Autumn Term (First Half) texts.

We are reading these books:

Stig of the Dump	The First Drawing	Stone Age Boy

Autumn Term (Second Half) texts.

We are reading these books:

Other exciting texts suitable for Year 3.

Cloud Busting by Malorie Blackman	Seen and Not Heard by Katie May Green

Even more exciting texts suitable for Year 3.

Aesop's fables.

Egyptian Cinderella
Many moons ago in the land of Egypt, there lived a young maiden called Rhodopis. She was born in Greece but was kidnapped by pirates, as a child, and sold as a slave. Although her owner was a kind old man, he spent most of his time sleeping under a tree. Due to this, he didn’t notice how the other servant girls taunted Rhodopis. Cruelly, they teased her because she looked different to them.
They had straight black hair while hers was a mass of golden girls. Most had brown eyes but hers were as green as emeralds. Because they were lazy, they made her do all the work. “Go to the river and wash the clothes!” they demanded. “Make the dinner!” they cried.

Poor Rhodopis was miserable and alone.

However, Rhodopis had one joy in life; she loved to dance. One evening, as she was dancing barefoot in the sand, the old man woke from his nap. Quietly, he watched and thought that she deserved a new pair of dancing shoes. Without wasting time, he ordered for a pair of poppy-red shoes with shimmering gold stitching to be made. Although she was thrilled, the other servant girls were jealous of
their master’s gift to Rhodopis.

Word arrived that the Pharaoh was having a ball in Cairo and all the kingdom were invited. Rhodopis, desparately wanted to go to dance, sing and eat delicious food.
However, the other girls left for the party without her. With tears in her eyes, she began the task of washing the dirty laundry in the river. Suddenly, a crocodile appeared and splashed her. Her beautiful new shoes were wet so she took them off to dry in the hot  sunshine. Without warning, a falcon swooped down, snatched one of her slippers in its talons and flew away. It was the god Horus.

Meanwhile, far away in Cairo, Pharoah Amosis sat on his throne at the ball feeling bored. Suddenly, Horus swooped down and dropped the slipper in his lap. Straight away, he realised it was a sign the god had sent. He had to find the owner of the slipper.

Amosis searched high and low for the maiden he was to marry. Early one morning, he sailed down the Nile and arrived at the village where Rhodopis lived. The servant girls, who had abandoned her, couldn’t squeeze it onto their large feet. The pharaoh, spotted Rhodopis hiding in the rushes and asked her to try on the slipper. Slowly, she slid her delicate foot inside. It fitted. Amosis had found his queen.

Writing our own comprehension questions.

Here are some of the comprehension questions we came up with about Katie May Green’s story entitled ‘Seen and Not Heard’. We used the question stems listed right at the bottom of this webpage. Aren’t we clever? 🙂

Review Of Our Class Reading.
We looked at some of the connections between all of the books we have been reading together in class this year. It’s amazing how they all link up. Can you think of any more connections?

Reading questions.

These are the sorts of questions we ask you in the Reading Skills lessons.

Can you make your own questions up for the book you are reading at home?

What do the words mean?

Which word in the text describes what xxx is like? 

What does the word xxx mean in this sentence? 

Find and copy one/two words which describe/means?  

In the sentence the word xxx is closest in meaning to (examples given) 

What does word/phrase mean? 

Retrieval Skills

What, Who, Where, When, Why?, How much/many? 

Using information from the text, decide if the following statements are true or false? 

Summarising

Number the sentences below from 1 to 4 to show the order they happen in the story 

What happened before or after something?......... 

What happens first in the story? 

Inference Skills

Find a word that shows that………………. 

How do you think someone is feeling/felt at a point in the story?   Why did he feel that way? 

Why did something happen? 

Why did someone do something? 

Why did someone think something? 

Why did someone describe something as ………………..? 

How do you know that xxx was …………….? 

How did xxx feel when …something happened? 

Using info from the text, tick one box in each row to show whether each statement is a fact or an opinion 

Why did…..something happen? Why did…someone do something? 

Predicting what might happen.

How do you think this story will develop? 

What do you think will happen next?  Why do you think that/What are the clues? 

How is the text presented?

How does the title encourage you to read on? 

In what ways do the illustrations support the text? 

Looking for meanings.

What does the word x tell you about y? 

What effect has the author created by writing a particular line this way?  The writer uses words like xxx. How does this make you feel? 

Comparing texts.

Which text is better and why? Describe different character’s reactions to the same event 

Why has information been organised differently in different parts of the text? 

What is similar/different about two characters?