James and the Giant Peach recount week 1

Week 1 Overview – James and the Giant Peach (Writing Unit)

This Week 1 package introduces pupils to James and the Giant Peach through a structured sequence of engaging reading and writing lessons. The week builds knowledge of the characters, explores diary writing, and develops key grammar skills in preparation for high-quality narrative and recount outcomes.

Lesson 1 – Introducing the Characters
Pupils explore the main characters from the opening chapters, identifying key traits, visual clues and first impressions. Activities help children build a strong understanding of James, Aunt Sponge, Aunt Spiker and the mysterious creatures inside the peach.

Lesson 2 – Understanding a Diary Recount
The class examines a model diary entry from James’s perspective, focusing on the features of first-person recounts. Pupils identify voice, tense, feelings and structure to prepare them for their own writing later in the unit.

Lessons 3–7 – Past Progressive, Adjectives and Adverbs
During the rest of the week, pupils learn how to write effective past progressive sentences using was/were + verb-ing. They then build on this by choosing stronger verbs and adding rich adjectives and adverbs to create clear, detailed imagery. Each session includes modelling, guided practice and application tasks linked closely to events inside the peach.

Outcomes:
By the end of Week 1, pupils will have a secure understanding of the characters, a clear sense of James’s voice, and the grammatical tools needed to write vivid diary sentences using powerful verbs, descriptive adjectives and purposeful adverbs.

A strong foundation for a full writing sequence based on James and the Giant Peach.