Develop Inference Skills

In this activity, we will be using our inference skills.

Inference questions might ask us:

Why a character does something.

What a sentence from the text tells us about a character’s feelings.

How the character is feeling.

Where the character or object is.

Why a character did a particular thing.

To answer these questions, we have to piece evidence from the text together to form an answer. The answer isn’t clearly written in the text itself.

Read the passage below:

In a garden adorned with emerald leaves and blossoming trees, four friends, Lily, Max, Mia, and Jake, stumbled upon a wounded bird. Its delicate feathers, which were once a tapestry of white and gold, were now ruffled and faded. Its chirps echoed like a tiny orchestra, the notes trembling with fear.

With hearts pounding like drums, the children gently cradled the fragile creature, its heartbeat was a galloping horse in their hands. The four children looked at each other. They knew they must get this flightless bird to a rescue centre as soon as possible.

How did the children feel when they came across the bird?

Did you spot the clues that the children were worried?

Their hearts were pounding like drums.

Our hearts beat fast when we’re nervous or excited.

They can’t be excited as they’ve just found an injured bird, so they must be nervous and worried about the bird.

In this activity, you’ll be answering inference questions about a story. Remember to think like a detective and keep looking for those clues.