The Golden Serpent’s Gift

Year 3 · Realistic

The Golden Serpent’s Gift is a free, NAPLAN-aligned realistic writing resource for Year 3 students. It includes a story starter, complication, tiered vocabulary and scaffolds mapped to the Australian Curriculum (AC9).

Year 3 AC9E3LE05 AC9E3LA06 AC9E3LA10 AC9E3LA11 AC9E3LA04 AC9E3LY06

Supports the Year 3 achievement standard (creating written texts).

Australian Curriculum content descriptions © ACARA. Writesy is not affiliated with or endorsed by ACARA.

The temple was full of glowing lanterns. Cherry blossoms drifted through the air. A golden serpent curled proudly in the middle of the Lunar Festival. People said that the Spirit of the Snake returned every twelve years. It gave wisdom, good luck, and a magical gift to someone who was worthy. Festival music filled the night air. A young child stepped forward. She felt nervous. Her heart pounded in her chest. The child was ready to meet the shining serpent. "You have come to find the gift," said the serpent. Its golden scales gleamed brightly. "Only people who understand the spirit of the snake can receive it."

The complication

  1. As the child approaches the serpent, a sudden gust of wind blows out all the lanterns, plunging the festival into darkness and creating an eerie atmosphere.
  2. A rival child from another village, who is also seeking the gift, challenges her to prove her worthiness in a series of tests that will determine who is truly deserving.
  3. The golden serpent reveals that to receive the magical gift, the child must first solve a riddle that holds the key to understanding the spirit of the snake.

Sentence starters

  1. Later that evening, as she stood before the serpent's shimmering gaze...
  2. The crowd gasped as she took a deep breath and stepped closer to the golden scales.

…and 1 more with your free account.

What's in the full resource

  • Complications
  • Brainstorming Prompts
  • Vocabulary Support
  • Sentence Starters
  • Dialogue Prompts
  • Writing Challenges
  • Sentence Variety
  • Creative Twists
  • Writing Checklist
  • Reflective Questions
  • Collaborative Writing Ideas
  • Printable teacher and student PDFs

NAPLAN writing criteria this resource targets

Audience Text structure Ideas Character and setting Vocabulary Cohesion Paragraphing Sentence structure Punctuation Spelling

See how Writesy aligns to the NAPLAN writing criteria.

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