On Friday, Crew Hamill were able to spend a little bit of time in the library! We loved being able to choose a book to read for pleasure and sitting with our friends to enjoy them.
Library Time
Category : Reading
Role playing
In reading, we continued exploring The Lion and The Unicorn. In this lesson, we took on the role of Lenny and acted out when he ran away. They scampered through the raspberry brushes, weaved through the trees, went through a hole in the hedge and ran through the night.
Pyjama and Teddy Day in Crew McGlone!
We started our week by having a pyjama day! We also brought our favourite teddies into school with us and they spent the day finding out about what we get up to at school. We did a bear themed movement break and we really enjoyed lying down and snuggling our teddies whilst listening to ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’. We sat with our teddies at snack time and got a lovely surprise when we realised it wasn’t a fruit snack… it was a special chocolate biscuit! We had a lovely day!
Demo comprehension in MI
Our entry ticket allowed us to get into role as Lenny and write a short letter back home to either mum or dad. We wrote about all the things that had happened so far and this really allowed us to recap events from the story. We enjoyed reading our letters in mini crews and then to the whole crew. We even tried to read them in role. When reading the next part of the story, we used a chorus read, partner read and independent read. We discussed language as we read and thought about Lenny and Mick’s characters in more detail. We used the text during our demonstration comprehension, skimming and scanning for words to support our answers. We worked in mini crews to find evidence from the text, text marking then sharing with our partner. Our exit ticket allowed us to reflect on what we had read thinking about what Lenny and Mick may be saying to each other as they left the garden. We also thought about Lenny’s thoughts and how these had changed.
Are you cut out for space?
On Monday, Crew Hamill began focusing on a new text which was an extra from An Astronaut’s Handbook. Our extract focused on what an astronaut was and where they travel to – space. We started our session by watching a video of Richard Branson and his team travelling into space, allowing us to see what it would be like to launch into space in a rocket. We then travelled to the blue room to immerse ourselves into a similar situation – a confined, dark space with the lights of the milky way and stars. We then listened as Miss Hamill read through the text for the first time, pulling out different vocabulary words and ensuring we understood what we were reading. Following this, we went back to class and skimmed and scanned the text for words, phrases and sentences that we felt comfortable reading. We then re-read the text as a whole crew with everyone joining in when they reached a highlighted word, phrase or sentence. Finally, we text marked our extract, underlining and defining key vocabulary, starring the key information and drawing an exclamation mark when we thought there was an important fact.
Book talk in MI
Today we used the next two pictures from the story for our entry ticket. We thought about what was happening in the pictures, what time of day we thought it was and how we thought the characters were feeling. We used our inference skills well here to discuss different ideas. We then read the next part of the story with our partners. We discussed our initial ideas and how these linked to what we had read. We thought about the noises being described and explained what these meant. We then tried to act our part of the story, putting ourselves in Lenny’s shoes. From here we used the page we had just read to answer an APE question. We made sure we answered the question, then proved it by using evidence from the text. We then used an independent read and chorus read for the next part of the story, thinking about why rhetorical questions were used and the impressions we now get of Joyce, one of the characters. Our reasons to read allowed us to explore ideas in more detail thinking lots about feelings of characters. Our exit ticket allowed us to think more of Lenny’s feelings, our main character. We again used evidence from the text to support our ideas. A great reading lesson MI 🙂
We are readers
Our new text this half term is a non fiction book called Space Explorers, which included 25 extraordinary stories of space exploration.
In our book talk sessions we have learnt new vocabulary such as, ‘conflict’ ‘devoted’ ‘override’, ‘pacing’, ‘vast’, ‘mesmerised’ and ‘observation’. We ensure that we all know what the words mean and discuss how they had been used in the text by the author. Miss models reading the first couple of pages then we practise our fluency by taking it in turns to read paragraphs/whole pages each. We listen and observe carefully so that we can critique how well our partner had used the punctuation such as commas and full stops in the text. We then go through some reasons to read together which required us to use our skimming and scanning skills to allow us to retrieve information from the text. As a class we need to improve on explaining how we go about finding the answer to a question.
We take it in turns to read the different questions and unpick the vocabulary used to help us to understand what information was required such as, ‘How long…’ meaning that we needed to look for a time (minutes, years, months, years etc.). We use our skimming and scanning skills (with a little help from miss thinking aloud) to retrieve the answers from the text. Once we have located the information we check the amount of marks required and if 2/3 marks we explain our answers using the evidence that we had found to support our answer (A.P.E). Later on in the week in demonstration comprehension, we have unpicked questions and accuracy with answers. Miss can already see an improvement from our first Demonstration Comprehension lesson!
Demonstration Comprehension in Crew Elmer…
Today we began our lesson by critiquing the best answer for the given question, ‘Why had the engineers taken extra care when building the Vostok?’. We then looked through some ‘reasons to read’ together linked to a range of different HOB lenses such as ‘logical meaning making’ and ‘trawling for evidence’. We took it in turns to read the different questions and unpick the vocabulary used to help us to understand what information was required such as, ‘How long…’ meaning that we needed to look for a time (minutes, years, months, years etc.). We used our skimming and scanning skills (with a little help from our rulers and highlighters) to retrieve the answers from the text. Once we had located the information we explained our answers using the evidence that we had found to support our answer (A.P.E). Mrs Elmer then supported us with recording our answers. Mrs Elmer modelled the first one, we did the second one together and then in pairs we had a go at the final one! We then concluded the lesson by sharing our personal opinion on the story.
Book Talk continues in Crew Elmer…
To begin today’s session we recapped some of the new vocabulary that we identified in lesson 1 of Book Talk such as, ‘override’, ‘pacing’, ‘vast’, ‘mesmerised’ and ‘observation’. We ensured that we all knew what the words meant and discussed how they had been used in the text by the author. We then worked with our partners to read the text. We took it in turns to read sentences/paragraphs/whole pages each. We listened and observed carefully so that we could critique how well our partner had used the punctuation such as commas and full stops in the text. We then went through some reasons to read together which required us to use our skimming and scanning skills to allow us to retrieve information from the text. We were fab at this! We then completed a true or false quiz based on what we had read. We then completed the session by listing 3 facts, 2 opinions and 1 question. Another great Book Talk session Crew Elmer! Well done!
Wartime Organisation
This week we continued our history case study by starting to learn about the organisation of wartime. We learned there were 4 organisations that people belonged to which were: Armed Forces, the government, special operations and the home front. We discussed that regardless of which group people were part of that everyone played a vital role in the war effort. Children then took on the role of someone from the war and interviewed each other asking questions about when they weee born, where they were stationed and their role. This was an opportunity to practice our reading within our expedition lesson and support each other.
