Narrative Writing Unit Years 3 and 4 | No Prep Story Writing Lessons | Emberwick

A no-prep narrative writing unit: ten ready-to-teach story writing lessons for Years 3 and 4, plus a bonus lesson. Open one file on your projector, press the right arrow and teach, while children write in a printed Keeper's Journal. No logins, no student devices, and it works offline.

The lessons are set in Emberwick, a painted harbour town where the lights are going out, with read-aloud voices, music and bigger text on screen for younger readers.

WHAT A LESSON LOOKS LIKE

You run every lesson from the computer on your projector or board, and your students write in their own printed Keeper's Journal. Lessons run for about 45 minutes, with bigger text on screen for younger readers and read-aloud voices for the story lines.

Every lesson runs the same steps, so children always know what comes next: Today, Story, Warm-up, Learn it, Watch it built (the model sentence grows in front of the class), Together, Your turn and Lamp Check. On Your turn there are three lamps to choose from: the First Lamp (fill the gaps), the Second Lamp (use the starters) and the Third Lamp (go further).

Your notes are on every step. Press ? for what to say, what to watch for and the answers. A "Before Lesson 1" page in the Lesson Guide gets you ready in ten minutes.

WHY YOUR CLASS WILL REMEMBER IT

Every lesson your class finishes relights more of the painted town, and a class lamp in the corner fills as you go.

ON A RELIEF DAY

Because the notes for every step sit under ? on the screen, and the Lesson Guide has the flow and timings for each lesson, a colleague can run the next lesson for you on a relief day.

THE LESSONS

1. Answer the Letter (clear sentences in a letter)
2. Pull the Weeds (sharp words instead of tired ones)
3. Open the Five Windows (describing with the senses)
4. Show the Feeling (showing how a character feels)
5. Give Back the Voices (speech marks)
6. Change the Mood (words that create a mood)
7. Stitch the Sentences (joining sentences, adding when and where)
8. The Unfinished Tale: The Beginning (hooks, who, where and when)
9. The Unfinished Tale: The Middle (the problem, in order, with time words)
10. The Unfinished Tale: Light the Great Lamp (endings, editing, sharing)

Plus a bonus lesson, Who Is Telling the Story? (first and third person).

HOW IT RUNS

• One HTML file. Open it in Chrome or Edge and press F for full screen.
• Arrow keys, Space or a presentation clicker move you through the lesson. T starts a timer, H shows Nova's hint, R reveals answers and model moves, A reads the step aloud.
• No printer? Every task is on the screen, so students can write in their exercise books.
• Works offline, needs no logins and stores nothing about your students. There's a one-page sheet for your IT team in the zip.
• Australian or US English: a Spelling choice in Settings switches the on-screen spelling. The voices and the printed Journal and Guide stay Australian. The PDFs are A4; on US Letter, choose "Fit to page".
• Painted art, voices and music are all inside the file.

CURRICULUM

Written for the Australian Curriculum: English (v9) in Years 3 and 4, and mapped to four more: the US Common Core State Standards, the National Curriculum in England (Key Stage 2), Cambridge Primary English and the IB PYP. The Lesson Guide lists the links for each lesson, with the official wording.

WHAT'S INCLUDED

• The lessons: one offline HTML file for your projector or board (10 lessons plus a bonus lesson)
• Keeper's Journal (PDF, 28 pages): print double-sided or as an A5 booklet. Two pages per lesson that follow the screen step by step, a story mountain, a Word Garden, a "My Finished Tale" page and a certificate
• First Lamp pages (PDF, 12 pages): a fill-the-gaps writing page for each lesson, for students who need the sentence shape given to them
• Teacher Lesson Guide (PDF, 71 pages): a "Before Lesson 1" page, flow and timings for every lesson, teacher notes, what to watch for, support and extension, answers and sample writing, a class lamp tracker, a writing rubric and curriculum links
• For Your IT Team (PDF, 1 page)
• START HERE quick guide

WHICH EMBERWICK EDITION DO I NEED?

All five editions are set in the same painted town and are in the Star Class Academy store.

• Teacher-Led Edition, Years 3 and 4 (this one): 10 lessons plus a bonus lesson on one screen, a 28-page Keeper's Journal and fill-the-gaps First Lamp pages.
• Teacher-Led Edition, Years 5 and 6: 12 lessons on one screen and a 32-page Keeper's Journal.
• Teacher-Led Edition, Years 7 to 9: 12 lessons plus a bonus lesson, a 48-page Keeper's Journal, three Lamps in every lesson and Relief Lesson Cards.
• Student Game Edition, Years 5 and 6: each student writes on their own device and hears back from the characters, with a teacher console.
• Student Game Edition, Years 7 to 9: the full game for older students, with a teacher console.

There is no Student Game Edition for Years 3 and 4: this edition is the whole unit, taught from the projector.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Teaching a Year 4 and 5 class? Emberwick Teacher-Led Edition (Years 5 and 6) carries on in the same town with the same characters. It is in the Star Class Academy store.

HOW IT WAS MADE

The painted art, the music and most of the voices were made with AI tools and then chosen and edited by us. Two of the voices are our own.

LICENCE

For use by the purchasing teacher with their own classes. You may put these files on a password-protected or school-internal site (such as your school's learning platform) for your own classes. Please don't post them on a public website or share them outside your classes.

Questions? starclassacademy.com/help?ref=sh or hello@starclassacademy.com

Made by two teachers, one primary and one secondary, who have taught in classrooms around the world.