Based on the book, 'Holes' by Louis Sachar, this Non-chronological Reports Year 5 Planning Pack guides your class through writing a report on a desert animal or the yellow-spotted lizard from the story. With a few SPAG lessons thrown into the mix, this unit of work provides you with everything you need to create reports, using bullet points as an organisational device as well as how to use hyphens to create compound adjectives, and glossaries to help inform the reader.

Each lesson in this Non-chronological Reports Year 5 Planning Pack comes with a detailed plan which outlines differentiated writing activities, with printable resources included. This, in addition to the slideshows for each lesson, means that you have all you'll need to teach an engaging set of lessons based around the book 'Holes' by Louis Sachar.

Check out our Holes: Persuasive Writing English scheme of work too...perfect to extend your class's engagement with this great book!

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

Compound Adjectives

In this initial lesson, use the example of the yellow-spotted lizard from the story to introduce the idea of using a hyphen to create a compound adjective.

The children will explore and discuss how the use of a hyphen to join two words, creating a compound adjective, can change the meaning of the description. They will look at several examples and visualise what is being described, and how it is being described.

Including all the printable resources you will need, this lesson is ready-to-teach with a detailed lesson plan, differentiated activities and lesson slides.

View Lesson 1

Organisational Features

In this lesson, your Year 5 class will focus on the organisational features of a non-chronological report, and how they can help the reader find the information they need quickly and easily.

Challenge your class to answer questions on the provided model texts about desert animals, and discuss what helped them find the information they needed. You can challenge them further by asking them which of the features they found most useful.

This lesson provides you with three differentiated activity ideas as well as an alternative activity for you to choose from. Complete with lesson slides, a detailed lesson plan and accompanying printable resources, this download gives you all you need to explore the organisational features of non-chronological reports.

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Researching

In this lesson, the children will begin to prepare for their non-chronological report writing by gathering information about their chosen animal. The included printable resources provide you with extracts from the text where the yellow-spotted lizard is mentioned, which the children can use to gather and infer information about this fictional animal.

Alternatively, allow the children to develop their own research skills as they choose and explore a different desert animal to write a non-chronological report on.

This lesson comes with a detailed plan, informative slides, differentiated activity ideas and accompanying printable resources.

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Bullet Points

This lesson helps to guide your class as they use bullet points as an organisational feature in their non-chronological report writing. The included lesson slides will discuss the correct way to punctuate bullet points so they can convey information concisely.

Children will create a set of bullet points that would be appropriate to use in their non-fiction writing about a chosen desert animal.

This lesson comes with a detailed plan, an enaging slideshow, differentiated activity ideas and accompanying printable resources.

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Glossaries

Have your class ever used a glossary in their writing before? What are they used for? Use the included lesson slides to discuss the uses of a glossary and what makes an effective definition of some of the technical vocabulary they will be using in their non-chronological report.

Challenge the children to create a glossary they could include in their non-chronological report about desert animals. Alternatively, they can finish a more generic desert animal glossary, practising their definition writing and dictionary skills.

View Lesson 5

Writing a Non-chronological Report

In this final lesson the children will draft their non-chronological report about the yellow-spotted lizard or a desert animal.

Using their learning in previous lessons, your class will write out their non-chronological report using a glossary and bullet points. This lesson provides you with several different writing frames which your class can use to present their work, or you may choose to have your class present their reports as a double-page spread.

View Lesson 6