Lesson plan: The Last Wild

Duration
1 hours (longer if
Theme
Nature
Subject focus
English
Age group
Upper KS2
Learning objective: To write descriptively, in the style of an author.
necessary)

Resources required
Created in partnership with Piers Torday, with thanks.
 Seat mats
 Outdoor clothing if
necessary
 A quiet area outdoors
 Suitable natural items to
use
 Paper for maps if using
 Bird mics/apps to use for
bird song if no birds
around!

Adult Support
 Teacher modelling at
beginning of writing task
 Adults to circulate and
offer support where
needed
 LA and children with
motor skills difficulties
may need scribing
 An adult could also work
with less able children to
create a group text.

Extension tasks
Can you write from the
point of view of one of the
pigeons?

If you could talk to insects

and animals, like Kester,
what would you say? Write
a conversation between
yourself and your favourite
animal!

Here are some of the names

the animals use in their own
language. What do you think
our words for these things?
-Watersnake
- Whiterforce
- Firestick
- Tall-homes
- The great wet
-Kombylarbester
-Culdee Sack
(Extra: now make up some
animal terms for words in
English!
Learning outcomes (differentiated)
 To explore the work of Piers Torday Keywords
 To use drama as a writing aid
 To plan a descriptive piece of writing, based on the book The Last Last Wild, stag, animals,
catastrophe, Kester,
Wild disappearance,
 To use descriptive language effectively description, similes,
adverbs, adjectival
 To begin to assess the effectiveness of their own writing, and that of
phrases, sentence
others structure, hot-seating,
red-eye, disease, nuclear,
MUST: Use descriptive language to describe a world without animals. varmints

SHOULD: Describe their scene in the first person, using similes, adverbs
and adjectival phrases to make their writing come alive.
COULD: Vary the length of their sentences for dramatic impact.
Some could also act as pupil teachers, to help others improve what
they have written.

Starter
Begin lesson with silhouette of Kester riding a stag on screen, taken from
- Class discussion about the image: what do you think it shows? What words would you use
to describe it?
- Quick drama starter activity, in pairs. Imagine you’re this boy… How do you feel? What has
happened to bring you to this point?

Main activity
Read from the beginning of chapter, up to phrase (or from beginning of book to p. 9)…
‘More like the only food company now, since the red-eye came and killed all the animals. Every last one,
apart from the varmints.’
Partner talk: what has happened? What do you think the red-eye is?
Bring back together and discuss. (Children may wish to relate discussion to the starter image- how
is the boy riding a stag, if all the animals are gone? If not, this will be discussed later)
Explain the situation, using the following quote which is from p.15-6:
‘The red-eye wasn’t a bomb though, it was a disease. A disease worse than a nuclear bomb, if you
ask me. ‘Like… animal flu,’ Dad said. A flu that turned animal bodies and brains to mush and, just
before they died, made their eyes burn bright red like they were on fire… (N)o one really knew
where it had come from. And before anyone could find out, the virus had spread everywhere. Not
just to the animals we ear, but to nearly every living creature- wild animals, pets, animals in zoos-
right around the world it went- till the jungles were full of bodies, birds fell out of the air and fish
floated in silvery slicks on top of the sea.
It killed all the animals in the world.’

As a class, suggest ideas and mindmap what a world with no animals would be like. (Could discuss
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effects, eg no pollinators= no flowering plants; no fresh fruits; etc).
Generate a class list of vocabulary, eg…
devastated; dismal; silent; grey; unnatural; eerie; abnormal; etc
(Display as learning resource for rest of lesson)
Explain to the class that the book is written in the first person from Kester’s point of view, but
they’re now going to be writing from their own point of view, imagining and describing they’ve

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stepped out into a world without animals, using the vocab and ideas they’ve just discussed.
Hotseat teacher in role- children to ask questions: eg What can you see? What can you hear?
Teacher can extend answers, using descriptive language to inspire pupils.
Children to orally rehearse in pairs. Imagine they have stepped out into a world with no animals,
and describe to partner what’s around them.
Choose strong individuals to repeat in front of class, and note down key language/phrases.

Model a paragraph to pupils, and pick out success criteria with children
-First person; descriptive and emotive language; similes; short sentences for dramatic impact;
adverbials; focus on senses, etc.
(NB- If the combination of first person and descriptive writing is too much for some less able
writers, then focus on descriptive phrases and sentences instead, as that is the key skill here. LA, or
less keen, writers could also work with an adult to create a group piece.)
Then, pupils to draft their own version! If completed, they could write up using the frame provided.

Mini plenary: share with a partner- give them 2 things you liked, and 1 to improve.

Plenary
 At the end of the lesson, take pupils outside. Ask them to close their eyes and listen to the
sounds of nature- what can they hear? Now, imagine that they lived in Kester’s world.
How would what we hear be different?
 Discuss elements of the way we live that could contribute to animals disappearing- global
warming, over-farming, deforestation, etc… Talk about living more sustainably in order to
avoid this!
 Now return to original cover image- if all of the animals are gone, how can there be a
stag?
 Read p.29-31 (pigeons): What do children think happens next?

Follow up activities

 Create silhouette artwork of stag and other animals

 Design your own version of Formula- what would you need to include to ensure that
people received all of their dietary essentials?
 The Bristol 2015 Nature activities about plants, pollinators and food webs
 Look at The Last Wild map: what do you think could be found in the different areas
marked?
 Write a persuasive advertisement encouraging parents to send their naughty or troubled
children to Spectrum Hall!
 Read The Last Wild trilogy as class books
 Research climate change, and other human actions/practices that are contributing to the
decline of animal species. Hold a class debate about some of these things!
Curriculum links
Writing composition
 Noting and developing initial ideas, drawing on reading and research where necessary
 In narratives, describing settings, characters and atmosphere
 In writing narratives, considering how authors have developed characters and settings
 Assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing
Spoken language
 Participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and
debates
 Consider and evaluate different viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions
of others
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Reading
 Pupils should be taught to maintain positive attitudes to reading and understanding of
what they read by:
- continuing to read and discuss an increasingly wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-
fiction and reference books or textbooks
- increasing their familiarity with a wide range of books, including myths, legends and
traditional stories, modern fiction

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