Helping Your Child to Read in the Foundation Stage

Getting Ready to Read Reading is not natural, language is. Children need to listen to stories, songs and rhymes, handle books and enjoy looking at pictures. Talking with your child is so important. It is vital that children enjoy reading experiences.

Letter sounds v Letter names Names of letters do not help reading at early stages. Continue to sing alphabet songs but concentrate on sounds and lower case letters to help reading.

Phonics What is phonics? – using sounds and blending these sounds to read words,e.g. s-a-t Pure sounds – sssss not ser, tttt not ter, nnnn not ner, mmmm not mer, lllll not ler, ks not x 26 letter sounds taught - a through to z (but not in that order) 44 phonemes e.g. ‘oa’ in boat ‘ar’ in car

What your child will be learning: Have an interest in books. Recognise familiar words. Recognise all 44 sounds and use them to read words by blending. Read sentences independently. Retell stories in the correct sequence, drawing on language patterns in stories. Find information in non-fiction texts.

How you can help…. Model reading Enjoy sharing and talking about a book Positive experience Language and vocabulary Praise Lets read it together! Well done! Good job!

How you can help…. Read the book through once without stopping Encourage your child to handle the book, turn pages etc. Point to words as you read and encourage them to when they are reading. Look at the pictures and talk about them. Encourage your child to talk about the book. Draw upon story language e.g. once upon a time.

Fun Reading activities l (its not just about books!) Find sets of words which begin with the same letter. Make sound trains (last letter of one matches first letter of another e.g. cat-tap-pin). Play alliterative games e.g. ‘Annie has got an apple, Ben has got a bike’, etc. Use magnetic letters to make words. Make labels for things around the house e.g. door,window. Make letters out of play dough, paint letters etc. Give your child simple riddles, ‘I write with you, I begin with a ‘p’. Play ‘I Spy’. Make up silly sentences. Count the words in sentences. Have a competition to Spot high frequency words Play sound/rhyming bingo Play ‘snap’ with pairs of high frequency word cards

What shall I write??!! A common problem parents find is not knowing what to write in a reading record book. These comments might help you! It was great, Zoe found all her new words were in the story book! Billy is beginning to use the first sounds of the words to help him. We really enjoyed the pictures.

What questions shall I ask?! Please refer to the sheet stuck into your child’s reading record book Has this ever happened to you? What was your favourite bit? Why do you think Floppy fell into the water?

Goodbye! I hope some of the practical tips will help to make learning to read both fun and successful for you and your child.