Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief Year 7–8 Novel Study Teaching Unit

Bring mythology and adventure into your classroom with this engaging teaching pack for The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, the first book in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. Designed for Years 7–8 English, this unit helps students explore themes of identity, courage, friendship, and belonging while building strong comprehension and analytical skills.

As students follow Percy’s journey from an ordinary school life to the world of Greek gods and monsters, they examine character development, narrative voice, humour, and how modern storytelling draws on classical mythology. The novel provides rich opportunities for exploring mythological references, hero journeys, and the challenges of growing up.

A highlight of this resource is an interactive classroom Escape Room where students solve puzzles and clues connected to the story and characters. The activity encourages teamwork, problem-solving, and close engagement with the novel while making learning highly memorable.

What’s Included:
A structured sequence of ready-to-teach Year 7–8 lessons and activities
An interactive escape room based on events, characters, and clues from the novel
Character analysis tasks exploring Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and key figures
Theme exploration including identity, courage, friendship, and destiny
Activities exploring Greek mythology and its influence on the story
Language and narrative feature analysis (first-person narration, humour, symbolism, action)
Scaffolded analytical paragraph and writing support
Creative and reflective activities to deepen student engagement

You can:
Convert to PowerPoint: Upload the PDF to PowerPoint (File → Open) and it will automatically convert to slides.
Use in Google Slides: Upload the PDF to Google Drive, right-click, and open with Google Slides.
Use digitally or print: Upload the PDF to your LMS (Google Classroom, Canvas, etc.) or print it for handouts.
You could also use Canva to upload the PDF and convert and save as a PowerPoint.