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Reading Together

At St Breock we believe that learning to read is a partnership between home and school and we want to support you to support your child in continuing their learning journey with reading at home. Below you will find our expectations for home reading and have examples of activities, questions and resources you can use. Enjoy! 
Reading at home in FS2, Y1 and Y2
 
Your child's reading journey begins in Beacons with the sharing of books together during sessions and children choosing books to come home and share with you. Once the children begin full time school with us books and activities will start to come home and follow the following patter.
 
Every third day of phonics your child will bring home their new Book Bag Book. This matches closely to their phonics learning that week. When exploring your child's new book we would like you to follow the following pattern;
 
Day 1
  • Look at the new Book Bag Book front cover together and discuss what the story may be about.
  • Look inside the front cover and read the red and green words - refer to their sound book if they need reminding of sounds.
  • Listen to your child read the story - if you scroll to the bottom of the page there is a video which will support you with this.
  • Listen to ensure accuracy in their reading and celebrate their learning.
Day 2
  • Listen to your child read the story again with more fluency
Day 3
  • Listen to your child read the story. Then look at the short questions at the end to ensure comprehension of the story.
Your child will also bring home a book once a week, from the library which they have chosen to share with you and for you to read to them. Read this to them over the week and discuss the contents. They will enjoy quoting parts of a story to you as they become familiar with it over the week.
 
In addition to this we may send home some reading games to support your child's reading journey. If you scroll to the bottom of the page, there are some videos below which will support you with this.

10 Tips to Make Story Time Memorable

Reading is a perfect way to spend quality time with your children. Stories spark children's imagination and create memories that last a lifetime. Here are a few simple tips for making story time with your children memorable and enjoyable.

Ask your child for book suggestions. 

Even the youngest of children have preferences in books. Find out your child's favourite book or use the book they have chosen from the school libraray for story time and then suggest some of your own from when you were a child. Don’t forget about classic tales and adventures, such as myths and legends. You can also choose to read bilingual stories or stories from around the world as a way for children to experience different languages and cultures.

Consider your child’s attention span or your family’s schedule. 

When reading to children, it’s not always necessary to read an entire book. Reading one chapter a night at bedtime or even a few pages at a time will keep your child engaged and excited for the next story time with you. It also helps build suspense and recall.

Consider different times of the day to read to your child. 

Reading time doesn’t always have to be at bedtime. Some families enjoy reading with their children early in the morning as a special way to start the day, especially if reading at bedtime is difficult.

Keep your child engaged in reading.

Ask questions along the way to help promote speech development and comprehension. Point out words that might be new to their vocabulary and talk about how the words are used and what they mean. Ask questions that evoke emotion and reflective inquiry, such as, “What would you do in this situation? Why do you think the character behaved in that way? Have you ever encountered a similar situation? Who does the character remind you of? How does the character feel?”

Read aloud together with your child.

Take turns reading a page aloud with a child who has learned to read. This activity builds confidence and sparks conversation. 

Be creative during story time. 

Use your personality to bring children’s books to life. Using different voices for each character or acting out parts of the story can make story time even more memorable and enjoyable for you and your child.

Find different places to read to children. 

 Under the trees in the evening with a blanket and flashlight; swaying on a hammock; cuddled up on a favorite couch or at the breakfast table; sitting on the front step watching the world go by…a place to read can be just as unique as the stories themselves.

Continue engaging with books after the last page.

Look for creative ways to extend the learning of the book. Are there far-off lands that are featured in the book? Find them on a map together. Make a family craft together based on the illustrations or theme in the story; listen to music that is in some way related to the story; research recipes from where the story is located and cook them together; act out the story with your child; or write a sequel to the story together.

Using your child's Reading Journal together.

Note the book or story shared, the date, the reactions of other family members. Younger children may wish to draw a picture representing the book. Older children can help complete the journal entry. The journal will become a beautiful memento to look back on the books shared during story times together.

Take pictures of your family reading.

There are few things sweeter than pictures of family members curled up reading stories together. You can use these pictures to illustrate the passage of time as family members grow, how tastes in books evolve, or how the books become longer as the children grow older.

Reading at home in Y3 and beyond
 
In Y2/Y3 children will start to use our school and class libraries. They will begin to develop their love of reading and select books for themselves, which match their interests and tastes. We will continue to support those children who need extra support with their phonics with appropriate strategies and interventions.
All the children in KS2 (Y3-Y6) have been given a Reading Journal to record their reading journey with pictures, reviews, character profiles, summaries and anything which illustrates their journey. Please feel free to contribute to this yourselves with comments, reviews or pictures.
 
We expect the children to be reading at home as often as possible. This will be a combination of independent reading and reading with you. Please see our separate 10 Top Tips for reading at home page. We know you will want to support your child's reading by sharing their books together with book talk, as this will enhance their understanding of the texts they are enjoying. There are some pointers below to support you to support your child's reading journey and develop their love of books. 
  • Explore the book together by looking at the front cover and discussing what the story may be about.
  • Listen to your child read independently and encourage them to sound out words they are unsure of. Support them if they need you to.
  • Look out for good reading behaviours such as re-reading the sentence to check it makes sense.
  • Encourage children to spot any spellings they are learning.
  • Encourage your child to summarise what they have just read. Talk together about characters, their feelings about events and go back to the text to check details. This will encourage them to have opinions and feelings about texts and therefore be able to answer questions on texts more easily.
  • Please encourage your child to record anything you talked about in their Reading Journal in the way they would like to express it. There are some examples below to help you.

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