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Lesson 6 of 8
  • Year 1

Writing the beginning of a story: 'The Three Little Pigs'

I can write the beginning of a traditional tale, introducing the characters and setting.

Lesson 6 of 8
New
New
  • Year 1

Writing the beginning of a story: 'The Three Little Pigs'

I can write the beginning of a traditional tale, introducing the characters and setting.

These resources were made for remote use during the pandemic, not classroom teaching.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Traditional tales are mostly told in the past tense.
  2. The beginning of a story introduces the main characters, setting and plot.
  3. Two ideas can be joined using the joining word 'and'.
  4. When a sentence has two adjectives before a noun, a comma is needed between them, such as 'excited, adventurous pigs'.
  5. An adverb describes a verb; adverbs can describe how something happened, such as ‘proudly’.

Keywords

  • Beginning - the start of something

  • Character - a person or an animal in a story

  • Setting - where the story takes place

  • Plot - what happens in the story

  • Adverb - describes a verb

Common misconception

Children may struggle with the spelling of certain words.

Where possible, encourage the children to use phonics strategies to create phonetically plausible spellings. For other words, create a word bank for children to refer to. 'Decided', 'countryside' and 'adventure' would be useful words to include.


To help you plan your year 1 English lesson on: Writing the beginning of a story: 'The Three Little Pigs', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Use the example sentences in LC2 to check the success criteria and as a further opportunity to discuss key vocabulary and suggest adjectives and adverbs to pupils.
Teacher tip

Equipment

You need a copy of 'The Three Little Pigs', which is in the additional resources for this lesson.

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Prior knowledge starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Change the verb in this sentence so that it is in the past tense: I play in the park.

Correct answer: played
playing
playd
will play

Q2.
Which of these words is a noun in this sentence? The excited, adventurous pigs left home.

excited
adventurous
Correct answer: pigs
left

Q3.
Identify the adjectives in this sentence: The excited, adventurous pigs travelled to find a home.

Correct answer: excited
Correct answer: adventurous
pigs
travelled

Q4.
Match these words to their definition.

Correct Answer:noun,a naming word for people, places or things

a naming word for people, places or things

Correct Answer:adjective,describes a noun

describes a noun

Correct Answer:verb,a doing or being word

a doing or being word

Correct Answer:joining word,joins words or ideas together

joins words or ideas together

Q5.
Which expanded noun phrase has the comma in the correct place?

Correct answer: brave, strong pigs
brave strong, pigs
brave, strong, pigs
brave strong pigs

Q6.
Correct the spelling of the word in bold. Thay felt scared.

Correct Answer: They, they

Assessment exit quiz

Download quiz pdf

6 Questions

Q1.
Which sequencing language might you use at the start of a traditional tale?

Finally,
happily ever after
Correct answer: Once upon a time,
Next,

Q2.
Match these words to the correct punctuation.

Correct Answer:comma,,

,

Correct Answer:full stop,.

.

Correct Answer:exclamation mark,!

!

Q3.
Identify the joining word in this sentence: The pigs felt bored and they left their home in the countryside.

pigs
excited
Correct answer: and
left
countryside

Q4.
When might you use an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence?

Correct answer: to express strong emotion
to express a fact or opinion
to ask the reader for an answer

Q5.
What should we do before we start writing?

read the story again
Correct answer: practise saying your sentences out loud
write everything down very quickly
sing a song

Q6.
Complete this sentence: The beginning of a story...

tells you how the story ends.
Correct answer: introduces the main characters, setting and plot.
introduces the main problem in the plot.