Archie’s Pond Launch

Reading together

Reading age 6–7 describes the audience for this adult-led Shared Reading book, not an independent reading-level assessment. This is a read-aloud story for Year 2 children aged 6–7, not an independent reading-level text. Read at the child’s pace. Children can listen, point, gesture, sign or join in with familiar words. Joining in is optional.

Before reading

Look at the title and cover. Introduce the characters and setting. Explore these five words with pictures, actions and familiar examples: clock, minute, hour, halfway, launch. Invite a prediction about what might happen.

During reading

Use Talk Together for a prompt on each page. Talk about counting, matching, shapes, positions, quantities and patterns. Compare what the characters expected with what they noticed. Invite children to join in with repeated words or gestures.

After reading

Retell the story in order. Explain the problem, the characters’ ideas and how they checked their solution. Use a teaching clock. Show three o’clock, move the minute hand halfway round to six and move the hour hand halfway towards four. Explain thirty minutes as half an hour. Describe what the characters noticed and how their ideas changed. Invite different experiences and respect a child’s choice not to share.

Explore and play

Numeracy idea

Read three o’clock and half past three on an analogue clock and connect half an hour with thirty minutes.

Notice together

Use the pictures and story objects to explain each idea. Invite children to show how they know and to check with practical materials.

Try together

Use a teaching clock. Show three o’clock, move the minute hand halfway round to six and move the hour hand halfway towards four. Explain thirty minutes as half an hour.

Adult support

Read aloud at the children’s pace. Offer objects, drawings, gestures and time to talk. Accept different ways of explaining an answer.

Activities with an adult

The eleven separate question cards include recall, word meaning, observation, “why”, inference and evidence questions and discussion. Read the questions and choices aloud and offer picture support. Explore five vocabulary words, build them from movable letters and order three story pictures. Model a vocabulary word for the child to copy; letter recognition and independent decoding are not required. Mouse dragging, finger dragging, tap controls and keyboard controls are available. Use the light green and red feedback as a chance to look at the story again.

Choose a few activities that suit the child’s interest. Offer pictures, drawings, gestures or spoken answers, and model word building when useful. Activities are optional.