Welcome to our EYFS and Keystage 1 Reading Evening

This Evening we will cover… The importance of Picture books. The barriers both children and parents can come up against with reading. Strategies to try to make reading fun. And knowledge of phonics. We hope this evening will be helpful and allow you to explore the resources we use in school.

Our Main Aim Our main aim is for children to enjoy reading. Every child is different and will make progress in their own time. It’s important for the children to understand that reading is not a race. And reading is not just about saying words, but understanding their meaning, making predictions and developing empathy with the characters.

Starting from the basics Picture books! (I know what we all think about picture books.) How can a Picture book help a child to read?!! Activity 1: The next slide is a picture, we would like you to make as many observations as you can.

The Picture books allow the children to tell their own story. To start with we want children to make observations from the pictures. As these will offer clues to the children about what is happening. The Picture books allow the children to tell their own story. There is a fear of words for children and a fear of getting things wrong. (When given the choice of a story with or without words, almost all the children chose a book without words.) Activity 2: I will show you another picture, this time I want you to think of as many Questions as you can to ask your child.

Asking Questions Empathise with the characters, By asking questions you can encourage children to… Extend their vocabulary, E.g. Can you think of another word to describe the… boy/fire/surroundings, etc. Make predictions, E.g. What do you think will happen next? Empathise with the characters, E.g. How do the think he feels?

ORT characters The Oxford Reading Tree books and Floppy Phonics books are very popular with the children. The children quickly get to know the characters and can often relate to the stories. However the school has invested in some different types of books.

Selection of reading books At Ripponden J&I School we have a variety of books these include… Have 5 minutes to have a look at the different types of books and the help guides they include.

Guided reading Every teacher does things slightly differently, but will do guided reading groups. This is a chance for your child to sit in a group with children of the same ability. We practise reading skills together, looking at tricky words, punctuation marks, blending and segmenting. We discuss the story; things we have noticed, how we think the characters might feel and our own similar experiences.

Learning to read the words. You might need to read the words to your child and they will memorise the story. (This is not ideal in the long run, but the children will start to recognise some words, e.g. mum, dad, etc.) Ideally we want the children to gain good phonics knowledge, which will allow them to tackle any word by sounding it out phonetically. Activity 3: Mrs Lomas will go through the phonics sounds with you now.

Barriers Children don’t like to fail. They tend to think if they don’t try, they won’t get things wrong and won’t have to face failure. They need plenty of reassurance and praise. Allow your child to look at the pictures first to gain clues and then predict what will happen. Children can easily lose their place on the page and become frustrated. Using a finger to point at the words, allows the child to remember where they were up to and also indicates which words they maybe stuck on.

Making reading fun Putting on voices for the characters. Allowing children to choose books which interest them. Taking it in turns to read a page each. In some of the school books there may be things to look out for on every page. Re-enacting the story and pretending to be the characters. For example ‘Kipper’s toy party’.

Follow on activities.

When to read You will have your own routine at home and can decide for yourselves when is best to read with your child. We recommend that your child reads everyday. It doesn’t have to be the whole book, but a few pages would do. You do need to be able to see what your child is reading to assist them with any tricky words or mistakes. (Reading in the car is unfortunately not recommended.) It really does need to be good quality time, in a quiet environment. Even when your children become confident readers, please still spend time listening to them read. Not only is it great one-to-one time but also allows you to sort any misconceptions. Lets face it every child enjoys praise and attention.

Tracking progress At Ripponden we track the children’s progress in reading, by updating our school trackers termly. This allows us to check every child is making good progress and reaching their potential. We also have follow up Pupil Performance Reviews, which allow us to highlight any children who might be struggling and why.

Intervention Groups Any children who are struggling with reading will be included in intervention groups, such as… ELS (Early Literacy Skills) PIPS These sessions allow children to strengthen their reading skills and gain confidence in their ability. This gives them the chance to catch up with their peers.

Points to finish with Children will ‘click’ with reading in their own time. Even when a child becomes confident with their reading, we cant emphasise enough how important it is to still sit with them and read together. Going to the library, book shops and charity shops and allowing your child to choose books which interest them will be key in keeping them motivated and inspired.

Thank you! We hope this evening has been helpful and you will leave with plenty of ideas to help you when reading with your child. And how many times did you spot the book worm?