Guided Reading in Term 6

In Term 6, we will be reading 'Song of the Dolphin Boy' by Elizabeth Laird, which has close links to our topic Blue Abyss.

Finn has always been different, and in the tiny fishing village of Stromhead he sticks out like a sore thumb. Always told to keep away from the water, he's felt that something was missing until one day he dives in and finds that, swimming with the dolphins, he feels completely at home.

But his new friends are in danger of being injured by the rubbish that floats out into the water - and now a supermarket is going to release thousands of balloons that could drift out to sea and cause even more damage. Desperate to help the dolphins, Finn goes to the Lighthouse Crew, a group of kids who have always left Finn out. Will they be able to set aside their differences to save the dolphins? And what will Finn discover about his past along the way?

This is a moving adventure about the impact of plastic pollution on our seas, and the campaigning power of friendship from the award-winning Elizabeth Laird, illustrated by Peter Bailey.

We will be using our VIPERS skills to explore the text and learn more about the characters in the book. Click on the images below to enlarge them.

Writing in Term 5

For the first two weeks in term 6, we will be making use of a book about David Attenborough from the 'Little People, BIG DREAMS' series, to help us write a biography about this famous conservationist.

We will then be moving on to write a discussion text, exploring a very topical question in today's world: Is plastic fantastic?

Finally, we aim to write a diary entry and a character description, with the help of the book 'Flotsam', a children's wordless picture book written and illustrated by David Wiesner.

Reading at River in KS2 for Parents

• Parents Reading at River KS2.docx

We will also be using our VIPERS skills to help us understand the text and will explore the language and techniques used by the author. 

The document above gives lots of different questions you can ask your children at home when they read with you, this is very important for developing their comprehension skills as well as their word reading skills.

It is really important for children to regularly read their home reading book, returning it to school on the appointed days, so that they can enjoy some of our new school reading books and read a wide genres of texts. 

Reading lots at home also has a really positive impact on the children's writing as hey absorb vocabulary and learn different writing techniques from other authors.  

We encourage the children to read a wide variety of texts both through their reading material at home; visiting local libraries with families or accessing their online resources as well as reading books that are sent home from school.

Use the VIPERS questions at home to help you understand the texts you are reading.

Vocabulary - questions that focus on the meaning of words and understanding why the author has used certain words or phrases.

Infer - questions that focus on using clues from the text to understand character thoughts/feelings/actions and being able to show this evidence.

Predict - questions that focus on understanding what happens next and what role the characters will play in the story. Use evidence from the text to prove your predictions.

Explain - questions that focus on giving a detailed explanation e.g. explaining similarities and differences between events/characters or explaining your opinion about topics.

Retrieve - questions where you can 'grab' the answer from the text.

Summarise - questions that focus ask you to 'sum up' what has happened or putting events in order.

 As well as books from school, you can access some great books in your current book band level at the Oxford Owls Website

Reading activities and games