Hello Families

To keep your amazing busy bee brains busy, here are some ideas for fun learning...

Can you be Tricky Word detectives? Ask your grown ups to hide the Phase 2 - Phase 5 Tricky words around the garden or the house. When you spot them write them on a list!

Here are the Tricky Words folks...

We challenge you to make sentences with some of the words, either verbally or in a written sentence!

We know how much you all love reading  We hope you have all discovered the Oxford Owl website. It has loads of colour Book Banded ebooks that you can read for free. These are the same books that we read at school and send home for home reading too and are therefore nice and familiar for the children. This is how you can find books that are at your child's appropriate Book Band. It can be confusing because the site also levels books by age. Stick with the Book Bands on the site as they are correct for your child.

So,

Go to the site and register-its free!

 https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk

Click on Oxford owl for Home

Click on Reading

Click on free ebook library

Click - Browse our ebook library

You'll see a drop down box headed Levels

Click Bands

You know what your child's Book Band is (so far, in reception they will be reading Red Band, Yellow Band, Blue Band in the main)

There are at least 10 books in each of these bands.

Some tips whilst reading...

Look at the cover, ask your child to predict what the book will be about.

Encourage them to read their Tricky Words on sight-they're not decodable!

Encourage them to spot and blend digraphs (2 letters making one sound like 'ai')  and trigraphs (3 letters making one sound like 'igh') in words.

When tackling longer unfamiliar words say the initial sound and then use a picture clue to help decipher the word.

Remember to encourage them to recognise, recall and read those words that appear again and again. This will mean more words are read on sight which in turn increases fluency.

QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS!

Constantly ask your child questions about what they are reading! Reading the words is only one element of reading! Understanding what they are reading is just as important. When asking questions conjure up questions for them that require a short answer i.e. What is Kipper holding in his hand? But be sure to ask questions that require them think more deeply about what they are reading i.e. Why do you think Kipper is holding that in his hand? 

At each stage of the book, ask your child to predict what will happen next. Ask them how the character feels. At the end, ask them who all the characters were, where did the story take place? what the problem in the story? how was the problem solved? Ask them to recap what happens in the beginning, the middle and the end of the story. Ask them to be a book critic! What did they like about the book? What did they dislike? Ask them to draw a picture of their favourite bit. Ask how many stars they'd give the book out of 5.

All of the above can be carried out with a book with only a few words on each page and only 8 pages long or with a book that has hundreds of words and pages!

We hope that this guidance helps. x

WRITING FOR FUN!

Have you begun a diary/ journal yet? 

Can you draw a story map of your favourite Traditional Fairy Tale?

Can you create a comic strip?

Can you make you're own Buried Treasure game? (write some real and some nonsense words, real words go into the treasure box, nonsense words go into the bin!)

Can your grown ups write you some mixed up sentences for you to write in the right order?

Can you write some good describing words for a character in your bedtime story from last night?

Can you write a letter to one of your class friends and post it to them?

Have fun!

From Mrs Cook and Mrs Spoonner xxx