Find out about the mysteries of Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster. Discover the heartbreak of the tsunami and the sinking of the Titanic. Revisit the shooting of JFK and Apollo 13. Marvel at the miraculous escape of the miners in Chile. Find out why we have Christmas trees. Learn about soldiers stories from World War One…and much much more! This collection of reading activities are a selection of some of my favourites. I have put them together as a bigger collection to allow teachers to plan a whole year’s worth of reading comprehensions for their children. Each activity contains a range of challenging questions which test inference, deduction and retrieval skills – ideal preparation for reading assessments. Children are also given an indication of marks on offer for each question, and teachers are provided with answers. As with all of my reading activities, I try to make the subject matter informative as well as engaging. Children get the chance to find out about a whole range of interesting stories and topics that may not be covered in the curriculum. CONTENTS: 2 - 10 Stories of Survival 11 - 22 Mysteries of the World 23 - 30 Soldier’s Stories – World War One 31 - 36 The Queen and the Royal Family 37 – 42 Christmas 43 – 50 Days that made the world stop 51 – 74 Answers I have received excellent feedback, for which I am very grateful. This should give you confidence in the products I offer. Hope you enjoy these!

Explore the world in just eight days with this comprehension reading compilation. Children will be fascinated to discover exciting facts about the following countries: China India Italy Russia Brazil Australia Egypt South Africa Each activity comes with 2 levels of questions to suit all learners: A red border for simpler questions A green border for more advanced questions An extension activity is provided with each activity, and each activity should take about an hour in total. You can use these as a comprehension exercise, a guided reading activity, a geography lesson or as part of a literacy project. Children can complete as homework, and develop their general knowledge about the world around them. Enjoy your travels! NOW WITH BONUS QUIZ ON KAHOOT! IDEAL FOR END OF UNIT. https://create.kahoot.it/#jumble/24391ecb-8e85-4ae3-9ddb-801ce9c79c93

These comprehensions are taken from real newspaper reports of major news events that made the world stop in its tracks. These are important stories for your children to understand, as they play a significant part in recent world history. The comprehensions focus on: The sinking of the Titanic 9/11 The Asian tsunami and The assassination of JFK There are a variety of questions styles, testing skills in retrieval, inference and deduction. Answers are provided, and children are given an indication of marks on offer so this is good preparation for reading tests and assessments. As with all of my work, I try to make the subject matter interesting and exciting for the children to engage with. As these stories may be familiar, I have made some of the questions particularly challenging, focussing on the parts of the story that your cohort won’t know about.

Children have been captivated by the animals of Africa for decades. In this reading package, you can find out all about the ‘big five’ animals to spot; their habitats and behaviour; and how we can help to save them from extinction. There are eight reading activities, aimed at 8, 9, 10 and 11 year olds, testing children’s reading skills right across the curriculum. As with all of my reading comprehension projects, my aim is to create stimulating text that will actually get children into reading. I started writing my own material in 2014 after feeling bored by a lot of the comprehensions on offer. Using this approach, I have introduced my students to many stories and topics that may not be on the curriculum, but are important for young people to know. Contents Lion Factfile – Group facts about lions into categories Meet a Lion – Look at words and phrases in context Save The Elephants – Summarise main idea and extra detail The Man and The Elephant - Sequence a fable The Big Five – Identify cause, effect and solution Decline of the Black Rhino - Analyse information in a graph Big Five – Who’s not on the list? – Compare, select and justify using evidence Who am I – Use cryptic clues and keywords to identify animals Answers BONUS KAHOOT QUIZ! In the teacher notes for this item, there is a link to a Kahoot quiz which can be used at the end of the unit. It tests retention of facts from the texts and speed processing skills. A fantastic way to finish the material! ______________________________________________________ This product has been designed to put you in control. There is a Powerpoint file, so you can edit it, delete slides, change the order, print it or share it digitally. The great benefit of this is that your children can complete this as a worksheet or on a digital device – or even a bit of both! I often share this with children on tablets, but obviously I copy the file and remove the answers first! Sometimes, they read the text on a tablet and answer the questions on a sheet. However you use this, I’m sure you will find a way that works for your students – and save some paper and photocopying costs in the process.

AMUSING, ENTERTAINING AND EDUCATIONAL! These reading comprehensions will test your students’ reading skills as they explore the four greatest April Fools of all time, as ranked by the Museum of Hoaxes. Using research skills and their reporter’s notebooks, the young journalists will find out about: Spaghetti growing on trees in Switzerland A fake volcanic eruption in Alaska Instant Colour TV in Sweden An iceberg in Sydney Harbour Each story comes with questions and answers, and will require students to check dictionaries; summarise stories; think critically; retrieve facts; and prioritise statements. They will also generate lively and fun classroom discussion. Would your students fall for these pranks? Can they come up with anything better? A template for a news story is also provided so children can write them up for themselves. A scaffold is included to show them how to fill in the boxes. Finally, posters are enclosed if you want to make the students’ work into a simple, effective display. As a journalist and teacher, it’s my passion that children should have an awareness of what is going on in the world through engaging reading material. Contents: 3: SWISS SPAGHETTI HARVEST 4: INSTANT COLOUR TV 5: ERUPTION OF MOUNT EDGECUMBE 6: THE SYDNEY ICEBERG 7-10: Questions 11-14: Answers 15: How to write a newspaper article 16: Newspaper template 17-20: Posters for display

How does Donald Trump compare to Kim Jong-Un? Should we be worried about North Korea? Or how about Queen Victoria and JFK? Who exactly are Rex Tillerson and Mike Pence? This versatile set of 32 biography cards can be used in numerous ways. Firstly, they will test your students in their Common Core reading skills. Secondly, they will enable them to structure and write biographies of their own. Thirdly, they provide a platform for you as a teacher to critically evaluate your students’ writing with feedback which they will find engaging; encouraging them to write to their very best ability. Fourthly, they provide an insight into Donald Trump’s top team; US presidents of the past; prominent world leaders of today; and influential leaders through history. Fifthly, as a game, this will be a tremendous amount of fun! This is perfect all year round but is especially good as a Presidents Day activity. +++++ THE BIOGRAPHY CARDS ARE SPLIT INTO FOUR SECTIONS: Trump’s Team Trump, Preibus, Spicer, Devos, Conway, Tillerson, Pence, Mattis. US Presidents Obama, Bush, Clinton, Reagan, Kennedy, Nixon, Lincoln, Roosevelt. World Leaders 2017 May, Nieto, Netanyahu, Putin, Trudeau, Merkel, Jong-un, Rouhani World Leaders 2017 Mandela, Malala, Mother Teresa, Luther King Jr., Ghandi, Queen Victoria, Princess Diana, Peron. +++++ HERE ARE SOME IDEAS FOR HOW THE BIOGRAPHY CARDS CAN BE USED: Reading skills Each biography comes with three questions. RETRIEVE: Students will find this answer in the text. REVIEW: They will need to use summarising skills to answer the questions. Answers can be quoted from the text. The question will make this clear. RESEARCH: Students can use the internet to answer a question. The information cannot be found within the text. Compare and contrast Students can take any two cards. Their task is to find three differences and three similarities about the characters they have chosen. Highlight the text Referring to the scores under each image, students can color code the text that applies to each category with a highlighter or colored crayon.

This reading activity pack tells the story of the Jesus’ death and resurrection from Palm Sunday through to Easter Sunday. It is ideal all year round for reading or Religious Studies, but is particularly useful in the run up to Easter, as they follow the last week in Jesus’ life. They can also be used as Sunday School activities or as readings in church. Based on the gospel accounts in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, I have written five reports from key people in the Easter story about what happened with comprehension based questions and answers for each. These will bring the well-known story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection to your students in a fresh, engaging and enlightening way. The characters featured are: Peter Pontius Pilate A Roman soldier Mary Magdalen Cleopas The comprehension questions tackle the following skills: Literal and retrieval Word meaning Inference and deduction There is also an activity at the end to summarise each of the characters stories. All activities are aligned to the common core. As an added extra, there are a number of posters with key bible verses for your displays, including posters to colour in. These can be found at the end of the reading pack. A bit about me: Before teaching, I was a journalist. I still work as a freelance writer, and like nothing more than writing engaging texts to challenge and inspire children and young people. I choose subjects that may not be on the curriculum but are still of great importance for students to know about. Everything I write has been comprehensively researched from a number of sources and been written by myself. No plagiarism here! This is all original material. My questions are pitched at a high level, but with a bit of patience and persistence (and some adult help if necessary) most students will have great fun as they learn, especially as the penny drops. I am aware of the impact of printed resources on our environment so try to condense my reading activities into as compact a space as possible. Hopefully this will help you save time in printing, and keep the bills down! Check out my store if you enjoy this – you’re sure to find more. Thanks! While you are here… You may also be interested in a similar pack of reading comprehensions I have written about the birth of Jesus. Follow the link for more: Stories from the Stable

This guided reading resource includes a pair of texts about Australasia with four comprehension skills sheets to complete, providing reading passages and questions that are challenging and engaging. Using the ‘LIMS’ approach, students work through Literal, Inference, Meaning and Summary questions to ensure that in the course of a week, they have practised skills in reading right across the Common Core. Text is differentiated and an answer scheme is provided. Suggested itinerary: Day 1 (30 mins) – Read both texts as a class. Highlight key parts. Discuss together. What have we learned? What do we want know more about? It is worth asking the students to write down any questions they have about the texts and putting them on display. Day 2 (30 mins) – Literal sheet Day 3 (30 mins) – Inference sheet (or meaning sheet if you prefer) Day 4 (30 mins) – Meaning sheet (or inference sheet if you prefer) Day 5 (45 mins) – Summary sheet and looking back at questions from the start of the week. This is the second in a series of Paired text resources looking at the seven continents of the world. Keep an eye on my store. Differentiation: All questions are the same, which should make marking easier! However, the texts differ, with asterisks in the bottom right corner indicating the reading level.

This guided reading activity, aimed at 9 and 13 year olds, tests children’s comprehension, retrieval, inference and deduction skills. It will also promote lively and engaging classroom discussion as children decide for themselves who will win the World Cup in 2022! The activity has questions and answers, 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.

Explore World War Two through these fascinating fictional diaries of servicemen, nurses, civilians and Jews. The diaries focus on the Blitz, the Holocaust, D-Day, Pearl Harbour and Hiroshima Each activity has questions and answers, 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.

In December 2015, Star Wars - The Force Awakens was released and became the highest grossing movie at the box office in history. Star Wars is just one of several series of movie blockbusters - and the children in your class can find out all about them in this guided reading compilation! JAWS…STAR WARS…JAMES BOND…HARRY POTTER These guided reading activities, aimed at children aged 10-13 years old, test childrens’ retrieval, inference and deduction skills. 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. Your children will love finding out about the stories behind some of the world’s movie blockbusters!

This writing aid will help your students develop creative vocabulary in their work through the use of synonyms. It can be used in a variety of ways. The engaging word clouds can be used as posters for a display, or on an interactive whiteboard during a vocabulary focused lesson. They can be used in small groups as table centres, or by individual students as a set of bookmarks. This is saved as a PDF and is supplemented by a separate customisable Powerpoint file. As this is a PowerPoint file, it can be shared directly with students to use on their own devices. The hyperlinked contents page will take them to the page they are looking for. At the end of the resource are the bookmarks. These can be printed, laminated and attached together so students can keep them and refer to them in all aspects of their writing. There are blank bookmarks so you can make your own synonym bookmarks to add to your sets in the customisable file. You can also edit the whole file as you see fit to suit your own needs. Finally, there is some bunting banner to help you make this into a display. I hope you and your students find this useful! The synonyms featured are: happy sad big small good young old house move walk talk warm cold

This collection of eight activity sheets will take your child on an exciting journey of conjunction discovery. Using the idea of conjunctions joining words and sentences, each activity is themed around highways and road junctions. Your children have to join them correctly in order to move on to the next activity. The first activity explores what is and what isn’t an independent clause. From here, children have to put co-ordinating conjunctions between independent clauses before coming up with their own ideas. After this, the children take a jumbled set of words and have to re-arrange them into compound sentences. They also have to plot a route through a word grid. To finish the activities, the children take part in a test of what they’ve learned. By getting the answers correct, they reach their final destination. Our children loved this and it has really helped them develop their understanding of how to use FANBOYS. There is enough material for three or even four lessons, and flashcards and answers are also provided. The activities themselves contain tips (on road signs) to help the children develop their knowledge along the way. The activities can be displayed on a screen to be worked through as a class.