Helping your child to read Tips when reading: Talk about pictures Model pointing to each word (not slide beneath) Ask child to copy Allow child to correct themselves If child doesn’t know a word – try different strategies to support Encourage child to say sounds in words and blend sounds together Give lots of praise Try and ensure your child makes sense of / understands what they have read. After reading: Can child point to and read the key words? Can they find the same word(s) in other books? Discuss the story and characters. Can child re-tell the story in their own words looking at the pictures? Give lots of praise How to encourage reading? Let child see family/different people read books, newspapers, recipes, food packets Write shopping lists together Encourage child to write birthday, thank you cards etc Read a bedtime story every night if possible

Reading: concepts & skills Children need to understand: Words written the same way have the same meaning Written words give a message Words on the front of a book are the title Pictures can give meaning to the words Words on a page are read left to right The same spoken and written words have the same meaning How words are expressed adds meaning Describing parts of books: Front and back Cover Page Title Author Illustrator Blurb Top/ bottom of page Picture/ illustration Word/ sound First / last Beginning, middle, end Speech Capital letter Full stop Bold type Exclamation mark ! Question mark ? Give children the chance to: Talk about what has happened in pictures Use pictures to predict what might happen Retell a story in the correct sequence Look at, point to and say words on a page Point out high frequency words Point out some upper and lower case letter Talk about elements of the text that give specific meaning

Helping your child to write Tips to encourage writing: Praise any attempt at writing Ask, Can you read what you have written? Let child see you writing Encourage tripod pencil grip Talk through letter formation Act out letter formation: magic wand, light sabre, sand, foam, mud, paint Letter families Curly caterpillar: c a d g o q s f e Ladder: l i j t u y One armed robot: r m n h b p k Zig zag monsters: v w z x Methodology Nelson handwriting scheme – letter families Helps children remember starting point and movement of letter Practice in short time slots: 5 minutes/ day

Helping with Phonics How to help with phonics: Focus on the weekly sounds, letters and tricky words Play games, point out the above in newspapers/ magazines/ books Sing nursery rhymes and songs, encourage listening Play I spy, show that every word begins with a letter

Letter formation

Word Packs What are they? Contain key words that children need to know by sight 13 different word packs A word can appear twice with a lower case or capital first letter Parent helper will change the word pack when child has read the words correctly on 3 separate occasions Helping to learn words Memory game – place a small number of words on a table, child covers eyes, you remove a card, child names the missing card Pairs – Copy set of words, face all down and turn to find matching pairs Grab – make a smaller list of words (from pack), turn pack words face down, turn over and if it matches , grab the word or turn back over Flash cards – give words in a random order, ask child to put words into a short sentence Word detective – give child a word, ask him to find it in his reading book/ any book Keeping track A master list is kept in the back of child’s reading record