Year 4 English Unit Plan Jumanji

This is a comprehensive and engaging 4-week Medium Term Plan (MTP) for Year 4 English, centered around the classic picture book, ‘Jumanji’ by Chris van Allsburg. This unit is designed to build key reading and writing skills, culminating in two distinct and exciting final outcomes: a Contemporary Narrative and a set of Instructions.

Key Benefits for Purchase

Dual Genre Focus: The unit provides detailed analysis, planning, and success criteria for two different writing genres: a Narrative to create tension/picture a scene and Instructions on how to do or make something.

Deep Text Immersion: Activities include role-play , freeze-frames/thought tracking , visualising characters and settings based on text descriptions , and comparing the book to the film clips.

Clear Writing Outcomes: Pupils will Create their own magical game and write instructions for how to play and Create their own tense scene from Jumanji in the first person, incorporating their own fears (e.g., snakes).

Robust Grammar Coverage: Explicitly covers essential Year 4 grammar objectives including writing simple sentences , identifying and writing different sentence types (Statements, Questions, Exclamations) , and using both co-ordinating and subordinating conjunctions and clauses to extend sentences.

Analysis of Examples: Includes structured writing analysis of a ‘Jumanji Tension’ scene to identify techniques like specific verbs, speech, and ellipsis , and analysis of real game instructions to understand clarity, command sentences, and informal style.

Assessment Tools: Features detailed Suggested Marking Ladders for both the Narrative and Instructions to facilitate clear assessment and target setting.

Learning Objectives Summary

Reading: Develop reading stamina , use background knowledge to link to personal experience , and use text evidence to justify visual interpretations.

Writing: Organise paragraphs around a theme , compose and rehearse sentences orally , and create settings and characters in narratives.

Spoken Language: Use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining, and exploring ideas.

This MTP provides all the structure, activities, and resources needed for a memorable and high-impact unit of work.