The Firework Maker's Daughter - Big Lesson Bundle!

This engaging and comprehensive eight-lesson reading unit explores the whole of Philip Pullman’s The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, developing children’s vocabulary, comprehension and written responses as they follow Lila’s journey to become a firework-maker.

Each lesson includes an illustrated slideshow with structured activities, model responses and teaching guidance. Retrieval and inference run throughout the unit, alongside focused work on descriptive language, humour, characters’ emotions, prediction, summarising and themes. Children apply their understanding through varied tasks, including descriptive writing, hot seating, storyboarding and creating a continuation of the novel.

The following lessons are included:

1. The Story Beginning - exploring Lila’s ambition and Lalchand’s expectations;
2. Escape - analysing descriptive language and its effects;
3. The Restaurant - explaining how Pullman creates humour;
4. The Mountain - creating descriptive passages inspired by Lila’s challenging journey;
5. Razvani - understanding characters’ emotions through a structured hot-seating task;
6. Judgement - making and justifying predictions using evidence;
7. The Contest - summarising and sequencing key events;
8. Post-Reading - explaining themes through PEE paragraphs and beginning a new chapter.

The bundle includes vocabulary activities, retrieval questions with answers, discussion prompts, editable worksheets where appropriate, sentence starters, additional challenges and learning reviews. Answers, suggested responses and teaching ideas support delivery throughout.

Ideal for whole-class or guided reading in Years 3 and 4, with opportunities for collaborative discussion, drama and independent writing.