Reading at home

Research shows that learning to read and developing a love for reading, is directly linked to a child’s success at school. A child who reads for 20 minutes every day is 5 times more likely to reach the level expected at the end of their year.’ This therefore, has to be worth doing! 

After your child has finished their reading encourage them to talk about the book, try finding out

• What happened in the text?
• What did you find out?
• Can you describe the setting, character?
• What is your favourite part?
• What do you think this word means?
• What do you think will happen next?

Games and activities are a good way to help your child deepen their understanding of the book –

• How many times can you find the word …?
• How many words can you spot ending with …? i.e. ‘ing’
• Can you spot a word with your phonic sounds for this week?
• Your pile/My pile – quick recall of key words if they get it they keep it!
• Jump on it! – for those that like to move – place flash cards on the floor – children to jump on the correct word
• Word bingo – select key words from text – tick them off as you read them
• Cut up sentence – write a sentence from the text, cut it up into words – child to re-make the sentence

How can you help at home?

At school we encourage the children to choose their own reading book within a band that is appropriate for them, but this does not mean that this is the only thing they should read.  

Why not try a:

• Magazine
• Recipe
• Poster
• Shopping list
• TV guide
• Instructions for games
• Top trump cards
• Comics
• Letters
• Take away menu
• E-books
• Internet research