Home Learning: Space Explorers - Guided Reading Activity Comprehension Package

When Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon, it was perhaps the greatest scientific achievement in history.

July 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of this extraordinary voyage. Thousands of scientists, mathematicians, engineers and astronauts had a part to play in working together on the Apollo 11 mission - but space exploration goes much further than the Lunar landings.

In this space exploration comprehension package, your students will take part in FIVE reading activities, which will open up the world of space exploration to them:

*1) The Space Race: What was the space race, and why was it so important?

1. The First Man on the Moon: A celebration of the life and achievements of Neil Armstrong.

2. The Last Man on the Moon: A celebration of the life and achievements of Eugene Cernan

3. “Houston, We’ve got a problem”: Disasters in space, featuring the amazing survival story of Apollo 13.

4. Space Travel - next steps: Find out about plans to travel to Mars, passenger space travel, and how a 41-year old probe is still sending messages to scientists from 11 billion miles away!*

Students will use inference and deduction skills as well as fact retrieval, word meaning and summarising.

Questions and answers are provided, with an indication of how many marks are on offer at the end of each question. This is particularly helpful for children preparing for reading tests and exams, encouraging them to give fuller answers where required.

As with all of my reading exercises, I try to write content that is interesting and engaging - stories that may not be on the curriculum, but are important for children to know.