Why choose this book?
Beautifully wrought poetic language and with universal themes to discuss, this is both a challenge and a delight for year 3 readers.
Text potential
This diagram gives an overview of the potential for teaching offered in this text. If you teach the entire sequence, you will cover these aspects. We advise teachers to produce their own text potential diagrams as this helps them to get to know the books well. Our Getting Started with Take One Book course for new schools has a module about Text Potential.
Vocabulary
- Academic vocabulary (processes)
- Movement verbs
- Semantic Field: caves
- Semantic Field: emotions
- Semantic Field: glaciers
- Tier 2 vocabulary
Writing opportunities
- Narrative: alternative endings
- Narrative: alternative viewpoint
- Poetry
Background knowledge
- Caves
Inference opportunities
- Character Emotions
- Character Inference
- Character Motivation
- Character Thoughts
- Elaborative inference
- Prediction
Narrative features
- Character motivations
- Plot: key events
- Plot: structure
- Narration: point of view
Language features
- Descriptive language
- Positive and Negative Language
- Word Class: verbs
Genre
- Factual website
Theme
- Fear
- Light and dark
- Promise
- Risk and safety
Literary features
- Figurative language
- Metaphor and simile
Visual language
- Narrative elements
Wider learning opportunities
- Geology: pebbles and rocks
Connections
Making connections is an important part of children’s knowledge-building, reading, and developing comprehension. We can help children build their knowledge by making explicit links throughout the year and across years. As well as making connections with other books they have read, we signpost curriculum connections. Sometimes, we will look for a book that connects with the children’s current studies in history, geography or science, but we can also spiral their learning by either foregrounding a topic that we know they will study later or revisiting a topic that they have already studied.
See the list of recommended supplementary books for this sequence.
Narrative Fiction
This book forms part of the narrative fiction strand running through the Take One Book Sequences. We recommend that at least two narrative fiction books form part of your year group plan. In the lower year groups, more books will be picture books rather than chapter fiction. Some suggested books are:
Links to National Curriculum in England
This sequence of work covers the following elements of the English National Curriculum for years 3 and 4:
Reading
- develop positive attitudes to reading, and an understanding of what they read, by:
- listening to and discussing a wide range of fiction, in this instance, a short story by multi-award-winning author, Berlie Doherty
- reading books that are structured in different ways and reading for a range of purposes
- using dictionaries to check the meaning of words that they have read
- increasing their familiarity with a wide range of books, including myths and legends, and retelling some of these orally
- identifying themes and conventions in a wide range of books
- discussing words and phrases that capture the reader’s interest and imagination
- understand what they read, in books they can read independently, by:
- checking that the text makes sense to them, discussing their understanding, and explaining the meaning of words in context
- asking questions to improve their understanding of a text
- drawing inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence
- predicting what might happen from details stated and implied
- identifying main ideas drawn from more than 1 paragraph and summarising these
- identifying how language, structure, and presentation contribute to meaning
- participate in discussion about both books that are read to them and those they can read for themselves, taking turns and listening to what others say
Writing
Take One Book focuses on develop depth of reading comprehension. However, the writing opportunities in this sequence afford the opportunity to develop elements of the Writing Programme of Study.
Curriculum connections
- Dance
- Geography