverbials and prepositions to express time and cause
- Organising paragraphs around a theme, scene or period of time
- Using inverted commas to punctuate direct speech
- Developing characters, settings and plot
Resources
The unit includes:
- Two fully resourced lessons with teacher notes, teaching slides and activity sheets
- Writer’s craft instruction sheet and margin planner for planning stories
- “How to write a historical story” poster
- Writing skills checklist to guide proofreading and editing
- Vocabulary match activities and word cards
Vocabulary
Y3 statutory spelling words: appear, although, circle, complete, heard, learn, ordinary, special, though
Tier 2 words: ancestor, pouch
Tier 3 words: aurochs, stag, cave dwellers, hunters, gatherers
Key teaching activities
Begin with images or videos of Lascaux Cave paintings to engage pupils. Discuss what the images show and why Palaeolithic people created them. Pupils can create their own cave-style pictures using charcoal or chalk, exploring personal significance.
Read Cave Challenge together, exploring narrative features, past and progressive verb forms and previously taught writing skills such as commas for lists, conjunctions, noun phrases and direct speech. Pupils can highlight examples in the text and discuss how the author adds description.
Introduce suffixes -er and -or and explore spelling patterns. Pupils can practise using these in sentences and write a paragraph incorporating the suffixes.
Investigate descriptive techniques including figurative language. Pupils will write a paragraph describing a damp, dark cave using noun phrases, prepositional phrases and at least three examples of figurative language.
Examine historical story features using the “How to write a historical story” poster. Pupils will plan their own cave painting story using the margin planner and writer’s craft instruction sheet.
During writing sessions, pupils will draft, proofread and edit their stories using the writing skills checklist, focusing on grammar, punctuation, vocabulary and paragraph structure.
Outcomes
By the end of the unit, pupils will:
- Write a historical narrative set in the Palaeolithic period
- Apply suffixes -er and -or accurately in context
- Use expanded noun phrases and descriptive language effectively
- Employ progressive verbs, commas, apostrophes, conjunctions and direct speech
- Structure paragraphs around a theme or scene
- Plan, draft, proofread and edit their writing to improve grammar, punctuation and vocabulary