Cloud Tea Monkeys

This Year 4 English Planning Pack designed to help improve children's use of quality descriptive language, fronted adverbials and conjunctions is inspired by the beautiful book Cloud Tea Monkeys. It will transport your class to the tea plantations of India where they will meet Tashi and her mother, Aunt Sonam and the others, the nasty Overseer and of course, his Excellency the Royal Tea Taster himself!

The seven-lesson unit begins with your class gathered around a wicker basket containing the book 'Cloud Tea Monkeys' wrapped up in parcel paper and surrounded by objects associated with the story. Children make predictions and use short snippets of the text to start to give them clues about how this magical story begins. They identify facts and start to make inferences. Children then analyse the description of the setting at the start of the story, picking out expanded noun phrases and classifying them according to their senses. In the next lesson, children learn how to use fronted adverbials to describe the position of items in the village setting and write a detailed description in role as Tashi. In the third lesson, Tashi arrives at the tea plantation and the description of the Overseer from the book is used to introduce children to similes. They identify them in the text and then develop their own to retell this part of the story in role as Tashi. In the following lesson, children learn more about fronted adverbials (manner) and they apply their learning to improve base sentences from the story. Then, the Royal Tea Taster arrives at the plantation and children are recruited to be his apprentices! They taste a variety of teas and make descriptive notes on their aroma, appearance and flavour, using conjunctions to extend their sentences. In the final lesson, children find out what happens at the end of the story and write their own ending in role as Tashi.

So, take your class on a journey through this beautiful book set in a tea growing region of India and download this scheme packed with everything you need to develop your children's descriptive writing. Included in the pack are engaging slideshows for each lesson, detailed lesson plans with differentiated activities and all the printable resources needed. Want more India-themed lessons? Then download this Investigating India Geography scheme which will have your class mesmerised by the true essence of this fascinating country.

Please be aware that, for copyright purposes, we are unable to provide the full text for this scheme of work.

You may also like our Incredible India Topic Bundle – choose schemes from different subjects to create your own India-themed cross-curricular topic!

Identifying Effective Description

In this Identifying Effective Description Year 4 Lesson Pack, inspired by Cloud Tea Monkeys, children will firstly read short snippets of the start of the story. What do they think the book will be about? Can they name any of the characters? What do we already know about them? What predictions do children have?

Then, children will read the first part of the book and will be asked to visualise the setting described in their heads. They will identify descriptive sentences and phrases within the text and will classify them using the five senses. At the end of the lesson, children will be shown statements about the story so far. They will position themselves on an imaginary line to show how much they either agree or disagree with each one. Children will be asked to justify their reasoning.

Everything you need to teach this lesson is included in the pack. There is an engaging slideshow, a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities and all the other printable resources you will need.

View Lesson 1

Writing a Setting Description

In this Writing a Setting Description Year 4 Lesson Pack, inspired by Cloud Tea Monkeys, children will firstly develop expanded noun phrases to describe various items in the village setting at the start of the book.

Children will then analyse a model diary entry in role as Tashi and identify use of expanded noun phrases and fronted adverbials (position). They will use this as inspiration to write their own version, describing the village setting and journey to the tea plantation. At the end of the lesson, children will read each other's writing and evaluate it against the agreed success criteria.

This pack contains all you will need to teach this lesson and help your class write a detailed description of the story's village setting. There is an engaging slideshow, a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities and all the other printable resources you will need.

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Using Similes

In this Using Similes Year 4 Lesson Pack, inspired by Cloud Tea Monkeys, children will be introduced to the Overseer and will identify similes used within the text to describe him.

They will then read the next part of the story and will look for other effective similes used by the author. Throughout, they will learn to explain why particular similes were chosen by the author and will be encouraged to suggest their own alternatives. They will then, through writing in role as Tashi, use similes of their own to describe this part of the story. At the end of the lesson, your Year 4 class will return to the description in the book of the Overseer and will identify the metahor used. They will then see if they can develop their own metaphors to describe this character.

Everything you need to teach this lesson and develop your class's confidence in identifying and writing similes is included in the pack. There is an engaging slideshow, a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities and all the other printable resources you will need.

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Using Figurative Language

In this Using Figurative Language Year 4 Lesson Pack, inspired by Cloud Tea Monkeys, children will use drama techniques to explore the moment in the story where Tashi's mother becomes too ill to work.

Children will use the drama as inspiration to write a diary entry in role as Tashi. They will include a range of expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials and figurative language within their writing. At the end of the lesson, children evaluate their partner’s writing against the success criteria and are encouraged to use sentence starters displayed to feed back what their partner did well and what they could work on to improve further.

Everything you need to teach this lesson is included in the pack. There is an engaging slideshow, a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities and all the other printable resources you will need.

View Lesson 4

Improving Sentences

In this Improving Sentences Year 4 Lesson Pack, inspired by Cloud Tea Monkeys, children will begin by finding out what an adverbial of manner is. They will read the next part of the story and will pick out examples of these.

Using the engaging slideshow that comes as part of this pack, children will then look at how these adverbials can be put at the start of sentences to create fronted adverbials. They then apply their understanding to improve base sentences using fronted adverbials, expanded noun phrases and figurative language. At the end of the lesson, drama techniques will be used to explore how Tashi feels at the point in the story children have got to.

Everything you need to teach this lesson is included in the pack. There is an engaging slideshow, a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities and all the other printable resources you will need.

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Tea Tasting

In this Tea Tasting Year 4 Lesson Pack, inspired by Cloud Tea Monkeys, children will read a letter from the Royal Tea Taster himself and will be recruited as his apprentice tea tasters!

Using a bank of helpful words, children will taste a range of teas and describe their aromas, appearances and flavours. They will be taught how to use conjunctions to extend their sentences and to use similes to help describe the teas accurately.

Everything you need to help your Year 4 class become expert tea tasters is included in the pack! There is an engaging slideshow, a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities and all the other printable resources you will need.

View Lesson 6

Writing a Story Ending

In this Writing a Story Ending Year 4 Lesson Pack, children will find out how the story ends. They will read a model diary entry written by Tashi of this part of the story and will identify the key language features.

Children will then write their own version. They will be supported in including a range of fronted adverbials, expanded noun phrases, similes, metaphors and conjunctions. At the end of the lesson they will evaluate their writing and set targets for improvement. Included in the pack for this lesson is a Book Review Sheet as an alternative activity.

All you need to teach this lesson is included within the pack. There is an engaging slideshow, a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities and all the printable resources needed.

View Lesson 7