In our Shared Reading English lesson this week, we practiced making inferences!
We discussed the three key parts we need to make an accurate inference-the text, what we already know about the characters and our own knowledge…
Together we read chapter thirteen of our Shared Reading text this term: ‘The Polar Bear Explorers’ Club’. In this chapter the main characters: Stella, Shay and Beanie are desperately trying to find a ‘luxurious’ hotel, The Yak and Yeti’ to try and save their fellow explorer Ethan from frost bite after he was bitten by one of the Frosties! The Frosties’ bite is slowly turning Ethan into ice! After a long journey to the end of the rainbow, Stella, Shay and Beanie finally found the Yak and Yeti, but it wasn’t the hotel they were hoping for, it was an outlaw’s tavern!
The children were met with a frosty reception from the bandits and outlaws, and were ordered to leave. As they were about to give up hope, Captain Ajax, the owner of the tavern appeared and told the children he could save Ethan if they would never tell another living person about the Yak and Yeti…With no time to lose the three explorers agreed to Captain Ajax’s deal and Ethan was saved from the frost bite with a tin of moustache wax, which Captain Ajax discovered was a cure when he was a sailor.
We learnt that inferences can sometimes be useful to put yourself in the position of the characters in a story to get a sense of what it might feel like to be them.
In the narrative we hear Stella’s thoughts and reactions to Captain Ajax’s request to keep silent about the Yak and Yeti, but we heard little about what Shay and Beanie thought of the mysterious Captain. We used what we already knew about the two character’s personalities and their reactions in the text to come up with some inferences of what their inner thoughts and feelings might be towards Ajax in a thought bubble.
Year 4 came up with some brilliant inferences about the characters and practiced a really important reading skill today! Well done everyone, I am very proud of you.
Have you enjoyed studying ‘The Polar Bear Explorers’ Club’? Why?
I loved the shared reading activity as it was a bit challenging. I think making inferences is an easy part of comprehension. So far I have really liked reading the Polar Bear’s Explorers Club.
It was really fun thinking about what Shay or Beanie were thinking. I loved using my imagination too!I really enjoyed reading The Polar Bear Explorers’ Club and I can’t wait to read more.