School Camp Diary — Reading Comprehension — Answers

Answer sheet with model answers and success criteria for the Year 5 reading comprehension comprehension exercise.

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Year 5 · English · Reading Comprehension

School Camp Diary — Reading Comprehension — Answers

Success Tutoring

Part A — Find the facts

1.What is the name of Ana's cabin?[1 mark]

Answer: Kererū.

2.What did Ana do on Tuesday morning?[1 mark]

Awent on a night walk
Bpacked up the cabin
Cwent kayaking
Drode the bus

Answer: went kayaking

The diary says 'This morning we went kayaking on the lake.'

3.Who helped Ana learn to paddle?[1 mark]

Answer: Mr Tane, the instructor.

4.What two things did the group see or hear on the night walk?[1 mark]

Answer: Glow-worms and a ruru (morepork) calling.

Part B — Think about it

5.How did Ana feel about kayaking on Monday? How did she feel by Wednesday?[2 marks]

Answer: On Monday she was nervous because she had never been kayaking. By Wednesday it was her favourite part and she couldn't believe she had been worried.

6.Why did the group turn their torches off?[1 mark]

Answer: So they could see the glow-worms' tiny lights in the dark.

7.The writer says the glow-worms were 'like a sky full of stars'. What does this help you picture?[2 marks]

Answer: Lots of tiny lights shining in the dark, like stars in the night sky.

8.Why do you think Ana doesn't want to go home yet?[1 mark]

Answer: She is enjoying camp and had fun, especially kayaking.

Part C — How the text works

9.Why is the diary split into Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday?[1 mark]

Ato show the order things happened
Bto make it rhyme
Cto list the rules
Dto show who was talking

Answer: to show the order things happened

Diaries are organised by day so the reader can follow events in time order.

10.Diaries are usually written in the past tense. Find two past tense verbs in Tuesday's entry.[1 mark]

Answer: Any two of: went, kept, got, showed, was, did, saw, said, heard, had.

Part D — Your turn

11.Write a diary entry about a day you remember, such as a trip or a sports day. Say what happened, in order, and how you felt.[4 marks]

Model answer: Saturday. Today we went to the beach at Raglan. First we built a huge sandcastle, but the tide came in and washed it away. I was annoyed at first, then we started laughing. Later Dad bought fish and chips and a seagull tried to steal one!

Success criteria:

Events in time order
Written in the past tense
Includes the writer's feelings
Uses I and we (first person)

Marking tips

Give credit for correct method even when the final answer slips — the working shows where the thinking went right.
For open-ended tasks, use the success criteria as a checklist rather than looking for one "right" answer.
Celebrate what went well first, then pick one thing to work on next.

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