Cloud Busting

This scheme is based on the book 'Cloud Busting' by Malorie Blackman. Through verse, it tells the poignant story of a friendship between two boys which changes them both forever. These six ready-to-teach lessons will guide your class through this story, exploring both the language and layout of the poems whilst developing their skills of comprehension and emotional literacy. You might also want to take a look at our growing selection of Year 5 English schemes.

Throughout these six lessons, your class will become familiar with the main characters in the story. They will infer Sam and Davey's thoughts and feelings, and express this through poetry, diary entries, drama and discussion. Children will make predictions based on their knowledge and understanding of the story, and explore how different characters react to the same event. They will analyse both how and why Sam and Davey change throughout the book, and link this to the themes of bullying, friendship and conformity.

Each of the six lessons in this Cloud Busting KS2 English Pack comes with a detailed plan, a set of engaging slides for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and printable resources.

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.

Please note that in some versions of the book, the character of Davey has an allergy to cheese, instead of peanuts. These resources match the version where Davey has a peanut allergy.

 

Exploring Characters

This first lesson introduces your class to 'Cloud Busting' by Malorie Blackman. Children will define what 'verse' is and discuss their opinions of poetry before reading the first three chapters of the book together.

As a class, children will discuss what they know, and what they can infer, about the main characters based on their reading so far. In their independent activities, they will rewrite the 'fizzy feet' scene from Davey's point of view. In the alternative activity provided, children are challenged to gather appropriate words and phrases to write a haiku about Davey.

Included in this first Cloud Busting KS2 lesson pack is a detailed plan, an engaging slide show for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas, and printable resources.

View Lesson 1

Inferring Thoughts and Feelings

After sharing their initial perceptions of the main characters from the previous lesson, your class will read chapters 4-7 of 'Cloud Busting' by Malorie Blackman.

Children will explore and discuss how different styles of poetry have been used to show the reader how Davey was bullied. In their independent activities, children are tasked to infer Davey's feelings throughout these events, in the form of thought bubbles or diary entries. In the FSD? activity, children are challenged to create a shape poem to represent the thoughts and feelings inside Davey's head.

An easy-to-follow plan, a set of slides for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and printable resources are all included in this ready-to-teach Cloud Busting KS2 lesson pack.

View Lesson 2

Making Predictions

Once children have recapped and discussed how the revelation in chapter 8 in the last lesson has changed their perception of Sam, as a class they will read chapters 9-13 of 'Cloud Busting' by Malorie Blackman.

Children will discuss how Sam and Davey's friendship is developing, as well as the dilemma Sam faces. In their independent activities, children are challenged to predict what will happen next in the story, based on their knowledge and understanding of both the characters and the events so far. In the alternative activity, children discuss and order the likelihood of several different given scenarios.

This ready-to-teach Cloud Busting KS2 lesson pack comes with a detailed plan, an engaging set of slides, differentiated activity ideas and printable resources.

View Lesson 3

Characters' Reactions to an Event

At the start of this lesson, children will discuss the secret shared by Davey and the promise made by Sam at the end of the last chapter they read together, as well as their predictions for what might happen next.

As a class, they will then read chapters 14-19 of 'Cloud Busting' by Malorie Blackman, and discuss the given questions on the slides. In their independent activities, children will explore how different characters reacted to the peanut allergy incident by inferring their thoughts and feelings. In the alternative activity provided, children achieve this by creating freeze frames.

This Cloud Busting KS2 lesson pack includes an easy-to-follow plan, a set of slides for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and printable resources.

View Lesson 4

How and Why Characters Change

As a class, children will read chapters 20-26 of 'Cloud Busting' by Malorie Blackman, and then discuss the questions on the slides about the outcome of the boys' friendship.

In their independent activities, children will explore how and why the characters of Davey and Sam changed throughout the story. In the alternative activity, children are invited to take part in a whole-class discussion about conformity.

This penultimate Cloud Busting KS2 lesson pack comes with a detailed plan, a slideshow including comprehension questions, differentiated activity ideas and printable resources.

View Lesson 5

Identifying and Discussing Themes

In this final lesson, based on Malorie Blackman's book, 'Cloud Busting', children will focus on some of the main themes within the story: bullying, friendship and conformity.

As a class, you will discuss how these themes appear in the book, and talk about what message they think the author intends us to learn from them. Children further explore this in their independent activities, where they identify what they have personally learnt from these themes in the story. In the FSD? activity, they are challenged to write a letter to Malorie Blackman, writing about their opinion of the book and the themes within it.

An easy-to-follow plan, a set of thought-provoking slides, differentiated activity ideas and printable resources are all included in this Cloud Busting KS2 lesson pack.

View Lesson 6

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