This Year 4 reading comprehension unit is based on the original poem Teeth by children’s author Sue Hardy-Dawson.
It offers a rich opportunity to teach poetry while developing key reading skills and vocabulary. You can also use the poem as a model text (WAGOLL) to support children’s own creative writing.
Designed around the theme of remembrance, the unit invites children to explore memory, family and reflection through the poet’s affectionate recollection of her grandmother. It includes two fully resourced teaching sequences and a range of follow-up materials to support fluency, inference, vocabulary and personal response.
Various reading approaches
You can introduce the poem using various reading approaches such as model reading, choral reading or paired reading. The unit provides specific prompts for discussion and opportunities for drama and visualisation to deepen pupils’ understanding.
The annotated version of the text supports close reading and teacher-led questioning. Pupils can explore vocabulary in context, focusing on the words kind and mention. Each vocabulary session includes definitions, word class exploration, example sentences and sentence composition tasks.
The Big Questions resources and worksheets help pupils to make personal and thematic connections, while the revisiting activities develop retrieval, sequencing and opinion-based comprehension.
Pupils are encouraged to reflect on the poem’s emotional impact and relate it to their own experiences. A follow-up activity invites them to create their own poem inspired by a relative, using techniques from Teeth such as using colours in their descriptions and including direct speech.
You can teach this unit on its own or as part of our wider reading programme, Real Comprehension. This is a whole-school approach that uses thematic units across KS1 and KS2 to build confident, thoughtful readers.
This Year 4 resource pack includes:
- Original poem Teeth by Sue Hardy-Dawson (PDF and PowerPoint)
- Teacher-annotated version of the text
- Illustrated and plain text versions
- Vocabulary Focus PowerPoints: kind and mention
- Big Questions PowerPoints and worksheets
- Two teaching sequences with differentiated worksheets
- Activities for drama, visualisation and discussion
- Revisit the Text activities
- Images linked to the poem for activating prior knowledge
- Full teacher notes and guidance