Hello Reception 2 Families!

We have had another super week, learning together, growing friendships and having a lovely time despite of all that is happening in the world!

Our book We Are Here by Oliver Jeffers continues to provide us with a wealth of learning opportunities. This week, we have talked about people, the jobs we do, hobbies we enjoy and the talents that we all possess. 

Reading at Home

Reading at home with your child is a wonderful thing. You play a massive part in them becoming readers and your support is so very much valued. However, learning to read is a complex business and you are being asked a lot of! I hope that the resources and guidance that has been sent home so far has helped. I understand if you still find it a minefield! I've put together some guidance below which I hope helps you to support your child. It's difficult in these COVID times for teachers to be able to give the help that parents need as contact is so limited. We really understand that. 

We have a whole class phonics session every day. Phonics gives the children the tools they need to be able to read. The children are taught and use a process called decoding. When decoding, the children look at each letter in the word , say the sound out loud and then blend the sounds back together. The sounding out is the bit that they can do more easily, as they are soon able to look at the letter and remember its accompanying sound (Jolly Phonics helps with this) It is the blending of the sounds, which is a skill in itself, that can take longer for some children to be able to do. When the word is sounded out the children need to be able to 'hear' the word and that is where the blending comes. 

The children will bring home the wordless books until they are blending. Their blending practise at home will be done by using the sound button words that I send home each week for your child.

Use them to help your child to hone their ability to sound out and blend, whilst enjoying the wordless book to develop their ability to handle a book, use the illustrations to tell you the story, develop their vocabulary and become familiar with story features like characters and story settings.

If your child has mastered sounding out and blending (decoding) then they will bring home books with decodable words to continue to practise this skill. Alongside the more phonics centered text,  they will bring home a book that may contain words that aren't necessarily decodable but instead require them to use other reading skills such as recalling words that are repeated on each page, sight words and using picture clues.

The 'Tricky Words' that are stuck in the children's reading record are sight words. They  are called Tricky Words because are not decodable This means they can't be read using phonic knowledge (sounding out and blending) because they are irregular and non-decodable. Our language has lots of these kinds of words and the only way of learning them and being able to read them is by recognising the word visually as a whole word. Some children find this easy and some may need a bit longer to practise recognising them. Once the children have mastered a set of Tricky Words that have been sent home I will then send home the next set to practise. 

Reading at home with your child is so much more that just reading the words on the page. Despite the books having so few words on each page, the illustrations are loaded with the opportunity for you to question your child about what is happening in the book. Your child's ability to answer these questions shows that they are understanding what they are reading and not just reading the words. This is the development of their comprehension skills. Reading the words is the technical ability and the searching for meaning of what has being read  and understanding  is the comprehension. The two are equally as important as each other. So when reading with your child, please ask as many questions as possible!

Do you feel like you are back at school?! Learning to read is a tricky business for your child and I am so proud of the progress that has already been made in such a short space of time. Home reading practise is vital and makes a HUGE difference to the children's progress. So please take a little time out of each day to practise and to help develop your child's love of reading. 

This is a good opportunity for me to nag! Please write in your child's reading record every time that you read. This enables me to see how they are getting on with home reading and it also indicates that your child's reading book has been read and that it needs to be replaced with a new one. Please don't feel that you need to write lots, if you are stretched for time a date and initial will suffice. 

Thank you 

Next week we are looking forward to finding out about different animals and those that live in the sky, on land and in the sea. 

Please enjoy this week's photographs that beautifully round up the lovely week we have had! Miss Hodgeson and I can't wait to see you all on Monday!

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Cook