A 3-week, fully resourced primary literacy unit based on Cloud Tea Monkeys by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham. KS2 Fiction. National-Curriculum-aligned grammar, WT/ARE/GD differentiation, and ready to teach.

What’s inside (35 files)

This complete English unit gives you everything for three weeks of high-quality teaching, designed to match the standard of leading primary schemes.

• 15 lesson PowerPoints — illustrated cover slides, success criteria, vocabulary previews, modelled writing, “big questions” (Bloom’s-laddered), differentiation tiers, plenary, and reflection.
• 15 differentiated resource sheets — Working Towards, Age-Related Expectations, and Greater Depth, with sentence frames, word banks, and writing frames.
• Complete teacher unit plan — unit overview, key themes, model texts (WT/ARE/GD), full session-by-session plans, key questions, assessment focus, and vocabulary focus.
• Child-friendly marking rubric — “I can…” success criteria for the final writing piece, ready for self- and peer-assessment.
• 3 weekly exit tickets — 5 multiple-choice questions per week, with teacher answer keys.

Final writing outcome

A formal letter from Tashi to the Overseer of the tea plantation, persuading him to treat the workers and the monkeys with kindness. Pupils combine descriptive narrative passages of the tea-picking monkeys at dawn on the mountain with the conventions of a formal persuasive letter, using conjunctions of time, adverbs of cause and direct speech to bring the Overseer’s cruelty and the monkeys’ kindness sharply into focus.

Grammar features (Year 3 NC-aligned)

• Conjunctions of time (before, after, when) and adverbs to describe a setting.
• Subheadings to organise non-fiction writing, with adverbs of cause (consequently, therefore) for persuasive effect.

Themes explored

Poverty and hard work, Magic and the natural world, Family, love and sacrifice.

Key vocabulary

Plantation, overseer, shimmering, treacherous, delicate, consequently, therefore, remarkable.

Format & compatibility

• Editable PowerPoint (.pptx) and Word (.docx) files.
• UK English spelling.
• One printer-friendly A4 page per resource sheet.
• Compatible with Literacy Tree, Write Stuff, and Power of Reading planning approaches.

Year groups & key stage

• Year 3 (KS2).
• 15 sessions over 3 weeks (≈45–60 minutes per lesson).

Tags

KS2, Year 3, English, fiction, Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham, reading and writing, complete unit, differentiated, NC-aligned, lesson plans, resources, cloud tea monkeys