Book talk in MI

29th April 2024Stacey McClare

Our entry ticket allowed us to think about the text we read on Friday with our partner. We shared what happened with the whole crew then based on our discussions ordered the events on our tables to recall these events. We then discussed the question, “Should Ali Baba have entered the cave?’ We explained our answers with our partner then the whole crew. There was some great discussion.

We then looked at the vocabulary that would appear in the text as we read, we made sure we were familiar with the language before we started to read. From here we started reading the next part of the text, we completed a chorus read, partner read and independent read. Mrs McClare really tried to model expression and fluency during the chorus read. Our reasons to read allowed us to demonstrate our understanding of the text and our exit allowed us to make predictions based on what the main character may do next! A great reading lesson MI.

Book Talk

28th April 2024Ruth Shields

In our book talk session, we have started looking at some of the elements that make us a fluent reading. Our focus for this lesson was ensuring we pause in the correct places. We discussed the importance of paying in the correct places which helps us with comprehension of the text. We used echo read which allowed us to see where we should pause. Each lesson we will focus on a different element of fluency which will support us as readers.

Book Talk and Demo Comp – The very dangerous dinosaur.

26th April 2024Laura Hamill

Crew Hamill have really enjoyed this week’s book – The very dangerous dinosaur. We have lots of dinosaur fans in our reading group and they loved discovering the mischief that the dangerous dinosaur got up to. We spent the beginning of the week predicting what we thought might happen in the story based on a few pictures from the text and a brief introduction to the story. This allowed us to make notices and wonders about the story, using evidence from what we had read and seen to support our learning. We then unpicked some of the more difficult vocabulary in the story, allowing us to improve our fluency when echo reading, reading in pairs and reading independently. Following this, during our book talk question lesson, we were able to use Fastest Finger and Have a Think skills to accurately find the answers to questions about the story. Finally, we worked in mini crews to focus on inference questions within a demo comprehension lesson. We developed our skills from last week in which we found the key information in the question to find the key information in the text. This information gave us clues that enabled us to come up with a sensible answer to the questions, using the clue to support our ideas. We will then be able to apply these skills to our independent learning during our independent comprehension.

New Reading Challenge! Who will earn a golden ticket?

18th April 2024Laura Hamill

“I’ve got a golden ticket!” – Who will be able to say these 5 magical words by the end of Summer Term?! Crew Hamill have been challenged again to read at home and this time, there will be FIVE winners! The first 5 to reach the golden tickets at the top of our challenge, by reading 30 times, will receive a special reward (that may or may not involve a chocolate baking treat). It’s been so lovely to see the engagement from the children already in this challenge! Lots of children’s names are moving up the oompa loompas and heading towards golden victory!

Book Talk and Demo Comp

18th April 2024Laura Hamill

Crew Hamill have enjoyed starting a new book in reading lessons this week – A celebration on Planet Zox. This book reintroduced us to some of our favourite characters from previous books we have read and then introduced us to some of their family. We loved being able to make links to our previous learning! We began by making predictions on what we thought the book might be about, thinking perhaps there was a birthday party due to the word “celebration” in the title. We then explored more of the complex vocabulary within the book, identify their definitions. Following this, we completed a book talk lesson in which we answered questions about the book, using Fastest Finger and Have a Think skills. For demo comp, we have moved away from retrieval as this was a huge focus for last half term and is something we are much stronger at now. We have begun to look at inference questions and learned all about identifying clues within the text in order to provide answers. We worked together to pull the questions apart and search through our books for the clues. Once we had identified these, we had a great discussion on what this information was able to tell us and how we could use it to provide a detailed answer. We can’t wait to use these skills tomorrow in our independent comprehension.

Book Talk

28th March 2024Laura Hamill

In Crew Hamill, we have shifted our focus from fiction to non-fiction and have started a new book called Vulture Culture. To begin the week, we made a list of things we noticed about the pictures that were within the book – the title page and front cover. We then used this information to make a prediction about what may be included within the book. We decided that because it was non-fiction, it would be full of facts and real life information about vultures. Once we had done this, we looked a little deeper and read the book introduction. This told us a little more about what to expect in the book and we chotted some ideas of what other information we would like to find out about vultures as we read the book. Following this, we looked at the main vocabulary within the book and identified the meaning of some of the tricker vocabulary we would come across. By doing all this, we were able to read the book fluently as we had already looked at the tricky vocabulary and knew how to say the words correctly. Finally, we have worked in pairs to complete Fastest Finger and Have a Think questions about the book.

Reading Challenge Winners

28th March 2024Laura Hamill

Now that we are at the end of another half term, it was time to reveal the winners of our reading challenge. Crew Hamill have worked really hard to move their polar bears across the ocean in order to get them to the safety of the ice berg. This half term, we had two winners:

  1. The person who read the most times at home – Luke Byram.
  2. The person who has shown the greatest improvement in their attitude to learning – Kyla Smith.

Both of our winners received a Herbie Hedgehog reward! Happy Easter 🙂