This week in class we have been reading like historians using the book A Street Through Time. The book shows how one street changes over time, helping us to think carefully about the past and how life has changed.
Although the book has limited written text, the detailed illustrations gave us lots of information to retrieve and interpret. We looked closely at the pictures, asked questions and made predictions.
This linked perfectly to our history topic as we are beginning to learn about the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons. The children loved spotting clues in the illustrations and discussing what life might have been like in different time periods. It has given us lots of excitement and curiosity as we start our history learning journey.
We also talked about how picture books are still an important part of reading at all ages. They help children develop vocabulary, inference skills and deeper understanding by encouraging them to think carefully about images as well as text.
Help at home:
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Share picture books together and talk about what you can see in the illustrations
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Ask questions such as “What do you notice?”, “What might be happening here?” or “How is this different from today?”
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Encourage your child to explain their ideas using evidence from the pictures
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Link reading to real-life experiences, museums or history topics you are learning about