You Will Need
Texts
Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers
Fiction
English Year 2 Summer Fantasy
Quest Stories
Explore quest stories through Lost and Found and The Way Back Home, by Oliver Jeffers. Study sentence types and experiment with tense. Write and perform your own quest stories.
Start with the core unit to introduce key texts. Then select from comprehension, SPAG and composition units.
Unit 1 Core: Introduction to the features of quest stories
(suggested as 4 days)
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Introduce quest stories as stories about a journey with a goal, which requires the characters to overcome obstacles. Share and discuss Lost and Found, exploring key events from the beginning, middle and end of the story.
Activity
Children discuss and order Story Sequence Cards. They read them through to check the order and note how one card relates and influences the events on the next card.
Day 2 Teaching
Recap Lost and Found. Discuss what children think the quest is in this story. Reread and discuss pages 3-9, then pages 19-22 and discuss the quest and the misunderstanding. Ask children how they think the characters are feeling and what these thoughts prompt them to do.
Activity
Using their story map from Day 1, children discuss how the characters are feeling and what they are thinking for each event. They pick up to 4 key scenes and create a freeze frame that shows how the characters are feeling. They fill in Thought Bubbles to show characters' thoughts.
Day 3 Teaching
Recap Lost and Found, and highlight that quest stories contain an array of obstacles. Discuss how each obstacle and its solution moves the plot on. Explore tension and note where tension is created in the story map. Can children give each moment a tension rating?
Activity
Children add to their story map from Days 1 & 2. They use sticky notes to add obstacles and solutions, and transport type. They cut out an appropriate setting image then draw in the tension ratings using the agreed symbols.
Day 4 Teaching
Remind children that quest stories include a journey. Reread the journey in Lost and Found. Note the illustrations, descriptive language and past tense verb forms. Discuss possible alternative journeys to cheer the penguin up. Where might they go? How would they get there? What would they see on the way?
Activity
Give children a starter sentence and get them to describe one of the journeys discussed. They describe: how they travelled; at least 3 things they saw on the way; and end with arriving at the destination. Children check their use of tense is correct by rereading their writing aloud.
Unit 2 SPAG: Present and past progressive verb forms
(suggested as 3 days)
You Will Need
Texts
Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers
SPAG PDF: Hamilton Progressive Verb Forms - Present and Past (see resources)
This enables teachers to ensure that children are taught to identify present and past progressive verb forms.
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Look at illustrations in Lost and Found. Briefly revise verbs and simple past and present verb forms. Introduce/revise past and present progressive form. Write sample sentences and underline the verbs, noting the helping verb (is/was) and that the main verb ends in -ing.
Activity
Give children the Sentence to Sort. They underline the verbs in each sentence which determines the tense, and then cut them out and sort them into two groups according to the tense. Children stick down the sentences into columns on a given template.
Day 2 Teaching
Recap on the past progressive verb form, using the Grammar Poster. Explore the illustration from Lost and Found which shows the boy and penguin moving round the iceberg at the same time. Children discuss what was going wrong at this part of the story. Children frame their sentences using past progressive form.
Activity
Children use the Progressive Verb Form prompt sheet and Images (see resources) to build sentences orally to accompany the illustrations. They record sentences in the past progressive form about two things which were happening joined by ‘while’. e.g. The boy was telling stories while the penguin was watching the waves.
Day 3 Teaching
Look back at Lost and Found and discuss how the penguin could have delayed the boy’s preparations to journey to the South Pole. Children discuss and act out what penguin might have done. Discuss and record ideas using past progressive verb form.
Activity
Children write an imagined scene where the penguin was sabotaging the journey. They use the past progressive verb form.
Unit 3 Comprehension: Explore plot, settings and language features
(suggested as 4 days)
You Will Need
Texts
Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers
Group Readers
The Quest
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Children recap what quest stories entail. Read opening of The Quest. Discuss and model use of phonic skills to decode words, using examples. Reread opening and identify and record some interesting words and phrases, and some synonyms for 'said'.
Activity
Children read aloud the rest of The Quest, in small groups. They use phonic knowledge to decode. Children continue to collect synonyms for ‘said’ and any interesting language they spot.
Day 2 Teaching
Briefly recap the beginning of The Quest and read pages 9-14. Look at sample comprehension questions and challenge children to work with partners to think of answers. Model checking the text and answering in the way that you want the children to do.
Activity
Children answer questions about the story through discussion with a partner, using evidence from the text where appropriate. Encourage children to refer back to the text to find and check their answers.
Day 3 Teaching
Read pages 15-20 of The Quest. Ask children to describe the mountain setting. Note that quest story settings are important as they often provide obstacles and make the stories exciting. Recap Lost and Found and use phrases to 'paint' the storm setting.
Activity
Children move from table to table in small groups adding to the ‘settings poster’ on each one. Encourage children to discuss and describe the setting before recording ideas on the large paper. They visit all tables, adding ideas to the posters.
Day 4 Teaching
Display a settings poster from Day 3. In pairs, children take turns to imagine that they have been transported to the place in the poster. They explore the setting, describing it to their partner. Use questions in the past progressive to promote sentences in this form.
Activity
Children imagine they are a setting finder for a big Hollywood movie director who is looking for a fantasy quest story setting. They visit a setting and describe it in detail in the form of a letter to the director.
Group Readers
The Quest
A simple fantasy narrative told in the form of a quest. It is ideal for children whose comprehension outruns their ability to decode as it draws on iconic characters such as superheroes which are culturally relevant to children and engage their attention.
You can purchase printed copies of this Group Reader from Hamilton Education.
Unit 4 SPAG: Sentence forms: statements, questions, exclamations, commands
(suggested as 4 days)
You Will Need
Texts
The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Introduce The Way Back Home and recap quest stories. Read and display the first few pages then pose questions and make predictions. Discuss the sentence types and punctuation for the questions and predictions (statements).
Activity
Children imagine they are news reporters and write three questions they want answered about the story, with a prediction for each. They punctuate correctly and then read their questions and predictions to a partner.
Day 2 Teaching
Recap the statements and questions from Day 1. Discuss the difference between a question and a statement. Record an exclamation and a command sentence, linked to one of the questions and predictions. Discuss and record the rules and examples of commands and exclamations.
Activity
Children sort sentences from The Way back Home into the 4 types. They use the rules and examples recorded in the main teaching to support them.
Day 3 Teaching
Display 4 sentences without punctuation (see resources). Children discuss, identify type and punctuate correctly. Recap where Martian is looking at his watch. If he could communicate with the boy, what do children think he would he say? Display letter from Martian and explain task.
Activity
Children read an unpunctuated letter opening from Martian to the boy. They identify the sentence types by underlining in 1 of 4 colours. They then add punctuation and finish the letter, punctuating correctly.
Day 4 Teaching
Dictate sentences which have been swapped around to create different types. Children write/spell carefully and use correct punctuation. Share answers and explain that children will compose a conversation between Martian and the boy that incorporates each type of sentence. Model task.
Activity
In pairs, children discuss the last page of The Way Back Home. They come up with ideas for a first conversation over the radio that includes one of each sentence type. Children record in speech bubbles, punctuating correctly.
Unit 5 Composition: Write a quest story
(suggested as 4 days)
You Will Need
Texts
The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers
Planning and Activities
Day 1 Teaching
Recap quest features. Today children will plan their own quest story using a story map. Children use the boy from Lost and Found as their main character, deciding where his journey will lead, what obstacles he will meet and what his goal will be.
Activity
Children decide on goal, destination and obstacles. They plan their story in the form of a story map, increasing the size of obstacles to a climax before characters reach the goal.
Day 2 Teaching
Agree criteria for story opening: introduce characters and setting. Look back at Lost and Found and note how it uses a question to draw the reader in. Children think of questions to intrigue their readers. Briefly recap other forms of sentence and model writing.
Activity
Children think about the question that their quest is going to answer to incorporate into their opening. Encourage the use of all four sentence types, reminding children of the associated punctuation. Children write opening then reread to check that it meets the agreed criteria.
Day 3 Teaching
Agree criteria for the middle section of the story: a series of increasing obstacles, which must be overcome. Model writing an obstacle, making mistakes with tense. Can children spot the error and correct it? Recap use of the past progressive form.
Activity
Children write the middle part of their story. They write in the past and use some past progressive form. Remind children to use different types of sentences in their writing and the correct associated punctuation.
Day 4 Teaching
Think back to Lost and Found. How would children feel if the story stopped when the boy and penguin parted at the South Pole? Explain that stories are disappointing when they stop abruptly and are boring when they go on too long. Agree criteria for the ending.
Activity
Children write the ending of their story. They then reread their writing aloud, checking for sense and overall effect. Encourage children to edit to improve writing, referring to criteria agreed across the unit.