Year 4 A Journey through Greek Myths: reading worksheet

“Real or made up?” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 4 English unit “A Journey through Greek Myths: reading”, for children aged 8 to 9, and takes about 23 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 23 to 24 of the year, 5 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Real or made up?

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 4 · English · about 23 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can tell a made-up myth from a fact about the real world, and explain why a nonfiction book can hold invented stories.

A Look back3 min

1.
Circle the happiest word in this list, then write it in the box.
crossdelightednervous
2.
A story has a beginning, a and an end. Write the missing word in the box.
3.
Is the word “flies” a noun, a verb or an adjective in “The owl flies over the sea”? Circle one, then write it in the box.
nounverbadjective

B Watch me, then you4 min

A nonfiction book has a chapter about an ancient temple and a chapter about a goddess. Read how to sort one sentence.

A green hillside with an old stone road winding up to a temple

Watch me

A stone temple with tall columns on a hill above a blue sea

A chapter says a goddess burst out of her father's head, already a full adult.

No real person could do that, so this part is made up.

The temple ruins are real, and you can still visit them in Athens.

Now you

1.
A chapter says the sea god sent a giant bull up out of the waves as a gift. Real or made up? Circle one, then write it in the box.
realmade up

C Your turn7 min

Each sentence is about Athens. Circle real or made up.

A sunny street in Athens with a view of an ancient hilltop temple

1.
Athens is a city in Greece. Real or made up?
realmade up
2.
Athens is a city where a goddess lives in the sky. Real or made up?
realmade up
3.
Athens is a city where people once told stories about a goddess. Real or made up?
realmade up
4.
Athens is a city where a goddess turned a king into a tree. Real or made up?
realmade up

Say it out loud: Which words in the made-up sentences tell you they could not happen in real life?

D Spot the mistake3 min

An open book on a table with a temple drawn on its cover

Sam says: “This book is nonfiction, so every story in it must be true.”

1.
Explain why Sam is wrong. Write one or two sentences.

E Think deeper4 min

Two owls perched on a stone temple roof above a blue sea

1.
Write two sentences for the back of a book about Greek myths. Make one sentence about the real world and one about a made-up god or creature. Then say how a reader can tell them apart.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Real or made up? · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. delighted If your child picks a word for a bad feeling, point to the sunny end of the scale and ask which word sits there.

2. Look for: The word middle, meaning the part of a story between the beginning and the end.

3. verb If your child says noun, ask: does “flies” show an action the owl does? A word that shows an action is a verb.

B

1. made up If your child says real, ask: is there a real sea god who sends gifts? Then ask what makes it a story.

C

1. real If your child says made up, ask: can you find Athens on a map and fly there? Then the city is real.

2. made up

3. real If your child says made up, remind them that the stories were really told by people. The goddess is the invented part.

4. made up

D

1. Look for: Says that some stories are not true, such as the gods or creatures, even though the book is nonfiction. If your child agrees with Sam, ask: could a goddess really burst out of her father's head? Then ask whether the whole book must be true.

E

1. Look for: One true sentence about the real world, one sentence about an invented god or creature, and a clue that tells the reader which is which.

Words to use

Say“How do you know that part is real, or made up? Could it happen in real life?”

Instead of“Yes, it is a book, so it must all be true.”

After the sheet

Find a book of myths or legends, or a nonfiction book about long ago. Read one sentence at a time and sort it into real or made up, using sticky notes.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

4 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Who is Chaos?(with a plan)
What a character really shows(with a plan)
Retelling a myth(with a plan)
Finding big ideas(with a plan)

Every Year 4 English worksheet

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