We've built this Year 1 writing unit around an original retelling of the classic tale The Enormous Turnip by published children's author, James Nichol.
Designed to engage pupils over a two-week period, this unit helps children explore story structure and practise essential English skills. They'll also create their own imaginative version of the story featuring a different giant vegetable.
Key skills and curriculum links
This unit includes three fully resourced lessons covering core Year 1 English objectives:
- Vocabulary: practise blending and segmenting words used in the model text, as well as other examples.
- Grammar: create sentences using the words provided and orally rehearse creating sentences using the images of vegetables.
- Punctuation: orally compose and rehearse sentences, before writing these using finger spaces to separate words.
You can also use the unit to teach additional skills such as:
- starting sentences with capital letters
- ending sentences with full stops
- sequencing sentences to form short narratives
The unit links to geography and science topics on the seasons, plants and harvest.
Activities and teaching sequence
Pupils will begin by reading the story, acting out scenes and using story maps, character cards and image prompts. They'll sequence the story as a class, in groups and individually, and then orally rehearse it to prepare for writing.
Each stage includes vocabulary teaching. Pupils will encounter:
Tier 2 words: enormous, favourite, budge, plait, fetch, beard
Tier 3 words: turnip, vegetable, autumn, harvest, crop
Common exception words: the, a, pull, so, once, there, was, house, were, they, one, love
Resources included
Inside our pack you'll find:
- Teacher notes and suggested full teaching sequence
- PowerPoint slides for the model text, annotated model, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation lessons
- Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary cards for display and matching
- Common exception word cards
- Traditional tales story map poster, blank and completed story maps
- Character and sequencing cards
- Vegetable image cards and themed writing paper
- Jumbled-up sentences and caption cards
- Finger space templates and writer’s craft checklists
Outcomes
By the end of the unit, pupils will confidently tell stories orally and in writing, strengthen their foundational English skills and produce their own retelling of a classic tale.
The activities provide opportunities for support and challenge and link literacy with science and geography topics.
All texts in our Real Writing series are written by professional children's writers and follow a carefully mapped framework, ensuring that pupils develop essential skills in a structured way.
Each unit comes with two to three weeks of detailed lesson planning, giving teachers a clear sequence of activities that you can use as a complete programme or adapt to fit your classroom timetable.