Overview and Outcomes:

This is a 12-session Literary Leaf for When the Stars Come Out by Nicola Edwards and covers all aspects of the Upper Key Stage 2 content domains.  Practising skills of retrieval, inference, sequencing and summarising, children will delve into all aspects of the night, discovering what truly happens 'up there' and around the world when the stars come out.  The book also provides opportunities to discover how authors and illustrators collaborate to present information in visually-striking and memorable ways, using layout to guide and aid readers in understanding new information.

Synopsis of Text:

We chose When the Stars Come Out as a Literary Leaf as it complements texts under the theme 'Fairytale Endings' on the Literary Curriculum.  This beautifully illustrated non-fiction text delves into the magical realm that is our universe at night, and allows us to discover what makes it so extraordinary...from moonbows to shooting stars and from the polar night to the northern lights. The text and illustrations enable us to experience how different habitats - from the city to the ocean - come alive when the sun sets. Along the way, we meet animals that make their own elaborate beds and others that sleep while swimming or flying, and explore the history of human sleep across the globe through diving into a world of dreams...

Links to Curriculum areas, other Literary Leaves and Planning Sequences

This text would complement any of the texts under the theme 'Fairytale Endings' on the Literary Curriculum.

Night-time, stars, sleep, dreams, fairytales, ghouls, monsters, creatures, celebrations, nocturnal animals, adaptation