Year 5 English Unit Plan How to be a Space Explorer

This resource offers a comprehensive Year 5 English MTP (Medium Term Plan) based on the non-fiction text “How to be a Space Explorer: Out of this World” by Mark Brake. This 2-week plan is designed to help students write a Guide with the purpose of explaining how to explore space and making the reader think space is exciting and adventurous.

What’s Included?
The plan features a variety of suggested activities for reading and writing, with a strong focus on background knowledge and visualisation. Students will have the opportunity to:

Immerse Themselves in Space: Explore space through 3D videos, roleplay spacewalking, and write short pieces about the experience of being in space.

Analyze the Genre: Discuss what a guide is, act as a tour guide in the classroom, and analyze sections of the text to identify key features of a guide.

Develop Persuasive Writing: Practice developing persuasive phrasing using pictures of Greece and writing based on these visuals (a secondary, embedded activity).

Focus on Grammar: Master the use of command sentences, relative clauses, possessive apostrophes, and dashes/brackets.

The Final Outcome: Create their own persuasive leaflet about Greece (due to a structural overlap in the provided plan) or a Guide on exploring space.

The resource also includes a detailed suggested marking ladder, a list of suggested Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary (related to both space and Greece) , and additional reading texts such as Percy Jackson and National Geographic for Kids articles on Greece. This plan is an excellent tool for teachers who want to use engaging non-fiction to develop advanced writing and reading comprehension skills.