Get your class excited about their rivers topic using books about rivers. 4 whole class reading comprehension lessons based on the chapters about the Nile and the Yangtze from ‘River Stories’ by Timothy Knapman. Whole class reading, paired reading, collecting/presenting information in a table, opportunity for children to create their own retrieval questions about a different river. Reading Skills foci: retrieval, feature’splore (exploring the features/organisation of a text) 32-page dyslexia-friendly PowerPoint, 6 x PDF downloadable activities. Extract not included. Recommended for age 7+ For those teaching rivers as a topic, River Stories is a a must read with your class. Each glorious river-length page brings five rivers from around the world to life by telling all the stories, histories, geography, myths and legends associated with each. It’s the perfect opportunity for classes to look at how a text’s structure contributes to meaning and gives the children lots of opportunities to practise retrieval. They can even enjoy making up their own retrieval question cards based on a river of their choice.

3 whole class reading comprehension lessons based on ‘The Selfish Giant’ by Oscar Wilde. Vocabulary, about the author, whole class reading, paired reading Reading Skills foci: visualise, clarify, fluency, summarise 34-page dyslexia-friendly PowerPoint, 2 x printable PDF activities. Extract included. Suitable for age 7+

3 whole class reading comprehension lessons based on chapter one and two of ‘The Wild Robot’ by Peter Brown. Vocabulary, about the author, whole class reading, paired reading Reading Skills foci: word’splore (exploring how word choices enhance meaning), infer, summarise 28-page dyslexia-friendly PowerPoint, 3 x printable PDF activities Extract included. Suitable for age 7+

Romans reading comprehension 3 whole class reading comprehension lessons based on ‘Escape from Pompeii’ by Christina Balit. Vocabulary, whole class reading, paired reading. Reading Skills foci: predict, infer, connect: explore books with a historical setting. 24-page dyslexia-friendly PowerPoint, 2 x printable PDF activities Extract not included. Suitable for age 7+

2 x reading comprehension lessons based on the introduction and chapter about the astronaut, Mae Jemison ‘Fantastically Great Women Scientists and their Stories’ by Kate Pankhurst. Years 3 – 5 Book recommended age 7+ 24-page dyslexia-friendly PowerPoint 2 lessons 2 x PDF activities retrieval Extract downloadable at lovereading4kids Lesson 1 Pre-teach vocabulary. Then find out more about women in science before matching the famous scientists with their ground-breaking discovery. If you have time, explore the timeline of women’s rights. Lesson 2 Firstly introduce key vocabulary, asking the children what they already know about the Civil Rights Movement or Segregation. Children then find out more about the life of Mae Jemison and respond to key questions. Finally, what do the children know about female scientists today who are changing the world? Lesson 3 Firstly, ask the children to recap what they have learnt previously about Mae Jemison and consider who else inspires them?

5 whole class reading comprehension lessons based on the prologue and chapter one of ‘The Nowhere Emporium’ by Ross MacKenzie. Vocabulary, whole class reading, paired reading, inference Reading Skills foci: retell key events through role play, summarise, exploring the effect of word choices, inferring about characters and settings. 37-page dyslexia-friendly PowerPoint, 3 x printable PDFs Extract not included. Suitable for ages 9+

3 x reading comprehension lessons based on the Prologue and Chapter One of I was a Rat! or The Scarlet Slippers by Philip Pullman. Book recommended age 9+ Great comprehension lessons from texts written by Philip Pullman 26-page dyslexia-friendly PowerPoint 2 x PDF activity Predict, Clarify, Infer, Connect Extract not included. Lesson 1 The first activity focusses on making predictions using ‘I see, I wonder, I think’. Then children are encouraged to make wider connections with other traditional tales they have experienced. Lesson 2 The first activity clarifies the meaning of words in context so the children gain confidence exploring the text on a deeper level. This lesson provides a great opportunity to develop vocabulary by discussing unfamiliar words within the context of the text. Lesson 3 Children begin by connecting the events in the story to their modern-day equivalents. Then children consider what evidence they can find to support a given statement. Finally, children discuss what they would have done if they were in a similar situation, building empathy for the characters.

4 whole class reading lessons based on the Prologues: Ben & Lottie from ‘Voyage of the Sparrowhawk’, by Natasha Farrant Vocabulary, whole class reading, paired reading Reading Skills foci: infer, visualise and predict 30-page dyslexia-friendly PowerPoint, 3 x printable PDFs Recommended for age 9+ Extract included

Whole Class Guided Reading Comprehension resources based on Survivors by David Long Story content may be best suited to an UKS2 class due to the extreme nature of each survival story. Resources for 4 Survivor’s stories: Juliane Koepcke Tami Oldham Aron Ralston Ernest Shackleton 55-page PowerPoint 25-page PDF document Pre-teach vocabulary Mixed comprehension questions Skills-focused activities Extract not included £3 on our website. Support us to make more resources by subscribing.

KS2 Assembly PowerPoint introducing this year’s Earth Day theme, ‘restore the planet’. PowerPoint supporting discussion on and teaching of: our amazing planet the problems our planet faces inspiring Earth heroes small actions we can take to make a difference This assembly introduces 3 good texts that can be used to explore the Earth and its protection, but it is not necessary to have these. You could introduce your own selected texts on the theme to encourage reading. Supporting whole class comprehension resources for ‘Protect the Planet’ by Jess French, ‘Natural World: A Visual Compendium of Wonders from Nature’ by AJ Wood and Mike Jolley and ‘Earth Heroes’ by Lily Dyu can be found on our TES shop page or our website. Our resource for ‘Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers’ by Daniel Thompson also inspires a poetry activity abut making a positive change for the benefit of the Earth.

Independent comprehension activity When you finish reading a chapter of your book, roll the die and try the activities you land on. Use what you have just read to help you. Suitable for all of KS2. Activities: Use bullet points to make a list of all of the key facts in the story so far. How many can you record in 1 minute? Come up with a newspaper headline that summarises an important event that has happened in the story so far. Rewrite a sentence from the text, which contains adverbs. Change the adverbs. How does this change the meaning? Draw and label something that is described in detail in the text, for example, a character, setting or even an object. Think of an adjective that best describes the main character’s feelings. List 2 pieces of evidence that support your idea. Predict Make 3 predictions about what could happen next. Put a star next to the idea you think is most likely to happen.

KS2 Poetry Performance Checklist or Scorecard

KS2 & KS3 - Book Review Proforma What did you think of the ending and why? What unanswered questions does the story leave you with? What life lessons did this book teach you? If you could change or improve one thing about the story what would it be? What was the most exciting moment in the story? More free resources when you sign up for free at myteachinghive.

A character profile proforma. Useful for KS2 reading comprehension. Space to make notes about: First impressions Picture Relationships Backstory Personality Questions Could enlarge to A3. More free resources on our website. myteachinghive Please leave a review if you like the resource. Support us in making more resources. :)