Thursday 29th June, 2017

Dear Parents/ Carers of the Class One children,

Below are some activities/games to do with your children over the next few weeks, and during the summer holidays, for their guided reading/learning home tasks.

When Year One families are hearing their child read during the holidays please encourage fluency, where appropriate. In May 2018 of Year 2 your child will need to read 90 words a minute with good accuracy and comprehension.

The Reception children should be encouraged to look at picture books with you at home and hear stories (daily ideally) and read a simple book similar to their book band level. This will really help them to maintain their good phonic knowledge and blending skills during this long holiday, ready for Year 1 in September.

There will be no more guided reading packs being sent home this term, as we will now be carrying out Benchmark reading assessments with the children in class and from this information we will be determining which book band they will be using for their future guided reading tasks.

All assessment information will be passed onto your child’s next class teacher, where applicable.

Games to play at home:

  1. Play rhyming pairs. You say a word e.g. ‘frog’ and your child has to think of a word that would rhyme with that word e.g. ‘log’. Keep a tally of how many they can do. Play the game a few days later; can they improve their score?
  2. Play the Shopping List memory game. Choose a category for your shopping list e.g. ‘fruit and vegetables’ or ‘types of toy’. Next you or your child starts by saying: ‘I went shopping and I bought a....’ Working in alphabetical order you take turns to name an item e.g. ‘I went shopping and I bought an apple.’ The next person says, ‘I went shopping and I bought an apple and a banana.’ Keep repeating what was added to the list and add the new item. How far down the alphabet can you go before someone forgets the sequence? Can you improve on your last go?
  3. Sing nursery rhymes in the car.
  4. Can your child learn a simple poem and then recite it to members of the family in a mini performance?

E.g. ‘Who’s that tickling my back,’ said the wall?

‘Me,’ said a caterpillar, ‘I’m learning to crawl!’

Anon

Or they could learn to tell a few jokes and say them to an audience.

  1. Word definition game. This helps children to understand vocabulary and to also build up their confidence in expressing themselves. For example, category. You would say to your child ‘orange’ and they would reply ‘fruit’. Other examples could be function, unique characteristics and for a challenge,synonyms (you may need to explain what this is to your child – words with similar meaning).

You say... / They say....
Category / ambulance / vehicle
wasp / insect
shop / building
Function / pen / to write with
ruler / to measure with
money / to buy things with
Unique Characteristics / elephant / trunk
submarine / underwater
piano / black and white notes
Synonyms / noisy / loud
look / stare
filthy / dirty

To make this game more of a challenge in future attempts, see how quickly they can do it.

  1. ‘First News’ is a newspaper written especially for children. We are kindly provided with this newspaper in each class by the PTFA and the children enjoy having this newspaper read to them and to look at the interesting photographs from around the world in it. This newspaper for children can be purchased in most supermarkets e.g. Tesco’s. There is a great games page near the back of the newspaper with word searches and ‘spot the difference’ activities. These activities would be of benefit to your child. If your child is a confident reader in Year One they could also have a go at reading some of the news articles, with your guidance to explain different vocabulary. Then at a meal time they could discuss what they read in their newspaper to you as family and what they thought about it.

There will be another letter coming out to families nearer the end of term with information about our ‘Big Summer Holiday Read’ and other ways to support your child’s learning at home. Please also look on our school website in the Parent Information section for more ideas and advice about how you can support your child’s learning at home.

Thank you for your ongoing support with your child’s learning progress and enjoyment.

Kind regards,

Mrs Kersey and the Class One team