1. Early Literacy Workshop

2. Early Reading
Before your child is able to read they need to have learned how to do these three things –
Learn the sounds that letters make
Be able to orally blend and segment the sounds in words
Learn some ‘tricky words’

3. Phonics
Phonemes are the sounds letters or groups of letters make in words
c a t sh o p
Your child will get 4 sound cards a week to take home until Christmas and each sound has an action
If you notice your child if having any difficulties hearing or saying any of these sounds clearly and correctly please let us know

4. Oral blending and segmenting
Blending is the ability to put the sounds in a word together e.g. d o g is dog
Segmenting is hearing the word e.g. dog and being able to break it up into the individual sounds d o g
Blending helps your child learn to read and segmenting helps your child learn to spell so it is very important that your child is able to do both of these confidently.

5. Tricky Words
Some words cannot be sounded out using phonics at this stage e.g. the or to
We call these tricky words
At the end of each half term your child will be given some action word cards containing some of these words.
These are to be practiced regularly so that your child learns these words by sight, improving the fluency and speed of their reading.

6. Reading Books
Once your child is able to do all of these three things confidently they are ready to read.
Reading books go out after the first half term or when your child shows they are ready.
We will assess your child just before the first half term to see how many phonic sounds they know and if they can blend and segment words.
This will tell us if your child is ready to start reading books. We will let you know if your child needs extra support in any of these areas.

7. Our Reading Books Each reading level or book band has a colour
As book bands are large and the books in them quite varied we have split these up further into bronze, silver and gold within the colour
Bronze books are the easier books in that level and gold are the hardest
The aim of this is also to help keep your child feeling motivated to read as they can see their progress better

8. Reading Record
Once your child starts their first reading book you will be given a reading record
This is to record your child’s progress at reading and to write comments about how your child is doing
To start off with each time your child completes a reading book they get a sticker in their reading record
Once they get 20 stickers they earn themselves a bookmark
After that they will earn a sticker to go on their bookmark each time they read a minimum of 4 books a week, with every book over that earning them an additional sticker

9. Reading Record
It is very important that your child reads at least 4 times a week to make good progress in their reading
Once your child has filled up their bookmark they get to take it home to keep
We will also be giving out a weekly certificate to the child/children who read the most books each week
These ideas are to help your child to become a motivated and confident reader

10. Any questions?

11. Thank You