Reading
Leon and the Place Between 
Being an avid believer in the wonder of magic, Leon desperately wants to now convince his siblings that magic exists. Whilst attending a magic show with his family, Leon volunteers to be in Abdul Kazam's magic show. He is magically transported to a mysterious and magical world called the Place Between. Grahame Baker-Smith's sumptuous illustrations only add to the magic. In addition, the fold-out pages and cut-out holes create the illusion for the reader that they are also part of this magical journey. Will Leon’s experiences finally convince his family to believe in the power of magic?
Text Focus:
- Focus on the core text for comparing and understanding themes
- Focus on the discussion text, letter and narrative for retrieval
- Focus on the core text for prediction and personal response
- Focus on the description and poems for inference
At the end of this unit, pupils will…
Know:
- A theme is a subject or idea that recurs throughout a text
- The difference between stated and suggested information
Be able to:
- Identify an appropriate theme for a text
- Use clues to interpret the intended meaning
Key Vocabulary
| Week 1 | Week 2 |
aside tumbled pantaloon reassurance research accurate dishonest premier seconder application headquarters startled speared tackle ultimate astonishment perfumed nestled | enchanted echo majestic mosaic intense deceive illuminated hoax hocus pocus destination departure rafters tiresome fake vanishing shuffled |
The Pebble in my Pocket: A History of Our Earth. By Meredith Hooper and Chris Coady
In Badger Class we are currently reading 'The Pebble in my Pocket: A History of Our Earth'. It is the story of a pebble that is found by a young girl and how it came to be in her hand at that very moment. We have journeyed back to over 400 million years ago and see how micro-organisms developed and evolved in the animals, including dinosaurs. We have seen how and why the dinosaurs are extinct, as well as the formation of rocks and how pebbles come to be smooth.
We are practising our retrieval skills and using key vocabulary in the question to support our scanning of the text. We have learning about synonyms (two words that have the same meaning) and antonyms (two words that have opposite meanings) and found them within texts.
We are always developing and building upon our wealth of vocabulary knowledge and learning new words all the time that we are able to use in context.
This weeks key vocabulary:
- exit
- extinct
- exhale
- adapt
- adjust
- homophone
- synonym
- antonym
- fossils
- ancestors
- humans
- connect
- theme
- unique