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Free resourcesGrades 3–5

Narrative writing lessons for grades 3–5,
built on a story I wrote for them.

One original mentor text. Three mini-lessons, taught in order. A support resource for the students who need another way in. All of it is free — enter your email and the whole library arrives in one link.

One storythree lessonsin order

A mentor text, then three writing workshop mini-lessons

Read An Unlikely Hero with your class first, just as readers. Then the three lessons, one after another, each built on the same story and each following Notice → Effect → Try it. The support resource sits alongside.

The walkthrough videos are on my YouTube channel. Put one on and let it teach, or watch it first to see how the lesson runs.

  1. The first page of An Unlikely Hero, set as a student reading copy.

    Mentor text

    An Unlikely Hero

    The story everything else is built on. Tom is an ordinary boy who dreams of being an explorer — until a portal, a jungle, and a moment when he learns that courage, not strength, is what makes a hero. Read it with your class first, just as readers.

  2. Title slide of the Read Like a Writer mini-lesson.

    Lesson 1

    Read Like a Writer

    Go back through the story and notice how it was built — where the writer slowed down, which words made you picture the jungle. Notice, name the effect, then try it.

  3. The Show, Don’t Tell reference sheet, listing precise verbs beside general ones.

    Lesson 2

    Show, Don’t Tell

    Reveal how a character feels through what they do, rather than naming the feeling. The reference sheet swaps general verbs for precise ones — walk becomes glance, peek, glimpse.

  4. The suspense story planner, with space to sketch the moment and plan the scene.

    Lesson 3

    Build a Suspense Scene

    Students plan a moment of their own: sketch it, then work through the danger, the reaction and the beat where the reader holds their breath.

  5. A page of activities from the An Unlikely Hero support resource.

    Extra activities

    Support resource

    Extra reading and writing activities built on the same story, for students who finish early or need another way in.

Personal narrativeprint and goUS Letter + A4

A Family Traditions planner for November

Every family has a tradition, so every child has a story. Two pages, in US Letter and A4, in the same free library.

  1. The My Family Traditions Map: a heart divided into who is there, where it happens, what we eat, what we always do, what I hear, a time it went wrong and the best moment.

    November · personal narrative

    Family Traditions

    Every family has a tradition, so every child has a story. Students fill a traditions heart map, circle the moment they could talk about for five minutes, then plan it from the beginning to the big moment and the ending.

Narrative writingprint and goUS Letter + A4

Two worksheets for spooky narrative writing

One plans a suspense scene in four beats; the other cuts the feeling-words out of spooky sentences. Each is two pages, in US Letter and A4. Both are in the same free library.

  1. The Build a Spooky Suspense Scene planner: a box to sketch the moment, then four beats headed Danger, Reaction, Pause and New danger.

    Story planner

    Build a Spooky Suspense Scene

    Four beats that stop a class writing “it was scary, the end”. Students sketch the moment, plan the danger, the reaction, the pause and the new danger — then choose a guided, independent or challenge pathway to write it.

  2. The Stop Writing “It Was Scary” worksheet: a worked example, then six flat sentences to rewrite.

    Show, don’t tell

    Stop Writing “It Was Scary”

    Six flat sentences to fix, then a whole spooky paragraph to rewrite without a single feeling-word. Cut the feeling-word. Show one thing the body did.

Everything on this page, free

Enter your email and I send one link to the whole library — the story, the three lessons, the support resource, the Family Traditions planner and the spooky writing worksheets. New lessons go on the same page. No account. Nothing to buy.

Grades 3–5. No spam — just an email when there’s a new lesson.

Written by a teacher, not bolted together

I’ve spent more than twenty years in primary and secondary classrooms. I write the mentor texts myself and build the lessons around them, so the story and the teaching fit together instead of one being added on afterwards. Every resource is differentiated, because the range in a real classroom is wider than one worksheet allows for — and I write for the reluctant writers too.

Anastasia, smiling, photographed outdoors in the sun.

Anastasia, Writing Workshop Library

Looking for something I haven’t made yet? Tell me at hello@writingworkshoplibrary.com. The direction is yours.