This Year 3 writing unit from our Real Writing collection explores the life and achievements of Ibn al-Haytham, a pioneering scientist in the field of optics.
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 provides two to three weeks of detailed lesson planning, helping teachers deliver lessons confidently and effectively.
Curriculum links
The unit links closely to Year 3 writing objectives while offering cross-curricular connections to science, particularly the study of light, and history work on early Islamic society.
Pupils will explore word families based on common words and develop their use of the present perfect tense.
Additional skills covered include subordination, the correct use of past and present tense, commas for lists and apostrophes for singular possession.
Pupils will practise extending sentences using conjunctions, adverbials and prepositions to express time, place and cause, and organise paragraphs around a theme. They'll also include headings and subheadings to structure their writing effectively.
Year 3 vocabulary
Year 3/4 statutory spelling words: experiment, important, straight, famous, different, often, appear, actually, opposite, thought
Tier 2 words: modern, logical
Tier 3 words: optics, optical, light, ray, theory, vision
Resources
Teachers receive a full set of resources to support lesson delivery, including:
- Model text by Ross Montgomery 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 recount’ poster and margin planners for organising biographical recounts
Key teaching activities
The unit begins with a hands-on hook activity: pupils create pinhole cameras using shoeboxes or other enclosed containers. They'll explore images and discuss how light rays cross at the pinhole, creating inverted images. This practical activity links directly to the scientific concepts in Ibn al-Haytham’s work.
Teachers then guide pupils through reading the model text together, exploring its past tense, present perfect examples and organisational features such as subheadings and paragraphs. Pupils can highlight examples of conjunctions, adverbials, possessive apostrophes, commas and pronouns.
Vocabulary lessons focus on word families, exploring root words such as ‘optic’, ‘bio’ and ‘graph’, and using them to create noun phrases and sentences.
Grammar sessions focus on the present perfect tense and extending sentences with conjunctions, adverbials and prepositions. Pupils will also practise writing in a formal, neutral tone, drafting letters to Ibn al-Haytham as if he could visit their classroom.
Planning and drafting stages follow, using the recount text margin planner. Pupils will organise research, rehearse sentences and write their own biographies over several lessons.
Outcomes
By the end of the unit, pupils will:
- Write a well-structured biographical recount of Ibn al-Haytham
- Use extended sentences with conjunctions, adverbials and prepositions accurately
- Apply past and present perfect tense correctly
- Demonstrate understanding of optics-related technical vocabulary
- Organise writing into paragraphs with clear headings and subheadings
- Use descriptive language to convey historical context and character
- Read their writing aloud with confidence and appropriate intonation
This unit provides teachers with a clear, practical and fully resourced plan to inspire pupils while meeting Year 3 English and science curriculum objectives.