Reading - Group 3
Week 10
Monday
The Pacific Islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean.
The Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the world’s largest body of water. It covers 165.2 million square kilometres - that is a third of the Earth’s surface and 46% of the Earth’s water! It borders 36 countries and is separated into north and south at the Equator.
In 1519, The Pacific Ocean was first named the ‘Mare Pacificum’ (the Peaceful Sea), by Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer. The Pacific Ocean has an area called the Pacific Rim or Ring of Fire - this is where there is a lot of tectonic activity and volcanic eruptions.
The Pacific Ocean also has the world’s largest coral reef, The Great Barrier Reef and the deepest point on Earth, the Mariana Trench, which is 10,911 metres deep.
The Islands
There are thousands of islands in the Pacific Ocean. Most of them are in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. Most of the islands belong to the six main island groups: Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.
These groups were given their names by French navigator, Jules Dumont d’Urville in 1826.
Pasifika peoples in New Zealand represent the islands of Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Niue, Tokelau, Tubulu, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.
Answer the following questions.
What are the Pacific Islands?
How big is the Pacific Ocean?
Where is the Pacific Ocean separated into north and south?
Name an interesting feature in the Pacific Islands?
How deep is the Mariana Trench?
Where are most of the Pacific Islands?
Name two of the main island groups.
tuesday
Answer the following questions:
Task A
What did Andrew buy Jamie for his birthday?
What is ‘The Proud Spice”?
How old was Jamie turning?
List 5 foods that were served at the party.
Why was Andrew so excited about Jamie’s party?
What do you think Andrew and Jamie might do after the party?
wednesday
Answer the following questions.
Write down adjectives to describe what a volcano looks like?
Can you make a noise like a rumbling volcano?
Write some words that describe the sound that a rumbling volcano makes.
Describe what comes out of a volcano.
What word in the poem means the same as ‘blow up?’
Can you find words in the poem that rhyme with:
fountain ___________ fly _________________
slow _______________ phone _____________
Use the poem to identify one example of personification.
Can you come up with your own example of personification?
thursday
A DIFFERENT KIND OF LANGUAGE
When Kristin was just 18 months old, her parents found out she was partially deaf in both ears, she couldn’t hear well. Kristin is 27 years old now. She graduated from university and she works as a veterinarian. Along the way, she overcame many obstacles and has some advice for kids who are hearing impaired — and for other kids who want to know what it's like to have trouble hearing.
When I was 2 years old, I went to kindergarten. It was the first time I realized my hearing problems made me different. My teacher was nice, but I was the only student wearing hearing aids. At first, I just cried when the other kids asked me about my hearing problem. My mom told me that I shouldn't feel ashamed or embarrassed. She said the kids didn't understand about my hearing problem so were only curious.
Later, I learned to communicate very well. One of my high school teachers didn't realize I had hearing problems until the last day of class! I use only one hearing aid now and I know how to read lips. I also learnt sign language to communicate with some of my friends. Some deaf people don’t wear hearing aids and they prefer to use signs. Some people think that we have a more limited life but I usually go to the cinema (with subtitles) or go dancing. I even play the drums in my free time!
1. Are these questions about the text true (T), false (F) or the text doesn’t mention (DM)?
a. Kristin is 18 months old.
b. Kristin works with animals.
c. She went to kindergarten when she was 18 months old.
d. The kids in kindergarten ask Kristin about the hearing problem.
e. All her teachers knew she was deaf.
f. She doesn’t use hearing aids now.
g. All deaf people use sign language to communicate.
h. Kristin learned sign language at university.
i. Kristin can play a musical instrument.
2. What other difficulties do you think Kristin had when she was your age?
3. The hearing impaired just need to make some adjustments to have a normal life. How do you think they use things like the alarm clock, the doorbell or the mobile phone?
4. Kristin watches films with subtitles. But when films are not subtitled she can read lips. Try to say a message to someone with your lips (don’t use your voice).
Did he/she guess it?
5. Kristin learned sign language to communicate with some of her friends. This is a model of the American Sign Language (ASL) alphabet and numbers. It was created in the 19th century. Can you spell your name with signs?
8. Non-verbal communication such as gestures, face expressions, etc. is very important in everyday life for both hearing and non-hearing. Can you use any signs to give a message without speaking?
For example: Stop and wait there.
friday
Stanley and the Strange Red Button
Stanley Small slumped his head onto the jigsaw puzzle and sighed. He was sooooo bored. He closed his eyes and listened to the rain pitter-patter on the window and wondered if it was ever going to stop. Why-o-why did his parents send him off to stay with his boring Uncle Steven and boring Aunt May for the whole summer holidays? It wasn’t fair! They’d given him this 2000-piece flower-jigsaw to do and it was driving him insane! He wanted adventure, not mind-numbing boredom! “Uuughhh!” he moaned loudly. For the first time in his life, Stanley Small wished he was back at school.
“Stanley, sit up straight!”
He opened one eye and peered up. Boring Aunt May stared back. “Now, Stanley,” she said in her annoying squeaky voice. “Uncle Steven and I are popping out to walk around some gardens. While we’re gone please remember the house rules. No television, food or those ghastly computer games, understand?”
“Yes, Aunt May,” Stanley said, rolling his eyes.
“One more thing,” Uncle Steven added, waddling into the room. “Under no circumstances are you to enter my study. It’s completely off-limits and highly dangerous, is that quite clear?”
Stanley’s eyes widened. “Er, yes, of course, Uncle Steven,” he said. “Have a lovely time!”
As soon as they had closed the front door, Stanley raced upstairs. “Dangerous?” he said to himself as he turned the handle to his uncle’s study. “How exciting...” He slowly opened the door and peered inside. Dusty books hung from high shelves, whilst the floor was littered with sheets of paper. At the end of the room, in the middle of a messy desk, was a strange red button. Stanley walked over and looked at it. The words ‘DO NOT PRESS’ were written on top. He smiled, wondering what it did. He slowly looked from left to right, then took a deep breath. Closing his eyes, and with his heart beating fast, Stanley then reached forward and pushed the red button!
Suddenly, there was a flash of red light and Stanley began to feel rather strange. “Waaagh!” he yelped as he shrunk to the size of an ant!
He looked around. The carpet was like a jungle. How on earth am I going to get out of this one? he thought to himself...
Answer the following questions:
Why did Stanley wish he was back at school?
Write down three verbs from the story.
Why do you think Stanley’s eyes widened when Uncle Steven told him his study was highly dangerous?
What happened when Stanley pressed the red button?
What do you think Uncle Steven will think when he finds out Stanley has been in his study and pressed the red button?
What would you have done if you were Stanley?
How do you think the story ended?
Challenge: Make your own puzzle.
Get an empty cereal box and ask someone to cut it up into about 10 different size pieces. Now see if you can put it back together again. Tip: You might want to take a photo of it before it is cut up so that you know how to put it back together again.
