Y5 Pack 9: ‘The Wrong Path’ (Narrative; Geography - mountains)

This Year 5 Real Writing unit uses an original journey narrative by published children’s author Jon Mayhew.
It follows a carefully mapped framework and provides two to three weeks of detailed planning matching Year 5 writing objectives.

Pupils are guided through vocabulary choices, character creation and setting description while linking learning to physical geography, including mountains, valleys and glaciers. The children then write their own past-tense journey narrative using dialogue to reveal character and advance action.

Curriculum links

English

• Make effective vocabulary choices using synonyms and antonyms
• Use dialogue to convey character and advance action
• Link ideas across paragraphs using adverbials of time
• Apply expanded noun phrases, accurate speech punctuation and fronted adverbials

Geography

• Describe and understand key aspects of physical geography: mountains, glaciers, valleys, peaks, plateaus and forests

Vocabulary

• Tier 2: dense, carved, admire, smother, pursed, weary, pillar, strewn
• Tier 3: mountain, glacier, summit, peak, plateau, valley, forest, mist, Trig Point, compass
• Common exception words: foreign

What's included

• Three versions of the model text (plain, illustrated, annotated)
• Annotated and non-annotated teaching slides
• Two fully resourced vocabulary lessons
• Two fully resourced dialogue lessons
• Teacher notes with a full teaching sequence
• Activity sheets for vocabulary, composition and planning
• Story margin planner
• Writing skills checklist
• Picture prompt cards for alternative landscapes

Key teaching activities

• Read and respond to the model text, identifying favourite words, phrases and features of journey stories
• Explore characters through questioning and writing short descriptions
• Investigate Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary and match words to definitions
• Create a geography vocabulary poster for display
• Answer comprehension questions focusing on inference and evidence
• Practise synonyms, antonyms and precise verb choices
• Revisit fronted adverbials and adverbials of time to link paragraphs
• Study the narrative structure and use the margin planner to map events
• Draft, edit and refine an independent journey narrative set in a new landscape

Outcomes

By the end of the unit pupils:

• Understand how authors build atmosphere and character through vocabulary choices
• Use dialogue confidently to show relationships and move the plot forward
• Apply paragraphing and adverbials of time to organise events
• Use geography-linked vocabulary accurately in context
• Produce a polished journey narrative that mirrors the structure of the model text while presenting an original setting and storyline