The Great Kapok Tree Planning (Rainforest)

This two-week unit of English work, based on the book ‘The Great Kapok Tree’, works well alongside topics about rainforests, sustainability and Mayans. It can also be used as a standalone English unit. The resources are designed for Year 3 and Year 4.

The ten lessons in this unit use drama, discussion and creative activities to help pupils to engage imaginatively with the text. Pupils will become familiar with the structure of dilemma stories and then write and edit their own dilemma stories based on The Great Kapok Tree. There is also a grammar focus on using direct speech and plenty of activities designed to develop vocabulary.

The English objectives covered in this unit are:
- To retrieve information from non-fiction
- To design a ‘great tree’ setting
- To explore the structure of dilemma stories
- To punctuate direct speech correctly
- To use a range of speech verbs
- To use adverbs in dialogue (higher group)
- To identify persuasive devices
- To use a dictionary to find definitions
- To write a persuasive letter
- To prepare a group performance
- To plan a dilemma story
- To write my own dilemma story
- To edit and evaluate my writing
- To use a thesaurus

The PDF file contains 10 lesson plans and accompanying pupil resources.