Beetle Boy | Year 4 English Unit | 15 Complete Lessons + Resources

A 3-week, fully resourced primary literacy unit based on Beetle Boy by M.G. Leonard. 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 (Literacy Tree, Write Stuff, Power of Reading).

• 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 mystery narrative chapter set in a strange, beetle-filled location, in which the central character investigates a disappearance using clues from the world around them. Pupils will also produce a complementary factual report on rhinoceros beetles to demonstrate scientific writing.

Grammar features (Year 4 NC-aligned)

• Fronted adverbials of cause (e.g. As a result, Because of this, Owing to this).
• Pronouns used to avoid repetition of names (he/she/they/it; his/her/their/its).

Themes explored

Science and discovery, family and missing parents, loyalty and friendship.

Key vocabulary

Entomologist, specimen, iridescent, elytra, investigation, suspicious, magnify, abandoned.

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

Tags

KS2, Year 4, English, fiction, M.G. Leonard, reading and writing, complete unit, differentiated, NC-aligned, lesson plans, resources, beetle boy