Your child will be bringing a reading book home this week. These first books don’t contain any words. Look at the book with your child, telling the story or saying the rhyme. Please make a comment in the yellow reading record so we know your child has read at home. Keep the book in your child’s bookbag and return it everyday for reading in school.
As parents or carers you are your child’s most influential teacher with an incredibly important role to play in helping your child to read.
As you know, the ability to read and write well is a vital skill for all children, paving the way for an enjoyable and successful school experience.
Children learn and practise many of the skills that they need for reading and writing from a very early age. They do this through a wide range of activities and experiences, at home, in settings and in school. They explore and learn through singing and saying rhymes, making and listening to music, talking with others, sharing books with adults and other children, dressing up, experimenting with writing and using puppets and toys to retell and make up stories.
In order to make a good start in reading and writing, children need to have an adult listen to them and talk to them. Speaking and listening are the foundations for reading and writing. Even everyday activities such as preparing meals, tidying up, putting shopping away and getting ready to go out offer you the chance to talk to your child by explaining what you are doing. Through these activities, children hear the way language is put together into sentences for a purpose.
Books are a rich source of new words for your child; words you would not use in everyday conversations appear in books. Children need to have a wide vocabulary to understand the meaning of books, so read aloud and share books as often as you can. They will enjoy it and it will be useful to them when they come across these words in their own reading later on.
Remember to ask if you have any questions about reading or would like ideas of things to do at home.
For information on the ways reading is taught at school and ideas for reading at home visit www.oxfordowl.co.uk