Good Shepherd School

  • Know all the alphabet letters and sounds instantly

  • Read words to make it sound like talking, to help increase reading fluency

  • Continue to learn high frequency words that can be recognised instantly

  • Talk about the pictures in the book before reading

  • Encourage breaking unfamiliar words independently

  • Respond confidently to inferential questions beginning with ‘Why do you think?’

  • Encourage your child to correct mistakes that he/she makes when reading by trying a word that makes sense, looks right and sounds right

  • Share favourite books, point out words on signs, shops and labels, read poems and play word games like "I spy”

  • Help your child to link stories to their own life.  Remind them about what they have done when a similar thing happens in the story

  • If your child is stuck on a word: wait a few seconds, give them time to think, help them to try a word by saying "read it again and think what would make sense”

  • Read emails from family and whanau aloud

  • Talk about the pictures in books.  Be a role model.  Let your child see you enjoying reading and talk about what are you enjoying

  • Make some puppets - old socks, tubes of paper or card that you and your child can use to act out plays

  • Visit the library often and help your child to choose books about topics that interest them

  • Read to your child everyday.  You can use your first language

  • Ask your child questions (and support them to find the answers) to widen their reading experiences, e.g. "what time is the next bus to town?”

  • Help your child with any words that they don’t understand.  Look them up in the dictionary if you need to

  • Show your child that reading is fun and important to you by letting them see you reading magazines, books and newspapers

  • Help your child make connections with things they might have read and relate to their own experiences

  • Read recipes, instruction manuals, maps, signs and emails.  It will help your child to understand that words can be organised in different ways on a page

  • Play games that involve reading in a fun way

  • Encourage your child to read to others.  Brothers and sisters and grandparents are great audiences for practising smooth and interesting reading out loud

  • Find books of movies or TV programmes. It can help your child to learn different ways to tell the same story if they read the ‘stories’ they have watched

  • Help your child share their thinking.  Get them to share opinions and talk about why they think that

  • Encourage internet research about topics of interest - notice what your child is interested in

  • Ask questions about your child’s story or book, e.g. about the main events, characters

  • Ask open-ended questions about the book, e.g. "Why do you think that happened?”

  • Encourage your child to tell you about a story, or chapters from a book in their own words

  • Talk to your child while you are together.  Use the language that works best for your child

  • Set up a reward programme to encourage reading at home

  • Act out stories and plays

  • Encourage brothers and sisters to read to each other

  • Take part in reading nights (No TV)

  • Listen to CD story books

  • Read items or text that has instructions, e.g. cookbooks, board game rules

  • Make the initial sound, look at the picture, think what would fit and try the word
  • ITC LINKS
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