Vlad and the Great Fire of London

This Vlad and the Great Fire of London planning pack for Year 2 children helps develop their reading comprehension skills as they enjoy the popular story written by Kate Cunningham. Please note, due to copyright restrictions we cannot provide a copy of the text with this scheme. You will need to obtain a copy separately.

Within the five lessons in this pack the children will practise their sequencing, retelling, inference, research and predicting skills. They will have the opportunity to use their previous knowledge and vocabulary around the Great Fire of London to inform their independent work and discussions. The lessons include a chance for the children to look at and use non-fiction books to research information on Samuel Pepys using the contents and/or the index pages.

Our Vlad and the Great Fire of London KS1 reading comprehension pack comes with all the lesson plans, PDF lesson slides, differentiated and alternative activity ideas as well as all the printable resources that you will need. Are you looking for more Great Fire of London resources? Take a look at our cross-curricular topic bundle!

You may also like our Great Fire of London Newspaper Reports and Great Fire of London Diary Entries English schemes to complement this pack.

 

Teaching the Great Fire of London in KS1?

Looking for topic facts, classroom activities and a free starter lesson?

👉 Explore our complete Great Fire of London KS1 guide

 

Retelling the Story

Learn and enjoy 'Vlad and the Great Fire of London' by Kate Cunningham together with your Year 2 class as they use time adverbials and actions to help them retell the story orally.

This lesson provides you with the time and resources to challenge your KS1 class to retell the story using child-friendly illustrations to prompt their retellings. The children can film themselves telling the story, which could be used to support their learning in the following lessons.

This single lesson download includes a detailed lesson plan, PDF lesson slides as well as all the accompanying printable resources you'll need to support your class as they retell this story.

View Lesson 1

Sequencing the Story

Test your class's sequencing skills in this second lesson as they order events from the story using the provided printable resources.

Discuss which events came first and think about which ones are within the beginning, middle or end of the story. The children will then be challenged to order illustrations and worded prompts for these events independently.

Download this single lesson plan pack which includes a detailed lesson plan, PDF slides, differentiated activity ideas and printable resources to support your class.

View Lesson 2

Inferring Information

Help your Year 2 class develop their inference skills as they distinguish what the text has explicitly told them and what they can infer about the characters from their actions.

The children will explore text and illustrations to investigate just how much information they can collect about the characters, without being told explicitly. They are then challenged to answer questions about the story and character, or alternatively, ask their own questions to show their understanding.

This single lesson pack comes with all the planning and resources you'll need, including detailed PDF lesson slides. Please note, we do not provide a copy of the text with this lesson. You will need to obtain a copy elsewhere.

View Lesson 3

Researching Information

This complete Vlad and the Great Fire of London KS1 lesson pack challenges your Year 2 class to use their researching skills to find information on the mysterious man burying cheese in the story.

The children will discuss and use the different organisational features such as contents pages and index pages to find information they want about Samuel Pepys.

This KS1 lesson pack contains a detailed lesson plan, PDF lesson slides and accompanying printable resources.

View Lesson 4

Predicting

In this final lesson your Year 2 class are challenged to use their understanding and knowledge of the the story to predict what might happen next to Boxton and Vlad.

The included lesson slides offer some information about what actually happened after the real fire was extinguished. The children can use this information as well as what they already know about the characters to predict what might happen next to them. The children are challenged to think about how likely a prediction is and why it will be more, or less, likely to happen.

This lesson pack comes with everything you need to teach a prediction lesson based around the story of 'Vlad and the Great Fire of London' by Kate Cunningham, including a detailed lesson plan, differentiated activity ideas, printable resources and PDF lesson slides.

View Lesson 5

Add Complete Series to Cart