Panda’s Lonely Birthday

Year 3 · Junior fiction

Panda’s Lonely Birthday is a free, NAPLAN-aligned junior fiction 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.

Bao the baby panda sat in the middle of the bamboo forest. He had a tiny party hat on his head. Three colourful balloons floated gently beside him. They moved in the breeze. It was his birthday and no one had arrived at the party. Where was everyone? He had sent out invitations. He had decorated with bamboo leaves, and there was a big pile of tasty bamboo shoots to share. Had everyone forgotten? Maybe there was another reason.

The complication

  1. Bao hears a rustling in the bushes and wonders if someone is finally arriving, but it turns out to be a mischievous monkey who wants to steal his bamboo shoots.
  2. A sudden rainstorm begins, threatening to ruin Bao's decorations and party supplies.
  3. As Bao waits, he discovers that some of his friends are stuck in the nearby river because a fallen tree has blocked their path.

Sentence starters

  1. Finally, after what felt like hours of waiting, Bao heard a familiar sound coming from the trees.
  2. The bamboo forest sparkled with raindrops as dark clouds rolled in above.

…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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