The Lonely Unicorn

Year 3

The Lonely Unicorn is a free, NAPLAN-aligned 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.

Starwhisker the unicorn sat on the soft pink bed, staring at the door that never seemed to open. Every night, he waited for Lucy to come back and play, but ever since she got new toys, he had been left behind. With a sigh, he wiggled his soft hooves and blinked his button eyes. “Maybe… maybe I should go on an adventure,” he whispered to the other stuffed animals. But they just sat there, unmoving. With a deep breath, Starwhisker tumbled off the bed and onto the floor, tonight, he was going to find a new friend.

The complication

  1. As Starwhisker begins his adventure, he accidentally knocks over a lamp, creating a loud noise that might wake Lucy's parents.
  2. While exploring the room, Starwhisker encounters a grumpy teddy bear who refuses to let him pass unless he solves a riddle.
  3. Just as Starwhisker thinks he has found a new friend in a toy dinosaur, he discovers that the dinosaur is scared of the dark and needs help overcoming his fear.

Sentence starters

  1. Finally, with newfound courage, Starwhisker took his first step towards the door.
  2. The room felt colder as darkness settled in around him.

…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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