Real Writing Year 1 - Unit 10
Model text: Sleeping Beauty, by Lucy Strange
Curriculum links: Fairy tales, castles, kings and queens
Unit overview
This writing unit for Year 1 is built around an original text by Lucy Strange - a retelling of a familiar fairy tale. The example text is available as a PDF in three versions (plain, illustrated and annotated); annotated and non-annotated PowerPoint presentations are also included.
In this two-week unit, pupils will begin to learn the features of fairy tales and create a story map to help them retell the story as a class, in groups and individually. They will write their own version of Sleeping Beauty, changing the curse that makes her fall asleep.
Key curriculum skills
Three fully-resourced lessons are included for the following Year 1 English objectives, which can form part of the unit or be taught discretely:
1. Vocabulary: to divide words into syllables
Pupils will: learn how words can be divided into syllables. They will count the syllables of words represented by images before using their blending skills to read a range of multisyllable words from phases 2 – 5 of Letters and Sounds.
2. Grammar: to sequence sentences to form short narratives
Pupils will: use story cards and language to orally sequence and retell the story of Sleeping Beauty. They will use a story board to draw pictures that will help them to retell the fairy tale, using simple adverbials to sequence the events.
3. Punctuation: to use capital letters to punctuate sentences
Pupils will: match capital and lowercase letters and correct sentences where capital letters are missing. They will finally complete a short writing task, using capital letters to punctuate sentences correctly.
Additional teaching points to teach or revisit:
- saying out loud what they are going to write about
- composing sentences orally before writing, including using adjectives
- using full stops and exclamation marks
- leaving spaces between words
- reading aloud their own writing
Year 1 words: featured vocabulary
Common exception words: once a was she he love one they by said the there were ask
Tier 2 words: bloom, curse, dozing, needle, spell, spinning wheel, thorns
Tier 3 words: castle, kingdom, throne, tower