5/6

Miss Brittany Ansons, Miss Holly McGowan, Ms Kristina Yanuli, Mrs Rowena Lytton,
Kate Warburton, Nicole Riley & Amanda Douvos.

READING!

Our reading focus is shifting towards enhancing comprehension skills across a variety of text types, helping students develop valuable strategies to understand and engage with different genres. Through engaging activities and guided practice, students have been strengthening their ability to make meaning from texts, whether they are fiction, non-fiction, or persuasive writing.

We have been studying the fiction text, War Horse, by Michael Morpurgo. The story recounts the experiences of Joey, a horse bought by the Army for service in World War I in France and the attempts of 15-year-old Albert, his previous owner, to bring him safely home.

Key Strategies in Focus:

🔹 Predicting: Before reading, students make predictions based on titles, illustrations, and other clues. This helps set a purpose for reading and keeps them engaged as they check and refine their predictions.

🔹 Questioning: While reading, students are encouraged to ask questions about characters, themes, or key ideas. This strategy fosters curiosity and encourages active engagement with the text.

🔹 Summarising the Main Idea: After reading, students practise identifying key points to capture the essence of a story or article. Recognising main ideas and supporting details helps them build strong comprehension skills.

To reinforce these strategies at home, encourage discussions about books or stories your child enjoys. Ask them what they think might happen next, what questions they have, or what they believe the main idea is. These conversations help build confident, thoughtful readers who can engage with a variety of texts.

HEAR WHAT THE STUDENTS THINK ABOUT WAR HORSE...

Reid - War Horse is a great story and it is interesting to learn about World War I and the horses that were used. I can really imagine what it must have been like during that time.

Luke - In World War I horses were used in the cavalry and to pull guns, ammunition and medical supplies. The amazing story of Joey and what he went through is an interesting way to learn about World War I history.

Hazim - War Horse shows how people and horses must have felt during the war. We have learned a lot about what people went through when in battle and when captured by the enemy.