reading task ks2

• Awards Season
• Big Stories
• Pop Culture
• Video Games
• Celebrities

Should You Be Using Goodreads’ Book Reviews to Choose Your Next Read?

There’s nothing like finding the perfect read: a page-turner that keeps you hooked and up all night because you can’t put it down; a novel that takes you to a distant, fascinating world and lets you escape from reality for a little while; or a book that teaches you about something you’ve been longing to learn about — like pizza making, dog training or career development.

But finding the perfect book is no easy task. I have the feeling that sometimes I spend more time figuring out what my next great read will be than actually reading. Because once I find that rare novel that checks all of the boxes, I devour it.

I’ve developed certain tricks when it comes to discovering that great next book: asking my friends with similar reading tastes for recommendations; checking the new releases from some of my favorite authors; reading book recommendation lists from those authors; and visiting NPR’s annual, curated selection Book Concierge . But these last few years I’ve also turned to Goodreads .

Goodreads is a social network and book database that launched in January 2007. Amazon, which started its giant retailer business as an online bookseller, bought Goodreads in 2013 .

“Our mission is to help people find and share books they love,” Goodreads’ website says. Goodreads’ social network aspect lets you create an account, track what you’re reading and keep a log of it. You can also add friends and see what they’re reading. One of my favorite features is the “Reading Challenge.” Every January you can set a number of books you want to read and then work your way toward that goal amount throughout the year. Setting a realistic yet somewhat challenging goal can be the perfect way to persuade yourself to read just a little bit more, even if it’s just one or two more books than the previous year. And this is one of those competitions where you’re just measuring yourself against yourself.

You can also just use Goodreads as a catalog to look up a book’s author, publication date or number of pages.

Goodreads’ Reviews, Ratings & Lists

In addition to tracking your progress and seeing what your friends on Goodreads are reading and favoriting, you can use this social network to see what its millions of users (statistics website Statista estimated Goodreads had 90 million registered members in July 2019) are perusing and how much they’re liking their reads. Need some more help navigating the site? Here are some of Goodreads features that can help you choose your next book:

Reviews : Book reviews are one of Goodreads’ most appealing offerings. And while those reviews are written by users, not professional book critics at major publications, some of those who write book reviews do it regularly. They may even be bloggers who read about specific topics or genres. Think about it like the type of restaurant review you can get on Yelp.

Per Goodreads review guidelines , commercial reviews are not allowed. If a reviewer receives a free copy of a book, they must disclose it in the review. Some reviewers receive advanced readers’ copies (ARCs), which makes it possible for a review to hit Goodreads before a book’s publication date.

Ratings : Lazy readers, like myself, prefer to give a book just a 1-5 star rating instead of writing an actual review to go with it. Most books have a bigger number of star ratings than actual reviews. I trust Goodreads’ users enough that I might avoid a book with a rating lower than 3.5 stars. Also, the bigger the number of ratings, the more reliable the metric tends to be.

I use ratings and reviews in conjunction to help me determine whether I should start reading something or not. One of the most recent reviews for the first book in the Bridgertons series , for instance, already warns the reader about the book’s most controversial passage . So, even if that book has a 3.89 rating, a review can help you make a final decision. And yes, reviews might end up being a bit spoilery. So be careful when you do your research.

Lists : They can be created by users or the Goodreads’ team and they are a good way to find reads in specific genres. If you like a book, you can see what lists that title is included on and discover something similar. There are lists for everything, from Scandinavian/Nordic Mysteries to Science Fiction Books by Female Authors or Food Books for Readers to Devour .

Goodreads Annual Choice Awards

This is probably my favorite part of Goodreads. Each year users can choose their favorite books in different categories — Fiction, Mystery & Thriller, Fantasy, Romance, Science & Technology, Historical Fiction, Horror, Humor, and so on. Not only is this a good way of giving some love to the authors you’ve enjoyed reading, but the winners and runner-ups also tend to be solid books to add to your list. (They might even help you with your holiday shopping.)

And while Goodreads has received its fair share of criticism for being a bit outdated — I don’t remember the last time the website or app were refreshed — I still can’t see myself not using it. It’s buggy sometimes and it lacks some usability features, but it sure has allowed me to discover authors and books I would have totally missed otherwise.

MORE FROM ASK.COM

• International
• Schools directory
• Resources Jobs Schools directory News Search

Guided Reading Independent Activities

Subject: English

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Other

Last updated

15 November 2022

• Share through email
• Share through twitter
• Share through linkedin
• Share through facebook
• Share through pinterest

Creative Commons "Attribution"

Your rating is required to reflect your happiness.

It's good to leave some feedback.

Something went wrong, please try again later.

Perfect! Thank you

Empty reply does not make any sense for the end user

Exactly what I was looking for. These will be extremely helpful, thank you. I may edit slightly and add some, but there are so many good ideas here.

Very useful

Everything I need! Thank you

Report this resource to let us know if it violates our terms and conditions. Our customer service team will review your report and will be in touch.

Not quite what you were looking for? Search by keyword to find the right resource:

Interactive Bar

Millbrook Primary School

‘Learning about caring; caring about learning’

• Reading activities
• Home Learning

Reading Activities

Practise your reading every day. These activities will help you to improve. 

These websites have some really useful resources.

Click on the links to use them.

• E-Book Library Help your young child learn to read, and love to read, with this range of over 100 free eBooks.
• Oxford Owl Reading Free reading resources by age group
• Helping early readers Activities and games to help your child to develop early reading skills
• Online Phonics Games Fun, online games to help your child to learn their phonics

Reading VIPERS

What are Vipers?

VIPERS is an anagram to help the recall of the 6 reading areas or skills that children need to develop in order to read well.  They are the key areas which we feel children need to know and understand in order to improve their comprehension of texts.

VIPERS stands for:

V ocabulary

P rediction

E xplanation

S equence or  S ummarise

The following Reading VIPER packs give useful question guidelines that can be used to help develop a child's reading skills:

Reading VIPER packs

• Reading VIPERS Question Stems KS1 - PDF.pdf
• Reading VIPERS Question Stems KS2 - PDF.pdf

Reading Comprehension Activities

• Stage 4 Reading Packs - Age 8-9 a.pdf
• Stage 5 Reading Packs - Age 9-10 a.pdf
• Stage 6 Reading packs - Stage 6 Age 10-11 a.pdf

40 Book Based activities

• 40 Book Based Activities - 40 book based activities.pdf
• Literacy Shed Free Resources A fabulous website with literacy activities based around film
• Roald Dahl activities Explore the world of Roald Dahl whilst building your vocabulary skills

We use cookies to track usage and improve the website.

Click here for more information .

• Become a Hope Brand Influencer

29 guided reading activities

Delving into the depths of new and mystical lands with your class is perhaps one of the most pleasurable activities a teacher can do. You can encourage pupils to read fin their own time , but planned guided reading can be one of the most effective ways to build this precious skill. However, it can also be one of the most time-consuming activities a teacher can do. Deciding on the book, linked activities, differentiation, timings, AFL, DIRT, not to mention questioning, is no mean feat.

Let us take some of the planning weight off your back with our extensive list of 29 guided reading activities you can do today.

What is guided reading?

Guided reading is often small group, reading instruction designed to provide differentiated teaching of the skills and knowledge needed to read. Small group reading of this sort was introduced in the 90s. More recently the idea of whole-class guided reading has grown in popularity, but the objective remains the same; ensure children have reading proficiency.

What is a guided reading activity?

Guided reading activities are used as stimulus and support for ensuring children have meaningful interactions with the books they read. They will exercise a number of skills, including but not limited to: empathy, use of grammatical features, use of structure, authorial intent, prediction, attention to detail, and reading comprehension.

Effective guided reading activities

1. character letter writing.

Write a letter in the voice of one character to another. This doesn’t just have to be two characters from the same book. Imagine a letter from Dorothy Gale to Alice; now those two could share some stories!

2. Cartography

Whether it’s the Amazon River from Journey to the River Sea or rural Dorset in Goodnight Mr Tom, drawing a map of a place in a story is a great way to solidify context. Encourage children to label their maps and include as much detail as possible. You might also encourage them to fill gaps with their own imagination.

3. Newspaper report

A classic when it comes to guided reading activities; re-tell an event from the story as if you are a reporter. Children could even write and perform a news programme slot covering the story in pairs, with one in the studio and the other on location at the spot where it happened.

4. Character interview

Channel morning TV presenters and write an interview script between an interviewer and a character from the book. Children are likely to come up with a lot of ideas for questions, but they may struggle more on the answers. Consider modelling a couple of answers before you send children off independently.

5. You write a letter to a character

This task is a little easier than writing in the voice of a character. The children write their own personal letter to a character from the book they are reading. What about their own lives might they want to share with this character? And what questions do they have for the character?

6. Letter to the author

Sticking with the letter writing theme, why not get the children to write a letter to the author of the book they are reading? The added bonus to this is that you could genuinely send the letters and see if you get a response.

7. Tweet the author

Ask children to collectively come up with questions they would love to ask the author if they could. Collate the questions and pick out your three favourites. Tweet the author and see if they come back! Some authors are very active on social media and are very willing to engage young people in their books and reading.

8. Sell a holiday to the setting

Give children a selection of holiday brochures as models; you can often find digital versions on holiday sites to avoid unnecessary printing. Then ask the children to write a paragraph about a setting from the book selling it to potential tourists.

A great way to stretch children is to create parodies of text types. Choose a setting that is unpleasant and get children to sell that place to tourists.

9. Diary entry

A classic guided reading activity, but effective all the same. Get children to write a diary entry from the perspective of one of the characters.

Write a diary entry from the point of view of one of the characters after they have just found and read the diary of another character. Children will need to empathise to quite a deep level here, considering the deepest darkest feelings of two characters.

10. Prediction

Predicting what comes next in the story is not only great for practising good reading skills, it can be a lot of fun too to see who was right/close.

11. Continue the story

Challenge children to write the beginning of a sequel to the book they have just completed. You might introduce children to fan fiction that often arises off the back of a well-loved book and discuss the merits of such fiction.

12. Comic strip it

Choose a section from the book to recreate as a comic strip. It may be worth introducing children to the genre of comics before setting them off on this task and ensure they understand the need to be precise with any text they include.

Related Content:

• 16 ways teachers can encourage pupils to read for pleasure
• Pie Corbett: the magic of storytelling
• 7 easy reading corner ideas

13. Social media profile for a character

Social media profiles reveal a lot more about a person than just their name. What might they update their status to? What pictures might they post? What would other characters comment on the pictures? This is also a great opportunity to discuss social media vs reality.

14. Turn an event into a play script

Immortalise the words on the page and turn the book into a script. You could give each child a section of the book to turn into a script and perform the finished result for the end of term/year.

15. Re-design the book cover

Look at features of book covers and then challenge children to re-design the book front cover of the book they’re reading, making conscious choices for colour, font and image.

16. Chart the feelings of a character

Draw out a basic graph with chapter numbers along the bottom and a scale of emotions on the left. Get children to plot the change in emotions throughout the book. They can look back on what is likely to be a rollercoaster of emotions and label events along the graph.

17. Magpie the best words and phrases

Allow children time to copy out interesting words and phrases from the book. They can use these words and phrases in their own writing.

18. Write a poem

Take a story and turn it into a poem. Text transformations help to inspire children to indulge in a range of text types.

19. Create a dictionary

Encourage children to make a note of any words they don’t understand as they go through the book. Better yet, ask children to write down the sentence the words appear in too. They can then use a dictionary to check the meaning. Writing out the sentence as well will help the pupil remember the meaning of the word by providing context.

20. Review the story

Children could write honest reviews of the book. You could take this further by encouraging children to write reviews of all the books they read and then collate these in a folder for children to peruse when they’re stuck for the next book to choose.

21. Make a list of sentence openers

Children’s fiction contains some of the most beautiful and effective examples of the use of language and structure. Get children to make a list of the different sentence openers the author uses. These can then be used as a way of demonstrating all the different ways a sentence can be started.

This can also be done with connectives used throughout the book.

22. What’s in a name?

Ask children to come up with a new name for the main character in the story and push them to explain their choice.

23. Diorama

This is a perfect homework task. Get children to make a scale model of a scene from the book. They should consider body language of characters, placement of props and setting.

24. Create a thesaurus

Get children to pick a word from the text – this might be an ‘interesting’ word, or a really basic word. They should then use a thesaurus to write down a list of synonyms.

Ask children to pick one of the synonyms that they would replace the original word with and why. Or, if they prefer the original word, explain why.

25. Re-write a chapter or event

Choose a key moment in the book and ask children to re-write the event. This is a tough task and children might be tempted to write a nicer ending to events that are difficult. You might find more creative responses to this task if you encourage them to avoid this approach and it also provides an opportunity to discuss what good can come from struggle.

26. Write about a memory

It’s good to be able to draw from our own experiences when trying to empathise. Ask children to write down something from their own life that is similar to events/characters/themes from the book they are reading.

27. Leave a message after the beep

Ask children to write down an answerphone message from a character from the book.

28. Tweet from the character

Whilst children might not have used Twitter (the current age restriction on Twitter is 13), they probably do know that Twitter limits the number of characters a person can use in a tweet. Why not challenge them to summarise a chapter in no more than 280 characters.

29. Dear Agony Aunt

Get children to write an Agony Aunt response to a problem a character is facing in the story.

We hope you have been inspired by our list of guided reading activities. If you have any great ideas for guided reading tasks, make sure to share them with us on Facebook , Instagram or Twitter .

Talitha McLachlan

Hope Education writer

Ideas for Teaching & Learning | Primary

9 february 2021.

You May Also Like…

Classroom recycling ideas

12 Oct 2023 | Advice & Inspiration , Primary

Classroom...

A guide to: Teacher wellbeing and mental health- Updated

10 Oct 2023 | Culture and Events , Health & Wellbeing , Primary

A Guide To:...

Explore English reading resources

Pin it on pinterest.

• Prodigy Math
• Prodigy English

From our blog

• Is a Premium Membership Worth It?
• Promote a Growth Mindset
• Help Your Child Who's Struggling with Math
• Parent's Guide to Prodigy
• Assessments
• Math Curriculum Coverage
• English Curriculum Coverage
• Game Portal

27 Fun Reading Activities To Try At Home or In The Classroom

Fun reading activities for the classroom

Reading activities for parents & children, activities to try after reading, other educational activities to help kids learn.

Learning to read is a huge milestone in a child’s life. We all know how important a love of reading is for future learning. When children love to read, they can learn anything. 

Make sure your children keep the joy of reading alive by using fun reading activities along with traditional reading strategies .

These fun daily moments can improve reading skills and help reluctant readers find joy in the written word. We’ll be covering reading activities by grade level both for the classroom and at home, as well as some activities to improve reading comprehension after your students are reading independently. 

Though many children begin the basics of reading at home, most solidify their skills and become accomplished readers in the classroom. These activities keep early readers engaged and improving while helping reluctant readers master the basics. Here are our favorite ways to keep reading fun!

1. Find the secret word

Great for: Kindergarten to 2nd grade

Turn a reading lesson into a scavenger hunt! Give each student or pair of students a piece of text, then speak the first secret word. Once they find it, have them circle it in a specific color, or circle and number, then report back to you for word #2. 

Keep this word search up for as long as you like — we recommend choosing about 8 to 10 words for students to find. It’s one part competition, one part scavenger hunt! Choose a prize for each team to receive when they complete the activity. Or celebrate everyone reaching the end with a classroom dance party! It’s a great way to keep your kids moving and learning.

2. Read aloud as a class

Great for: All grades

Kids are never too old to hear a story read aloud. Reading aloud as a class is a great way to keep kids engrossed in a story. Since you are most familiar with the text, you can keep the flow going during the dramatic moments. Then hand it off to your students to take their turns.

Want to add a new element to your classroom read-aloud? Pass around a ball or stuffed animal to indicate the next reader. It’s a variation of popcorn reading to help minimize reading anxiety, and it gives kids the power to pass it on after spending a short time reading. 

3. Partner reading

Great for: 1st to 3rd grade

Sometimes trying to get the whole class to read together is just too much. To encourage more reading time, pair up your students for partner reading. 

During partner reading, each child will get more time to practice their skills. And being corrected privately by one friend may be better for a struggling reader’s confidence. Try to pair a confident but patient reader with those who need some extra help and watch them both learn to succeed.

4. Find the synonym

Great for: 2nd to 5th grade

Once your readers are feeling more confident, take our scavenger hunt game mentioned above and add a new twist. 

Instead of searching for the exact spoken words on your list, give students the challenge to find the word’s synonym in the text. It’s a great way to keep the game challenging for older students.

5. Word searches

For younger students, a word search is a challenging way to encourage early reading. You can do this much like our scavenger hunt-style games, but instead of saying the words aloud, provide a list. 

They can search for one word at a time, with you providing the next word to the team once the first is found. Or provide a full list from the beginning and let them work individually. Add in some color matching (marking the word in the same color as printed on the list) to keep this game fun and engaging.

6. Keyword bingo

Looking for a calmer alternative to the secret word game? Have each child work individually in a game of reading bingo. Choose a grade-level text and compile a list of words found in the passage. 

Read each word aloud, giving about 15 seconds before moving on to the next. It’s a race against your clock to find the words, or they can try to remember them while looking for the others. When they find the words, they can mark them out. Once the list is done, allow 20 more seconds to wrap up any remaining words, then pencils down and count. Whoever finds the most words, wins!

7. Decoding games

Decoding games focus on letter sounds and phonemic awareness. A favorite game for pre-readers is to say a letter and have students find an object that starts with that letter. As they bring the object back, reinforce the sound that letter makes.

Other decoding games can focus on the mechanics of reading — such as reading a word or sentence from left to right. This is a great time to utilize finger puppets, following along with a finger as you sound the words out together.

8. Thumbs up, thumbs down

Great for: Kindergarten to 5th grade

Thumbs up, thumbs down (or the higher energy variation — stand up, sit down) is a great game to keep your students engaged. 

Check reading comprehension when you ask students to give a thumbs up if a statement about a recently read story is true, or a thumbs down if it’s false. Help them grasp grammar concepts by having them stand up when you say an adjective word or sit down if you say a noun. 

It’s a fun way to keep their bodies and brains working. 

9. Discover the missing letter

When you’re teaching letter sounds, it’s fun to get creative. In this game, you’ll call your students to the front of the class by their names — minus the first letter. For example, Stacy becomes tacy and Roland becomes oland. Let the kids guess who you’re calling up, then have them decode the missing letter. 

You can do the same thing for objects, or drop middle letters for older children. Just be sure to prepare your words ahead of time to avoid any slip-ups!  

10. Guided reading ball game

Great for: 2nd to 7th grade

Grab a few beach balls from your local dollar store and get your classroom moving. Take a sharpie and write a discussion prompt on each colorful section of the ball. What is the setting? Who is the main character? What happened after…? 

Toss or roll the balls around. Students answer whichever question their thumb lands on when the ball heads their way. This is an exciting way to mix things up, practice reading comprehension and get kids thinking outside of their seats.

Not all reading happens in the classroom! Parents can play an active role in helping their children learn to read. Here are a few activities to try with your kids.

1. Reading together

Great for: All grades and ages

There’s something special about listening to a book being read out loud. It can capture your attention in a unique way. Whether your child is a baby or fully grown, it’s always a good time to read together.

Take turns reading chapters from a favorite story, or just read to your child. Enjoying good stories is a huge motivator in learning to read.  

2. Silly voices reading

Great for: Kindergarten to 4th grade

Kids love to laugh and joke, so play into this with a crazy story and silly voices. Get really high-pitched, speed it up like a chipmunk, and then pitch your voice low. 

Your kids will love seeing these stories come to life with your words, and you’ll all share a good laugh. To get them involved in the fun, ask them to do their own silly voice!

3. Dialogic reading

The word dialogic means to have a dialogue, and that’s exactly what this activity is designed to do. Instead of reading to your child while they passively listen, invite them into the story. Ask them what they think may happen next, or at the close of the book invite them to create a completely different ending. This is a great way to stretch your little storyteller’s imagination.

4. Reading outside

Kids thrive outdoors. They can run, climb, and dig in the dirt. Outside is also a great place to practice reading and letter writing. Invite your child to help you create words in a sandbox or take a stick and dig a letter into the dirt. 

Older kids can simply take their reading outside. It’s amazing how refreshing a change of setting can be. 

5. What word starts with…

Great for: Kindergarten to 1st grade

Letter sounds are an essential early reading tool. With this game, ask your child to think of words that start with “B” (or any other letter).

 Give an example, like b-b-butterfly, then think of more “B” words together. Choose your child’s favorite things to keep the game fun and exciting. Early readers especially love to talk about the letters in their names.

6. Try nonfiction

Great for: All ages

You never know what a child may love to read. Though many kids enjoy a good princess or dragon story, others will prefer non-fiction books. 

If your attempts at fiction are met with indifference, try a book about their favorite animal (sharks, dinosaurs, or lemurs are popular here), learn about space or strange weather events. Whatever your child is into, and whatever their reading level, there’s a book for them.

7. Create a “book nook”

A cozy spot dedicated to reading can add joy to the activity. Load up a corner or top bunk space with comfy pillows and blankets, make sure it has good lighting, and include some sticky notes and a dictionary. All your child needs to bring is their favorite book! Even better, snuggle in together and discover a new favorite with your child.

8. Who’s coming over?

This game can be played in a couple of different ways, and both are great for reading comprehension. First, try giving clues so your child can guess their favorite characters. These favorites can be from books or TV. You can mention physical characteristics, some of their best friends, or things that happen to them. Keep giving clues until they guess correctly.

The second way to play is to invite a favorite character over and then discuss what you’ll need for their visit. A special kind of bed, their favorite foods, or a place for their pet to stay are all things to consider. This is a fun way to create your own story around your child’s favorite characters.

9. Take turns reading

As your child begins to read you can invite them to read to you. Don’t push if they don’t want to, but as their confidence builds they’ll be excited to share their new skill with you. 

This may look like you both taking turns reading a new chapter book, or they may want to share all the creature descriptions from their favorite new computer game. No matter the topic, do your best to listen intently and congratulate them on their reading skills.  

10. What happens next?

Keep reading fun and active when you step outside the book and asking your child what happens next:

• What do they think will happen?
• What would you like to see happen? 
• What’s something funny that could happen?

Any question that gets them thinking through the story on their own is both fun and helpful for reading comprehension. 

11. Talk about the pictures

Pictures are a great way for kids to follow along with a story. When your child is beginning to read, have them look at the pictures and ask what they think is going on. As they unravel the story, point out the words they are discovering in the text. Or just let them enjoy creating their own unique version of the story based on the pictures. 

12. Try new reading apps and websites

There are some amazing reading apps for both reading instruction and digital reading libraries. If your child enjoys spending time on their tablet, give some of our favorite reading apps a try and watch them learn while they play.

After your child is reading on their own, there’s still plenty to learn. Reading isn’t effective if they’re struggling to understand the words on the page, or how they all fit together to create the story. Here are a few activities for children to practice reading comprehension.

1. Summarize the text

Once a child is done reading a text or section of a book, have them revisit the main ideas by highlighting or taking notes on the text’s biggest themes. Once students identify the main themes, ask them to break them down further and quickly summarize the story.

2. Book reports

Great for: 2nd to 12th grade

Book reports are a classic reading activity. Have the child analyze the book, highlighting the most important themes. Older children can present arguments pertaining to the story, and provide passages to support their theories. 

Keep book reports even more engaging when you invite kids to give a presentation, complete with dress-up and drama. 

3. Review the book

Ask children to rate their most recent reading. They can assign it a number of stars, but then they must also explain why. Was it too scary? Not funny? What were their favorite parts? What would they do differently?

Not only does this help students think critically about what they’ve just read, but it can also help parents and teacher identify what they might like reading next.

4. Extend the story

Great for: Kindergarten to 12th grade

“And they lived happily ever after…”

Maybe so, but what happened next? Ask your child to keep the story going. Where do they go next? Who do they meet? Favorite characters can continue adventuring when your child takes over the story. This is a great writing prompt , or just a fun dinner conversation!

5. How could it have been better?

Everyone has an opinion, so ask your child for theirs. How could this book or story have been better? Would a different ending be more fun? Or maybe they just think the main character should be named after them. 

No matter their critique, listen and discuss. Then encourage them to create their own tale.

How reading activities help kids embrace learning

Reading keeps kids learning for the rest of their lives. When a child can read, they can take more control over their education. And that’s a wonderful thing!

Fun activities are the best way to keep a child interested in the world of books. Learning to read can be a frustrating journey for some. Others may simply find it boring (especially if they’re being made to read about topics they care little about). These activities are designed to get kids moving and thinking beyond the page. Because when reading is fun, learning happens naturally.

When teaching starts to feel like a drag, or the kids are fighting their instruction, revisit this article. Mix in some fun activities and keep the learning going. Getting up, moving around, or enjoying a laugh together can help stimulate everyone’s mind. 

Looking for even more great learning activities to engage your kids? Here are some of our favorite activity posts for reading, math, and more!

• 21 Classroom Games
• 15 Geometry Activities
• 20 Exciting Math Games
• 30 Virtual School Activities
• 36 Fun Word Game for Kids
• 15 Free Multiplication Games
• 37 Quick Brain Breaks for Kids
• 27 Best Educational Games for Kids
• 25 Social-Emotional Learning Activities  

Get more ways to help kids love learning with Prodigy English , a brand-new learning adventure! Whether you're a parent or a teacher, create a free Prodigy account to access tools that help you support reading and language learning in the classroom or at home.

• Primary Hub
• Art & Design
• Design & Technology
• Health & Wellbeing
• Secondary Hub
• Citizenship
• Primary CPD
• Secondary CPD
• Book Awards
• All Products
• Primary Products
• Secondary Products
• School Trips
• Trip Directory
• Trips by Subject
• Trips by Type
• Trips by Region
• Submit a Trip Venue

Trending stories

Top results

Guided reading – Best activity ideas and lesson plans

Make guided reading sessions better for you and your students with this selection of ideas, activities, advice and more…

What is guided reading?

Guided reading ks2 lesson plan, hate guided reading try these ideas…, more guided reading resources, how to use ‘cloze’ activities to keep kids on-task, how to supporting reading comprehension during guided reading, guided reading myths.

As the name suggests, guided reading is where teachers work with students on their reading to make sure they can read the words and understand their meaning, make inferences from the text and comprehend it fully.

Help children feel at home in a text and retrieve information with summary writing, with this free KS2 guided reading lesson plan from teacher Matthew Lane.

In this lesson children will use summary writing to create a ‘map’ of your class text as they read. This not only helps them retrieve information later, but will also encode more of the text into their memories along the way.

This is especially helpful when reading whole picturebooks or studying multi-page sections of a story.

When is it best to teach guided reading? How much planning do you need to do? What are the best texts? How can you improve your questioning?

These are just some of the common questions teachers have about teaching guided reading. Whether you love it or loathe it, guided reading is probably the most well-used strategy for teaching reading in British primary schools.

Use the following ideas from Rachel Clarke and Charlotte Reed to inspire and support its continued use in your school…

1 Pick the right time of day

If you’re wavering on the ‘loathe it’ side of the guided reading debate, here’s a little thought about the value it can bring to you and your pupils.

“Guided reading ensures every child gets 20 ringfenced minutes with you, every week of the year”

Have you ever calculated how many minutes per day you spend with each child in your class? Pause for a moment: take a school day and divide it by 30 children; minus lesson introductions; subtract registration; take away playtime; carry a few over and reduce the sum by a lunchtime. It’s not much, is it?

Guided reading ensures every child gets 20 ringfenced minutes with you, every week of the year. You’ll need to plan carefully to protect this precious time.

Put it immediately after lunch and you can guarantee that lost sweatshirts, grazed knees and football disputes will eat into your reading session. Likewise, put it on a Friday after the awards assembly and you can rest assured you’ll only have five minutes before the bell goes for play.

Making the most of your guided reading session means choosing a time that won’t slip away.

2 Concentrate on one assessment focus

What about the amount of planning required for a good guided reading session? Our answer is – not very much.

We don’t intend this to be a flippant response. Guided reading is a mini-lesson, which means you need a minimal amount of content and planning to support it.

“Don’t feel the pressure to load every guided reading session with tonnes of whizzy teaching tricks”

We frequently remind teachers to apply the KISS (‘keep it simple, stupid’) principle to their guided reading. By this we mean you should concentrate on one assessment focus (AF). Don’t spend ages planning. And don’t feel the pressure to load every guided reading session with tonnes of whizzy teaching tricks.

Stick to your focused learning intention, ask questions about this focus and make it the subject of your assessment, too. You’ll still encounter unplanned opportunities to visit other AFs, but your lesson will have a much clearer learning intention.

3 Get children to do the work

Do you struggle to get the children active enough during the guided reading session? Finding ways to alter the pupil-teacher relationship can have a really positive impact.

Ask yourself this question: “Who’s working hardest in guided reading sessions?”. If the answer is you, then you need to take action. Now.

Try getting the children to ask questions of you and their peers during the session. Invest time in making some question stems. Teach the children how to use these to ask questions about a text.

“Ask yourself this question: “Who’s working hardest in guided reading sessions?””

The small group size used for guided reading makes it a perfect place for you and the children to experiment with developing a more dialogic approach to teaching and learning. For more information about dialogic approaches to teaching and learning, we recommend Neil Mercer’s Words and Minds .

Provide the oldest children and the most fluent readers with time to read the text before coming to the guided reading session. Then when you come together, try running the session more like a book group, with the children discussing and analysing the text. This strategy requires practice but, once mastered, you won’t look back.

4 Use statements instead of questions

We’ve taught and observed a lot of guided reading sessions, which means we’ve heard a lot of questions. We haven’t, though, heard so many statements.

This is where you take a question, phrase it as a statement and ask the children whether they agree or disagree. Your statements could look something like this:

• “This is a non-chronological report. Agree or disagree?”
• “Goldilocks was a criminal. Agree or disagree?”

What’s important about this type of questioning is not the ‘agree or disagree’ statement made by the children. It’s about how they justify their opinions through reference to what they know from the text, or their knowledge of different text types.

It’s this that makes it so versatile with children of all abilities and ages. For example, a child working at Level 1 may tell you Goldilocks was a criminal because she broke into the three bears’ home. A child working at Level 5 may tell you about a variety of text, sentence and word-level features that ensure the text couldn’t possibly be a non-chronological report, but is instead an explanation.

Critical thinking is central in this approach. The small group size used for guided reading means using statements can provide children with a context for discussion and debate. For further ideas for alternative approaches to questioning, we recommend Shirley Clarke’s book, Active Learning Through Formative Assessment .

5 Use ‘real’ books if you can

Reading a dull book is bad. Reading a dull book, discussing it with your teacher and then having to write about it is even worse.

The best texts for guided reading are the ones you and the children enjoy. There are some fabulous commercial guided reading schemes available. These are great if you’re new to guided reading or lack confidence in how to formulate your own questions on texts.

“The best texts for guided reading are the ones you and the children enjoy”

‘Real books’, though, provide children with exposure to texts they would not often choose themselves. Good quality books have a richness of vocabulary that not only engages children as readers, but stimulates their writing too.

6 Try picture books

Whilst reading longer texts is important, especially for children in the final years of KS2, we shouldn’t neglect good quality picture books.

Picture books can have a narrative depth that transcends words alone. How authors choose and use words for effect in these shorter narratives, whether alone or in combination with visual images, can inspire fascinating guided reading sessions.

Picture books also frequently offer us opportunities to explore more challenging themes in a ‘child-friendly’ manner. By doing this, we can use reading as a way to engage children with complex emotions, issues for debate and ideas they may otherwise not encounter.

We frequently use picture books from the Carnegies Medal for Illustration website. These have passed the strict judging criteria used in the award.

Rachel Clarke and Charlotte Reed are the directors of Primary English , an independent consultancy working with schools to raise standards in literacy.

Year 2 SATs practice paper packs

These KS1 SATs papers resource packs from Plazoom provide opportunities for Y2 pupils to develop KS1 reading comprehension and writing skills in preparation for SATs and end-of-year assessments.

The resources covers a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts, and include a model text with questions and answers, plus a fully resourced writing task. There’s also a PowerPoint that you can use for guided reading or whole-class reading.

KS2 reading comprehension packs

On to KS2, and these reading comprehension packs from Plazoom cover various topics, and include a model text as well as comprehension questions to develop pupils’ skills of retrieval, inference and vocabulary understanding. They can be used for guided reading, or as home learning.

Guided reading question generator dice

These guided reading dice from Plazoom are designed to help children to reflect on what they have read. At the end of a reading session, pupils can use them to generate a question about the text for a written or oral response.

How to revolutionise guided reading

Looking for ways to spice up your guided reading sessions? This blog post on Teacher Toolkit from Hollie Anderton might be just what you’re after.

Exploring texts with a small group is time well spent, but how do you make sure the rest of the class isn’t losing out? Ian Eagleton investigates…

Guided reading has been, and still is, a popular way to teach, but it’s easy to get wrong. For instance, I used to set up carousel activities during guided reading sessions, hoping these would engage the remaining children and keep them working independently.

However, far too often these activities became time fillers, offering little challenge, enjoyment or scope for progress. As a result, those not taking part in guided reading would become distracted and disruptive, and all my time and energy would go into managing these pupils.

How, then, do we ensure that all children are engaged, progressing and enjoying reading when not reading with an adult?

“Far too often these activities became time fillers”

Cloze procedure

One of the activities I now set regularly is a ‘cloze procedure’ reading task. This is simply where you delete words from a passage and ask children to fill in the gaps.

If done well, this can be a powerful and interactive study in using contextual clues to find the unknown words. It also encourages discussion, prediction skills and can be a useful tool for assessing a child’s grasp of language and text structure.

In terms of national curriculum objectives, cloze procedure passages can also assist children in the following:

• working out the meaning of words from the context
• predicting what might happen from details stated and implied
• retrieving information from non-fiction

In the past, I have been reluctant to use cloze procedure passages, thinking them to be dreary and restrictive. However, you can adapt them in a range of ways to guarantee a purposeful, stimulating activity.

Choose a wide range of texts

I regularly use poems, stories and extracts from non-fiction texts such as newspapers, adverts and magazines. This allows the children to explore the pertinent linguistic features of different text types.

Sometimes I use extracts from classics such as The Railway Children, Black Beauty and Peter Pan if, say, I want to focus on exploring archaic language or investigating historical, social and cultural contexts. Or I might use a complete short story (around 100 words) to help develop the children’s understanding of structure.

I’ve also found it helpful to use extracts from texts the children have already read to help assess their recall of the main events, actions or ideas as well as to clarify their understanding of words or phrases.

Another good idea is to use a cloze procedure passage to introduce a text before you have studied it together. Here children’s prediction skills can come into play and you can monitor comprehension and their prior understanding of a topic or a concept. The chosen text needs to:

• provide challenge,
• relate to your pupils’ interests
• elicit an emotional response
• offer interesting themes to discuss and consider.

Deciding what to eliminate

Traditionally, we’ve used cloze procedure passages to test children’s subject knowledge or grasp of specialist, technical words. However, if you choose to delete a word that contributes to the overall meaning of the text, the activity can stimulate an interesting discussion.

Try to choose words other than nouns to remove. You could eliminate words that support sentence and paragraph cohesion, such as coordinating or  subordinating conjunctions , or conjunctions that signal time such as ‘first’, ‘then’ and ‘next’.

Consider deleting words that could have more than one alternative meaning in order to promote dialogue and debate.

Differentiate, support and extend

There are many ways to differentiate the cloze procedure activity – other than the choice of vocabulary, that is.

Some children may reproduce the whole passage, including the deleted words, in order to develop their writing stamina, whereas others may only be filling in the blank spaces.

Pupils might be provided with the missing vocabulary or asked to explore a range of alternatives and think of words that could sensibly fit and make sense.

By emphasising words that are appropriate and meaningful, rather than words that are correct, you can offer children the chance to:

• listen to others
• enhance their understanding
• revise their choices in an environment that is non-threatening

You could also ask the children to colour code the missing words using a tool such as Rainbow Writing. Do they think the missing words could be nouns (red), adjectives (orange), adverbs (yellow) or conjunctions (green)?

The cloze procedure could be adapted further by leaving gaps for punctuation – can the children punctuate the passage correctly using capital letters, full stops, question marks, apostrophes, commas after fronted adverbials and so on?

Ian Eagleton is director of NAHT Edge, the union for aspirational school leaders. Find out more at  nahtedge.org.uk .

More guided reading ideas to try

1 | exploring picture books.

Encourage children to explore a range of picture books – they are ideal for developing inference, deduction and helping children to visualise a narrative.

They can also be accessed at different levels and used with more than one group in a multitude of ways. Looking at the pictures, children can hypothesise and draw inferences about characters’ thoughts, feelings and actions.

The children can also be challenged to write their own narrative inspired by the images, artwork and design.

2 | Reading ahead

Allow some time for the children to explore the book before you read it together – you may want to focus on a specific section. It is best if the children have access to their own copy, so that they can read at their own pace.

Encourage them to write down any questions, thoughts or reflections they have and use these to instigate a discussion when you read together. They will certainly be more engaged by working on their personal areas of interest and they will have more of a sense of purpose.

3 | Free reading

I feel that being given the freedom to choose what you read is a valid and important part of developing motivated readers. It also allows teachers to informally track their classes’ reading habits and preferences.

Ensure you have a range of appealing, high-quality books available for children to pick up, put down, dip into, explore, read aloud, laugh over and share.

Guided reading can be the perfect way to teach the comprehension element of the national curriculum, says James Clements…

Comprehension – constructing a mental model of what we read – is central to becoming a confident and competent reader, but teaching children to develop such a complex set of skills and behaviours can be notoriously difficult.

Organised and taught well, guided reading can be the perfect match for teaching the reading component of the curriculum. It allows for plenty of teacher-child dialogue, and the interactive nature of working in a group means learning is collaborative, with children learning from their peers.

Working in a small group enables you to focus on each individual child, targeting your questioning, and addressing any misconceptions as they occur.

It also allows you to assess children’s reading skills without having to resort to written tests, which are often as much a test of writing ability as they are of reading.

So, what can you do in guided reading sessions to best support the development of children’s comprehension skills?

1 | Assess and teach ‘casual inference’

Inference is often seen as the top of the hierarchy of comprehension skills. As teachers we’re often keen to get to rich text or character-based comprehension questions such as, ‘How does Max feel when he is sent to his room without any supper?’

But for many developing readers, the first potential stumbling block comes with casual inference. These are the little particles of understanding that confident readers take for granted.

This can include missing cohesive devices such as not following lexical cohesion from sentence to sentence: ‘Katie was thirsty. After some moaning, her sister handed her the bottle.’

Or not being able to identify who is being referred to by a particular pronoun in a sentence: ‘Tom snatched the ball from Sam’s hands. He began to cry.’

“For many developing readers, the first potential stumbling block comes with casual inference”

This is particularly true for children who are not yet strong word-readers and are using lots of processing power to decode the words on the page.

The small group nature of guided reading gives us the opportunity to check children’s understanding of the text as they read, supporting them to make the casual inferences that are needed to understand the text as a whole.

2 | Pre-teach the context

A key element of comprehension is being able to match what we’re reading to our knowledge of the outside world – to use our general knowledge to build a mental image of the information in the text.

If we don’t know anything about a particular topic, it can be very difficult to make sense of what we’re reading.

For a child, Leon Garfield’s wonderful narrative version of  Julius Caesar  is a much richer experience if they know something about the Roman senate and that the Romans overthrew their last king. This helps them to appreciate Brutus’ dilemma and understand the significance of Caesar being offered a crown.

While it wouldn’t be possible to pre-teach the background knowledge for everything children are about to read, guided reading gives an opportunity to do this in a small way.

A few moments sharing a relevant picture at the start of a session, for example, means that all children can access the story.

3 | Model comprehension monitoring

Comprehension monitoring is the ability that confident readers have. It allows them to recognise if they haven’t understood what they’ve read.

It is what makes us re-read a sentence, make sure we haven’t skipped a page, or even go away to undertake the operose task of looking up the meaning of an unfamiliar word (like now, perhaps).

A guided reading session allows you plenty of opportunities to model this behaviour with the children who need it most, using a text closely matched to their level of understanding.

Effective teaching approaches include asking children to summarise the passage they have just read, or teaching children to form a mental image as they read, helping them to detect inconsistencies or missing information.

4 | Give children regular reading time

One of the most effective ways of supporting children’s developing reading comprehension is regular time to read.

After the age of seven, most of the new words we learn come from reading, and breadth of vocabulary plays an important role in children’s understanding of what they read.

“After the age of seven, most of the new words we learn come from reading”

Effective guided reading can help to keep children interested in books by providing them with regular time to enjoy engaging stories that will resonate with their interests and capture their imagination.

James Clements is co-author of Teaching the Reading Curriculum: The Role of High-Quality Guided Reading.

Guided reading began life as part of the old National Literacy Strategy, and some teachers still worry about how far they can stray from the traditional carousel model of five small groups reading with an adult once per week for 20 minutes.

In fact, guided reading offers considerable flexibility as a vehicle for teaching reading.

Myth:  In guided reading, children should be organised into five groups of six children

Just because there are 30 children in most classes and five days in the week, it doesn’t automatically follow that each guided reading group should be the same size.

Actually, guided reading groups can be of any size: smaller groups for an intensive focus with the children who need it, to larger groups for longer reading sessions.

The key is that each child is working with a text that is accessible but challenging, and has the opportunity to engage with the teacher and their peers in genuine discussion about the book.

Myth:  Guided reading should be organised as a carousel

There is no set structure for organising guided reading sessions. Schools are free to set up sessions however they wish. What is important is that children are engaged in meaningful activities that will develop some aspect of their reading and that guided reading is having an impact on the standard of children’s reading.

Myth:  Guided reading sessions should last for 20 minutes

In most schools guided reading has moved out of the English lesson to become a part of the school day in its own right.

The length of sessions is at the discretion of the teacher – many schools have successfully used a model where guided reading is organised into fewer, but longer weekly sessions.

Myth:  All children must read aloud during their guided reading session with an adult

Children who are developing as readers, especially those in the early part of the school, will benefit from reading aloud to an adult as often as possible. By Key Stage 2, the great majority should have developed strong word-reading skills.

Guided reading is therefore now an opportunity for high-quality discussion based on the text, with children using the book they have read to justify their views.

A literature circle approach can work well, with children reading the book away from the session and coming to their session with the teacher ready to discuss what they have read.

Sign up to our newsletter

You'll also receive regular updates from Teachwire with free lesson plans, great new teaching ideas, offers and more. (You can unsubscribe at any time.)

Which sectors are you interested in?

Early Years

Thank you for signing up to our emails!

You might also be interested in...

Why join Teachwire?

Get what you need to become a better teacher with unlimited access to exclusive free classroom resources and expert CPD downloads.

Exclusive classroom resource downloads

Free worksheets and lesson plans

CPD downloads, written by experts

Resource packs to supercharge your planning

Special web-only magazine editions

Educational podcasts & resources

Access to free literacy webinars

Newsletters and offers

Create free account

I would like to receive regular updates from Teachwire with free lesson plans, great new teaching ideas, offers and more. (You can unsubscribe at any time.)

By signing up you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy .

Already have an account? Log in here

Thanks, you're almost there

To help us show you teaching resources, downloads and more you’ll love, complete your profile below.

Welcome to Teachwire!

Set up your account.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Commodi nulla quos inventore beatae tenetur.

Log in to Teachwire

Not registered with Teachwire? Sign up for free

Reset Password

Remembered your password? Login here

13 Fun Reading Activities for Any Book

Whether you walk into a classroom in Asia, North America or Europe, you will almost certainly see teachers and students building their understanding of the world through a dedicated daily reading session full of great reading activities.

Books allow students an opportunity to be informed, entertained or escape as they comprehend fiction and non-fiction texts against their understanding of the world, their personal insights, and opinions and finally compare those texts to others.

Whilst you may have a wealth of books in your school library, developing fresh and engaging ways to study literature can often be challenging.  So today, we will explore 25 proven activities that can be applied to any book and at any age level.

These reading activities to improve reading comprehension are easy to follow and suitable for most age groups within an elementary/junior high school level.

125 Text Response ACTIVITIES, Games, Projects for ANY BOOK

This massive collection of ☀️ READING ACTIVITIES☀️ covers all essential reading skills for elementary/primary students. NO PREP REQUIRED! Works with all text and media types.

Thousands of teachers have adopted this as a GO-TO RESOURCE for independent and group tasks.

A COLLECTION OF FUN READING ACTIVITIES

A lifetime tale in pictures reading task.

Draw the main character from a book you have recently read.  Show them as a baby, middle-aged and an older person.

Underneath each picture, write what you think they might be doing at that point in their life, and explain why they may be doing so.

For example, if you drew Harry Potter as a baby, he might cast spells on his mum to feed him lots of yummy food.

Post-reading activities like this are accessible for all age groups to adapt their skill level and text style.

If you want to learn more about characters, read our complete guide here.

TEXT TO SELF-READING TASK

Based upon a book you have just read, share a  story about yourself related to an event or character in the book.

It is probably best done in the form of a written recount. Link your experience to no more than four situations that occurred within the text.

Text to self is an excellent opportunity for students to become introspective about the content they read and compare it to their own life experiences. 

This activity is appealing to teenagers more so than juniors .

IT’S IN THE INSTRUCTIONS READING TASK

From a book you have just read, select either a critical object or creature and create a user manual or a guide explaining how to care for it.

Ensure you use any vital information learnt from the book and any other information you consider essential.

If you are writing a user manual for an object, remember to focus on using it correctly and taking care of it.

If you are writing a user guide for an animal or creature, focus on keeping it alive and healthy as well as information that explains how to keep it happy and under control if necessary.

Dear Diary, READING TASK

Place yourself in the shoes of one of the characters you have just read about and write a diary entry of a critical moment from the story.

Try to choose a moment in the story where the character has plenty of interaction and emotion to share in a diary entry.

Your diary entry should be around a page long and contain information you learned from the book when the character was in that specific place and time.

Remember, when writing a diary entry, you are writing it from a first-person perspective. It is usually but not always written in the present tense.

Diary writing has been a very popular activity throughout time, but social media tools such as Facebook and blogging have in some ways changed this.

Mapping it all out, READING TASK

How do you make reading lessons fun? This reading activity answers that question confidently.

Have a go at drawing a map of one of the places from the text you have just read. See how much detail you can include, and be sure to discuss your map with another reader so you can compare and add more if necessary.

Take some time and effort to ensure your map appeals to the same audience the book aims at.

All good maps should contain the following BOLTS elements.

B – Bolts

O – Orientation

L – Legend

S – Scale

Express Yourself READING TASK

Using an iPad or a digital camera, make faces of the emotions the main characters would have gone through in your book and take photos of them. 

Put them together in a document on your computer or device and explain the emotion below the image and when the character would have felt this way.

This is an excellent opportunity to use some creative direction for this task.

Be sure to play around with the images, filters and graphical styling available.

Travel Agent READING TASK

Think of yourselves as a group of travel assistants whose job is to promote a  city of your choice from the text you have been reading.

As a group, you need to develop a concept map of all the exciting things that happen in your city and then present it to the class.

Don’t forget all of the exciting things such as theatres, restaurants, sports, adventure activities, entertainment and much more…

If you are a little short on details of the location of your story, do some research if it was an actual location or just get creative and make up some locations and tourist attractions based on what you read.

You’re Hired READING TASK

Select a character from a book and consider what might be an excellent job for them. You can choose something entirely suitable such as a security guard job for Superman or a more oddball approach, such as a pastry chef.

Either way, you will have to write a letter from this character’s perspective and apply for a position.

Be sure to explain why your character would be a great employee and what special skills they would possess to make them ideal for the role. Sell your character by explaining all the great attributes they possess.

What’s the Status? READING TASK

Create a Facebook page for your character with some status updates about what they have been up to.

Include some pictures and ensure your status updates are relevant to the character and the story.

Around 3 – 4 status updates with mages should give an overall picture of the character.

Use your status updates to explore what your character does for a job, leisure time, places they might go on vacation and the like.

Bubbles and Clouds READING TASK

Using speech bubbles and pictures of the characters, draw a conversation between two characters from the story you have read.

Remember, thought is drawn as a cloud, and a spoken statement is drawn as a  bubble.

Be sure to look at some comics or graphic novels for inspiration and insights.

This activity is usually best done on pen and paper, but numerous digital apps and tools will allow you to make this a reality through technology.

Amazing Artifacts READING TASK

An artifact is an object that has some significance or meaning behind it. Sometimes, an artefact might even have a very important story behind it.  I am sure you have a favorite toy, or your parents have a particular item in the house that they would consider an important artifact.

For today’s task, you will select five artifacts from the text you have been reading and explain what makes them significant or essential.

They don’t all have to be super important to the story, but I am sure that at least a couple played a significant role.

Be sure to draw a picture of the artifact and if necessary, label it.

FREE READING ACTIVITIES RESOURCE TO DOWNLOAD

Thinking Differently READING TASK

Choose three important events from the text and explain how you would have handled them differently from the characters in the story.

Explain how it may have changed the story’s outcome in either a minor or significant way.

Be insightful here and think of the cause and effect.  Sometimes your smallest action can have a significant impact on others.

Popplet Mind Mapping Task

Popplet is a mind mapping tool that allows you to connect ideas together using images, text and drawings.

From a text, you have recently read, create a family tree or network diagram that explains the relationship the characters have with each other.

Some may be father and son, husband and wife or even arch enemies.

Try and lay it out so it is easy to follow.

You Have Three Wishes READING TASK

A genie lands at the midpoint of the story you have just read and grants the two main characters three wishes.

What do they wish for and why?

Finally, would their wishes have changed anything about the story?  How so?

Again think about the cause and effect relationship and how this may have altered the path of the book you have been reading.

A COMPLETE DIGITAL READING UNIT FOR STUDENTS

Over 30 engaging activities for students to complete BEFORE, DURING and AFTER reading ANY BOOK

• Compatible with all devices and digital platforms, including GOOGLE CLASSROOM.
• Fun, Engaging, Open-Ended INDEPENDENT tasks.
• 20+ 5-Star Ratings ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

MORE GREAT ARTICLES WITH READING ACTIVITIES

Top 7 Reading Comprehension Strategies for Students and Teachers

How to teach Guided Reading: Teaching Strategies and Activities

Identifying the main idea of the story: A Guide for Students and Teachers

Teaching Cause and Effect in Reading and Writing

Graphic Organizers for Writing and Reading

Top 7 Tips for Teaching Guided Reading in Large Classes

5 Reasons You Need a Digital Reading Diary In 2023

The content for this page has been written by Shane Mac Donnchaidh.  A former principal of an international school and English university lecturer with 15 years of teaching and administration experience. Shane’s latest Book, The Complete Guide to Nonfiction Writing , can be found here.  Editing and support for this article have been provided by the literacyideas team.

Explore our Premium Teaching Unit on GUIDED READING

Home » reading comprehension resources

KS2 Reading Comprehension Resources

Browse and download ks2 resources to inspire your class below..

Reading Comprehension Resources FAQ

Our reading book comprehension resources are based on extracts from high quality literature. Introduce your children to a range of exciting books and a wide variety of genres.

How many lessons accompany each book?

Our book comprehension resources include 1-5 (although most have 3) KS2 reading comprehension lessons. It’s important to note that you do not need to teach them all. If your class is really enjoying the book, then you can continue with and beyond the lessons provided.

What resources are included in each downloadable pack?

Each pack contains a teaching PowerPoint, engaging PDF activities, which can be cut out and shared, and lastly, a photocopiable copy of the extract unless otherwise stated.

Usually, for picture books, we cannot provide a downloadable copy of the entire text, however for most text-based books, an extract is included.

Do I need to buy the books?

 We include photocopiable extracts alongside most texts, however, why not purchase a copy or two for your book corner to encourage independent reading?

We also recommend purchasing all picture books as we cannot include full text downloads of these.

How do myteachinghive's resources teach and cover the National Curriculum requirements?

All of our lessons focus on a particular reading skill as set out in the National Curriculum. You can explore our reading skills HERE . Sign up for free to download our reading skills posters.

Please note: you must be logged in to access downloads.

CLICK HERE  to download a whole year group’s resources in bulk.

Sign Up to Download Engaging Reading Comprehension

Make reading lessons fun and get children excited about books today!

We love Books for Topics

Get inspiration for what book to teach next here...

booksfortopics.com

Share this:

Subscribe to newsletter.

• Book-based Whole Class Reading Bundle
• All Resources
• Reading Skills
• Why Join Us?
• Get Started - members
• [email protected]

SITE INFORMATION

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use/Copyright
• © my Teaching Hive 2022

Sign Up to our Free Subscription

Get notified about new resources and offers.

Submitting your details indicates that you are happy for MyTeachingHive to contact you about relevant services and offers. You can unsubscribe at any time.

We are committed to keeping your information safe. Read our Privacy Policy to find out more.

• Reading skills

Independent reading

• Show all (48)
• Primary (2)
• Geography (1)
• History (1)
• Languages (1)
• Science (1)
• (-) English (37)

Subject categories

• All subject categories (164)
• English (37)
• (-) Independent reading (37)
• Reading skills (37)
• Language (26)
• Literature (8)
• Reading (7)
• Comprehension (2)
• Comparing texts (1)
• Modern prose (1)
• Research skills (1)
• Understanding purpose and audience (1)
• (-) All key stages (51)

Resource type

• Worksheet (23)
• Teaching ideas (12)
• Student activity (7)
• Complete lesson (6)
• Differentiated (4)
• Role play/debate/discussion (4)
• Game/quiz (3)
• Templates (2)
• Display/posters (1)
• Knowledge organisers (1)
• Self-assessment (1)
• Starter/Plenary (1)

Encourage a lifelong love of reading by using this range of thoughtful and creative independent reading resources with your KS3-4 students. Whether you need a simple book review template, some ways to enrich students' cultural capital by reading more extensively or ideas to inspire students to pick up a good book, you'll find a resource to suit.

And you are looking for creative and fun ideas to celebrate World Book Day , try our specially curated selection. 

Search results