Roll the cubes before, during and after reading a story to encourage comprehension skills. Each side asks a question, such as “what do the pictures on the cover tell you about the story?” and “What is the main idea of the story?”

Reasons to Love:

• Encourage children to discuss their reading with these dice which add an element of surprise about what the topic for discussion might be.

• Model good discussion during Guided Reading sessions, and then let the children use them independently to discuss their own reading.

• These cubes would work well for groups of children reading the same book, or during a library session where the children are swapping books and want to tell someone about the book they have just read.

Learning Outcomes:

• Comprehension skills develop through pupils’ experience of high-quality discussion with the teacher, as well as from reading and discussing a range of stories, poems and non-fiction.

• All pupils must be encouraged to read widely across both fiction and non-fiction to develop their knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, and to gain knowledge across the curriculum.

• Reading widely and often increases pupils’ vocabulary because they encounter words they would rarely hear or use in everyday speech.