These Cleopatra KS2 lessons explore the fascinating life of this famous Egyptian pharaoh through the genres of biography and newspaper reports.

In the first four lessons, your class will explore biography text features before writing a biography on the life of Cleopatra VII and her rule as the last Ptolemaic Pharaoh before the Ancient Egyptian era ended. In the final two lessons, your class are guided to write a newspaper report on the death of Cleopatra. They will be encouraged to organise their writing into clear paragraphs as well as using a variety of sentence openers to keep their writing clear and interesting to read.

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Features of a Biography

This Features of a Biography KS2 lesson plan comes with everything you need to help your Year 3 class explore examples of biographies in order to find common features of this genre.

Your class will have the opportunity to think about why a biography might be written and who would read this genre of writing, before having a go at writing a biography of Howard Carter or a partner. The children will need to think carefully about the information one needs in order to write a successful biography.

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Organising Paragraphs

This Paragraphs KS2 lesson will explore how they are used in a nonfiction context to group together information around a topic or theme.

The lesson links the use of paragraphs with subheadings and how they can summarise the information of each section of their biographies. The children have the opportunity to practise organising information about Tutankhamun into paragraphs and choose subheadings which would suit a biographical piece of writing.

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Cleopatra Facts

Introduce your class to the last Egyptian Pharaoh using this Cleopatra KS2 lesson plan and accompanying slides and resources.

Your class will find out who she was, and why she has become so famous as an Egyptian ruler, as they are challenged to sort facts about her life in preparation for writing a biography on this influential leader. Use the included teaching input slides to discuss her achievements and relationships as well as discussing how her life may have affected the Egyptian people. Learn about her relationships and alliances with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony and how they helped her become a powerful leader.

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Writing Cleopatra's Biography

Bring your class's learning together in this final lesson in which they are expected to write a biography about Cleopatra VII.

Your class will need to incorporate the facts they have learnt about the famous Egyptian Pharaoh as well as the features of a biography which they studied in lesson one of this scheme. Using the supporting resources included in this Cleopatra biography lesson pack, the children can create a successful piece of non-fiction writing using paragraphs and subheadings.

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Death of Cleopatra

Turn your Year 3 class into investigative reporters as they try to gather as much information on Pharaoh Cleopatra's death as they can before they attempt to write a report on the incident.

Using the teaching input slides, you can inspire discussion about the lead-up to and consequences of Cleopatra's death, before the children begin to organise what they have found out into relevant paragraphs. The supporting printable resources which come in this Newspaper Reports KS2 Planning Pack offer relevant fact cards which the children can use to organise their plan for the newspaper report they will be writing in the following lesson.

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Writing a News Report

Using the information gathered in the previous lesson, your class of Ancient Egyptian reporters are challenged to write a news report on the death of Cleopatra.

Provided in the printable resources, the model text offers your KS2 class the chance to investigate an example of a newspaper report to identify key features. The teaching input slides offer the opportunity for the children to discuss the features, focusing on the varied sentence openers and how they affect how the article is read.

View Lesson 6