Gorilla | Year 1 English Unit | 15 Complete Lessons + Resources + Mark Scheme

A 3-week, fully resourced primary literacy unit based on Gorilla by Anthony Browne. KS1 Fiction. National-Curriculum-aligned grammar, WT/ARE/GD differentiation, and ready to teach.

What’s inside

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, full session-by-session plans, key questions, assessment focus, and vocabulary focus.
• Child-friendly mark scheme — “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 narrative about a wish that comes true — describing what happens and how it makes the character feel, using past tense verbs, adjectives, and question marks to show wondering.

Grammar features (Year 1 NC-aligned)

• Past tense regular and irregular verbs (e.g. walked, danced, went, felt, said).
• Adjectives to describe the gorilla and the settings (e.g. enormous, magical, lonely, dark, beautiful).

Themes explored

Loneliness and belonging, Dreams and wishes, Father-daughter relationships, The power of imagination.

Key vocabulary

Enormous, magical, lonely, wonderful, mysterious, dreamed, whispered, imagination.

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 1 (KS1).
• 15 sessions over 3 weeks (≈45–60 minutes per lesson).

Tags

KS1, Year 1, English, fiction, Anthony Browne, reading and writing, complete unit, differentiated, NC-aligned, lesson plans, resources, gorilla