Sharing one more activity with you all before we break up for the Summer (phew we made it!).

Activity: Teaching inferences from pictures

Why?: The ability to make inferences is an important higher level skill. Simply put, making inferences is where we make informed assumptions based on the clues that we’ve been given and our knowledge of the world. It is the ability to understand implied information or, rather, ‘read between the lines’. Thus it is essential that a child develop these skills in order to succeed within the classroom (e.g. reading comprehension) and in social situations.

What you will need: Pictures! Making inferences from pictures is a great way to begin teaching this skill, especially for the younger ones with emerging reading skills. Have a search around the internet or use picture books.

Here are some search ideas to get you started:

• A sick child
• A happy child at a birthday party
• A worried or scared child
• A broken toy
• An animal hunting
• A parent helping a child

What to do: the key thing is to talk around the pictures. Some of the key questions you could be asking your child is what is happening in the picture, why they think it is happening, what are the clues that made them draw these conclusions and what they think might happen next.

Resources: There are plenty of picture resources, specifically for building inferring skills, available online. They also include guided questions if you need ideas. Here are some below.

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t2-e-1465-guided-reading-skills-task-cards-inference

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-l-52204-inference-picture-and-question-cards

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-s-908-inference-picture-and-question-cards