Helping your child to read
In the first few months of school we will focus on:
- Listening to stories and the sounds of language.
- Rhyme and rhythm.
You can support this learning by reading the ‘shared reader’ book your child chooses to bring home.This will encourage your child to read, help to develop their concentration and also establish a positive homework routine.
You can also:
•Play games such as ‘I spy’
•Recite traditional nursery rhymes
•Make up fun rhyming songs or phrases
At this stage we introduce the sounds of the alphabet.
These are taught in a specific order whichwill help yourchild to startbuilding up words quickly. In order to do this your child will take part in active and fun phonics lessons!
Important points to remember:
•Information on which letters your child is learning will be sent home for them to practise
•When talking about letters and sounds we emphasise the sound the letter makes e.g. S would be ‘sss’ not ‘es’
•Not making an ‘uh’ sound when pronouncing the letter!
Practical Tips:
Rhyme and sounds of language
- Recite rhymes e.g. ‘Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the ….’ and ask your child to supply the missing word.
- Make up rhyming phrases (use nonsense words)
- Play with language e.g. ‘Can you think of another word which starts with the same sound as…’
Reading skills
- Find a time which is free from distractions (or as much as possible!)
- Read lots of different books with your child.
Before you read a story with your child
- Talk about the title and the pictures on the front cover.
- Discuss what you think the story might be about.
- Check your child knows where to start reading and the direction of print across the page.
During reading
- Read the story to your child, pointing to the words as you read them.
- Draw attention to language such as ‘Once upon a time’.
- Re-read the story with your child, encouraging them to join in with repeated patterns.
- Give your child lots of encouragement as they read with you.
After reading
- Make links with your child’s life e.g. by asking ‘has that ever happened to you?’
- Ask what their favourite part was.
Phonic activities
- Point out the starting sound of a word and ask them to think of another word with the same sound.
- Point out a word and ask them to think of a word that rhymes with it.
Oxford Reading Tree
Oxford Reading Tree is the main (but not exclusive) reading scheme we use. In the first few months of school your child will meet the characters and learn to recognise their names.
They will be set key wordsto learn which cannot be tallied, for example ‘said’. At home your child should practise recognising these words simply by sight.
In class we will teach reading skills but reading homework (10 minutes per night) will really help to reinforce the work done in school.
We will make a decision on which book to send home each week based on a variety of reasons.
In class time your child will participate in daily reading activities and therefore it is very important that reading books are brought into school EVERY day.
Other reading schemes
Do not panic if your child is not reading books from Oxford Reading Tree.
We encourage pupils to read a range of texts and for a variety of purposes.
With all books we aim to develop skills in:
- Talking about what is happening in the story
- Predicting what might happen next
- Working out unknown words using picture clues and knowledge of letter and spelling patterns
- Re-telling the main events
Books without words:
We have invested in more of these types of books. There is a great deal of value in talking with your child about what is happening in a story. It is also an important skill to be able to re-tell the main events. See below for an example of The Gingerbread Man.
Remember:
Keep reading fun! We want to develop confident and enthusiastic readers.
If your child is becoming frustrated with the reading homework please speak to the teacher at the end of the school day.