Reading

CURRICULUM FOCUS

We are learning to synthesise information while we read. 

VOCABULARY

Synthesising: using what we know already and combining it with new information to make a new idea/ understanding.

Topic: Exoskeletons

Prior knowledge (what I already know):

• About skeletons
• Made of bones
• Bones are hard

New information (what I learnt):

• Exoskeletons are on the outside of the body
• Used for protection
• Like a coat of armour
• Mainly insects or sea life have them

Synthesis (new understanding): 

• An exoskeleton is a hard shell on big or small creatures that have no bones. 
• Its purpose is to protect the creature from being harmed by bigger creatures.

ACTIVITIES YOU CAN DO AT HOME TO SUPPORT YOUR CHILD'S LEARNING

Set out a page with 3 columns. 

Find a non-fiction book or research about a topic you are interested in and in the first column, write things that you already know about that topic (this is your prior knowledge).

Then in the middle column write new information you have learnt as you read (this is new information). 

In the last column, combine what you have learnt and what you already knew together to create a new understanding about the topic (synthesising). 

There is an example of this in the vocab section.