UKS2 Guided Reading Unit - 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (6 Lessons)

This guided reading unit focuses on the poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ by Clement Clarke Moore. Suitable for Year 5 and Year 6 students, the unit is designed to enhance reading skills while engaging pupils with a festive classic. It includes lesson plans, PowerPoints, and a variety of resources to support teaching throughout the Autumn 2 term.

What’s Included:
✔ 6 lesson plans (with learning objectives, success criteria, input, activities, plenary, key questions, and resource list)
✔ Accompanying PowerPoint presentation
✔ Thought bubble activity sheet
✔ Poem text
✔ Modern version of the poem

Lesson Overview / Structure:
★ Lesson 1 – Introduction to the poem and vocabulary building
★ Lesson 2 – Inference skills and identifying hidden meanings
★ Lesson 3 – Prediction activity and understanding story structure
★ Lesson 4 – Explanation of themes and key ideas in the poem
★ Lesson 5 – Retrieval of information and summarising key points
★ Lesson 6 – Review and deeper understanding of the poem’s impact

Why It’s Useful:
✔ Develops a range of reading skills including vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval, and summarising
✔ Flexible for use across multiple lessons with a clear structure
✔ Suitable for KS2 and aligned with the VIPERS framework for reading
✔ Includes differentiation opportunities for various learning needs

Suggested Use Cases:
Ideal for guided reading sessions in KS2 (Year 5 and Year 6), this unit supports a festive, engaging approach to teaching core reading skills.

Search Tags:
KS2 reading | Guided reading | 'Twas the Night Before Christmas | VIPERS | Year 5 reading | Year 6 reading | Poetry lesson | Autumn term reading