Introduce your class to a superhero adventure story written by a published children’s author!
This Year 2 writing unit from our Real Writing collection features an original narrative by Gabrielle Kent and follows a carefully mapped framework that supports two to three weeks of detailed lesson planning.
Guide pupils as they read Ultra-Kid and the Terrible Tornado and explore what makes superhero stories powerful, imaginative and full of action. The children will build the skills needed to write their own hero-based adventures, drawing on personal experiences or those of others.
This unit links clearly to Year 2 English Programme of Study objectives and offers cross-curricular opportunities through a topic on superheroes, personal identity or community figures who help others.
What this unit covers
- Past tense spelling: add the suffix -ed correctly to verbs ending in e, y and short vowels followed by a consonant
- Punctuation: use capital letters and full stops; introduce question marks and exclamation marks for effect
- Grammar: use the past progressive tense to show continuing actions
- Narrative writing: write adventure stories with clear structure, description and a problem-solution sequence
- Speaking and listening: retell the model story using maps, image cards and performance
- Editing: reread and proofread writing for sense, punctuation and spelling
Vocabulary
- Common exception words: because, after, fast, past, last, clothes, old, class, everybody, could, children
- Tier 2 vocabulary: distant, flight, power, shelter, speed, strength, tornado
- Tier 3 vocabulary: n/a
Included in this unit
- Model text PDFs in three versions
- Annotated and non-annotated PowerPoints
- Teacher notes with full teaching sequence
- Superhero adventure story poster
- Story map templates
- Retelling image cards
- Sequencing sentence cards
- Vocabulary cards and matching activity
- Design-a-superhero templates
- Writer’s checklist
- Activity sheets for spelling, punctuation, grammar and planning
Activities
- Talk about known superheroes; create masks and role-play characters
- Read and explore the model text, identifying features and character powers
- Build a story map together and practise oral retelling in groups
- Teach and rehearse suffix rules, punctuation skills and the past progressive tense
- Develop character descriptions using adjectives and similes
- Plan a fresh adventure using idea-gathering sheets and new vocabulary
- Write and improve a complete superhero story
Outcomes
By the end of the unit pupils:
- Write a complete superhero narrative with a clear sequence of events
- Use capital letters, full stops and some question and exclamation marks accurately
- Apply correct suffix -ed spelling rules
- Include expanded noun phrases for descriptive detail
- Use the past progressive tense where appropriate
- Edit writing to improve clarity, spelling, grammar and punctuation
- Read their finished work aloud confidently