Instructions: How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth

Study type: Genre Study | Status: Exemplar

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Concepts

This study delivers 1 primary concept and 3 secondary concepts.

Primary concept: Writing for different purposes (EN-KS1-C047)

Type: Skill | Teaching weight: 3/6

Adapting writing for different text types (narrative, recount, poetry)

Teaching guidance: Introduce different text types through reading before asking children to write them. Cover key purposes: narrative (stories), recount (retelling events), instruction (how to do something), information (facts about a topic), letters, and poetry. Discuss the features of each text type explicitly: 'Instructions use numbered steps and bossy verbs.' Provide model texts and writing frames to scaffold early attempts. Ensure children understand that the purpose of writing determines its form and language choices. Key vocabulary: purpose, story, recount, instructions, information, letter, poem, audience, text type, for Common misconceptions: Children may default to narrative structure for all writing, including instructions and information texts. They may not understand that different purposes require different language features (e.g., imperative verbs in instructions, past tense in recounts). Some children focus on content without considering who they are writing for.

Differentiation

Model response (Entry): 'This is a farm with cows and sheep.'

Model response (Developing): '1. Get two slices of bread. 2. Spread butter on both slices. 3. Add cheese. 4. Put the slices together.'

Model response (Expected): Child writes with a greeting, recounts the trip in past tense with personal detail, and ends with a sign-off.

Model response (Greater Depth): Diary: 'Today was the best day ever! We went to the museum and I saw a real dinosaur skeleton.' Newsletter: 'Year 2 visited the Natural History Museum on Tuesday. The children particularly enjoyed the dinosaur exhibition.' 'The diary is personal and uses I/we. The newsletter is formal and written for parents.'

Secondary concept: Sentence composition (EN-KS1-C044)

Type: Skill | Teaching weight: 3/6

Creating complete, meaningful sentences

Differentiation

Secondary concept: Sentence boundaries (EN-KS1-C052)

Type: Knowledge | Teaching weight: 3/6

Understanding where sentences begin and end

Differentiation

Secondary concept: Full stops (EN-KS1-C054)

Type: Skill | Teaching weight: 2/6

Using full stops to end statements

Differentiation

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Thinking lens: Evidence and Argument (primary)

Key question: What is the evidence, how reliable is it, and what conclusions can it support? Why this lens fits: Evaluating and proof-reading require pupils to read their own writing as a text to be assessed — they use the evidence of what they have written to judge whether it meets the criteria of sense, accuracy and effect. Question stems for KS1:

How do you know that?

What clues can you see?

Can you finish: I think... because...?

Is that a guess or do you know for sure?

Secondary lens: Structure and Function — Narrative sequencing and varying text type both involve understanding how different structural arrangements serve different communicative purposes — chronology serves storytelling while instruction serves direction.

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Session structure: Writer's Workshop

Writer's Workshop

A process-writing sequence that develops pupils as independent writers. Studies a mentor text to identify craft techniques, practises those techniques in isolation, plans an original piece, drafts with attention to audience and purpose, engages in peer review for feedback, revises and edits, and publishes the final piece.

mentor_text → technique_identification → planning → drafting → peer_review → editing → publication Assessment: Final published piece demonstrating identified craft techniques, with writing portfolio showing development through the drafting and revision process. Teacher note: Use the WRITER'S WORKSHOP template: read a short, exciting mentor text together and help children notice one special thing the writer did — a sound word, a repeated phrase, or a describing word. Let them have a go at using the same idea in their own writing. Support them in reading their work aloud to a partner and making one improvement with help. KS1 question stems:

What special thing did the writer do?

Can you try that in your own writing?

Can you read your writing to your partner?

What is one thing you could make even better?

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Text type and features

Text type: Non Fiction Features to teach: numbered steps, imperative verbs (fill, scrub, rinse), sequencing (first, next, then, finally), what you need list Writing outcome: Write a set of instructions (5-6 steps) for a simple task using numbered steps, imperative verbs, and sequencing words Grammar focus: capital letters and full stops, sequencing words (first, next, then, finally), imperative verbs (from Y1 Appendix 2)

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Suggested texts

How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth by Michelle Robinson — Humorous instruction text that models the form while entertaining

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Genre

Instruction: Texts that tell the reader how to do something in sequential steps. One of the earliest non-fiction forms taught because its clear structure (numbered steps, imperative verbs) is highly scaffolded and accessible. Often taught through cross-curricular contexts (DT recipes, Science investigations).

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Why this study matters

Instruction writing is one of the most accessible non-fiction forms at KS1 because its structure is concrete and visual (numbered steps, imperative verbs). Using a humorous text as the model engages children while teaching the genuine features of the form. The task of writing real instructions that someone else follows provides authentic purpose.

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Pitfalls to avoid

Instructions lack sufficient detail for someone to actually follow them

Steps are not in logical order

Pupils write in narrative rather than instructional register

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Cross-curricular opportunities

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Reading and writing skills (KS1)

These disciplinary skills should be woven through teaching, not taught in isolation:

Structural and organisational analysis — Analyse how authors structure and organise texts at macro and micro levels — including genre conventions, narrative or argumentative architecture, paragraph organisation and sentence-level choices — and evaluate the effect of those structural decisions on the reader.

Noticing interesting words and phrases — Identify and discuss words and phrases that capture attention or create an effect, beginning to explain what makes them interesting, surprising or effective in the context of the text.

Prediction and hypothesis about texts — Form and evaluate hypotheses about a text's development, themes and intentions, revising those hypotheses in light of subsequent reading and explaining how earlier predictions were confirmed, complicated or subverted.

Critical summarising of extended texts — Summarise and distil ideas and arguments from substantial and challenging texts, exercising critical judgement about which information is central to the author's purpose and which is peripheral.

Word meaning from context — Understand the meaning of unfamiliar words encountered in simple texts by using the surrounding context, including pictures and sentence sense, to make a reasonable guess at what the word means.

Vocabulary in context — Give or explain the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, drawing on understanding of the surrounding passage, knowledge of similar words, and awareness of how context shapes word meaning.

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Vocabulary word mat

Prior knowledge (retrieval plan)

Pupils should already know the following from earlier units:

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Scaffolding and inclusion (Y1)

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Knowledge organiser

Key terms:

instruction

step

imperative

command

equipment

method

Core facts (expected standard):

Writing for different purposes: Writing for a range of purposes — narrative, recount, instruction, information, letter, poetry — using features appropriate to each text type.

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Graph context

Node type: EnglishUnit | Study ID: EU-EN-KS1-003 Concept IDs:

EN-KS1-C047: Writing for different purposes (primary)

EN-KS1-C044: Sentence composition

EN-KS1-C052: Sentence boundaries

EN-KS1-C054: Full stops

Cypher query:

``cypher

MATCH (ts:EnglishUnit {unit_id: 'EU-EN-KS1-003'})

-[:DELIVERS_VIA]->(c:Concept)

-[:HAS_DIFFICULTY_LEVEL]->(dl)

RETURN c.name, dl.label, dl.description

``

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Generated from the UK Curriculum Knowledge Graph — zero LLM generation.