Reading

Reading Early Learning Goal (ELG) Children read and understand simple sentences. They use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them aloud accurately. They also read some common irregular words. They demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read.

The Power of Reading! Creating a love of reading in children is potentially one of the most powerful ways of improving academic standards in school. There can be few better ways to improve chances in school, or beyond in the wider world than to enable them to become truly independent readers.

Reading Success in reading is fundamental to success in school. Reading is all about acquiring meaning; for enjoyment, information and understanding. It is not a performance. It is not a test. Every time you finish a book - do you always choose a harder one next time?

Reading Levels Your children will have been placed onto a level, such as red, which matches their current reading ability. They will go around our balloons and clouds display for reading at home four times a week!!

Bug Club You child has a username and password that is unique to them- a copy of this is in the front of their home/school reading diary should they forget. With this password your child will be able to access the e-book at home and complete the reading tasks set each week by their class teacher. The teacher will monitor your child’s progress and allocate books accordingly. The Bug Club site can be accessed via any computer with internet access. If computer access at home is a problem then please let one of us know.

Reading requires two skills Understanding The ability to understand the meaning of the words and sentences in a text. The ability to understand the ideas, information and themes in a text. If a child understands what they hear, they will understand the same information when they read.

What are phonics? How many letters? 26 How many sounds (phonemes)? 44 How many spellings of the sounds? 144

Learning sight words So far we have learnt: Come, here, said, the, little, baby, no, go, so, and, like, you. There will be more! We use The Piranhas music Tom Hark to learn our sight words. We introduce new words weekly. The children come up with their own action. The word is displayed and held above out left shoulder while the children move to the music looking at the word and doing the action they chose. The sight words are changed quickly. Up on your feet parents and give it a try!!

Stretchy sounds fffff nnnnn mmmmm lllll sh sh sh sh sh zzzzz rrrrr sssss vvvvv th th th th th ng ng ng ng ng

Bouncy Sounds aaaaa eeeee iiiii ooooo uuuuu bbbbb wwwww ttttt yyyyy ppppp ddddd ggggg hhhhh jjjjj kkkkk xxxxx ccccc qu qu qu qu qu

Correct Articulation of Sounds The correct articulation of sounds is really important. When we teach the children sounds we say the pure sound without adding “uh” to the end of the sound.

Blending and Segmenting sh ar p Blending for reading Segmenting for spelling

Reading at home Make reading visible; have books available in your home Share books every day; Boys need to see that reading is something men do. Talk about books. Sit and listen - don’t do chores around the reader! Respect choices.

What to do if your child is stuck Use phonics first. What sound does the word begin with? Can you say the sounds in the word? Blend them together. Read to the end of the sentence. What would make sense? What is the text about – what might fit here? Does it sound right? Look at the picture. Does it help?

Closed Questions! Do you like this book? Do you like this character? It’s a good story isn’t it? Do you like reading? Are you good at reading? Do you like this kind of story? Change these questions so that the answers cannot be yes or no. What do you like about this book? What do you think of this character? Why do you think this is a good story? What’s great about reading? Why are you a good reader? What is it about these stories that you like so much?

Talking about books It is not a test! Do you like this book; why? Who is your favourite character? Tell me about a character in the book. Which words tell you what the character is like? How would you feel? What do you think will happen next? What would you do? What have you learned about ** in your book? What can you tell me about **?

Hearing your child read Choose a quiet time and give your child your full attention Give support if required using the strategies explained earlier Explain the meaning of new words Talk about the text using open questions.

Reading to your children Introduce your children to different types of books; classic fiction, chapter books, short stories, joke books, poetry, non-fiction. Read them the book that was your favourite when you were a child. Read slowly, with expression. Try to use different and funny voices for characters. Follow the words and read the story using the pictures. Talk about what is happening and what might happen next. Leave the story on a cliffhanger!

Writing

Writing Early Learning Goal (ELG) Children use their phonic knowledge to write words in ways which match their spoken sounds. They also write some irregular common words. They write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others. Some words are spelt correctly and others are phonetically plausible.

What will help… A rich talking environment. Experience of many stories that have been read to them. Being able to join in with stories and adding their own ideas. Practising and developing their own story language - ‘talking like a book’. A range of engaging speaking and listening activities related to drama.

Stages of writing Mark-making Letter-like symbols Strings of letters Apply phonics to spell words

What we do at Cherry Grove: Daily reading and writing opportunities Extended writing opportunities in English and other subjects Frequent, discrete handwriting sessions Daily phonic sessions Daily writing opportunities Daily storytimes – story maps and actions Oral rehearsal and oral revision

Tripod grip ‘Froggy legs’ movement We encourage correct pencil grip – we use pencil grips to support this!

Letter Formation It is really important to correct bad habits early! We use rhymes to help children to remember how to form letters correctly. (We have put a copy of the rhymes in your pack)

You can’t write a story unless you can tell a story. You can’t tell a story unless you have heard a story. cplg

Ground, grass and sky lines