Reading at Home

"Reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible"

Barack Obama

In Term 4, your child will receive 1-2 books at a time.

One of these will be a phonics book, featuring the sounds your child has already learned. They should be able to decode the letters and blend the sounds together to read each word. Your child may need help to blend the sounds together, which can be offered by saying the word very slowly, stretching out each sound.

These could take the form of a short laminated comic, a word matching book, or a storybook.

The other book will be a colour banded Oxford Reading Tree book with familiar Biff Chip and Kipper characters and a predicatable format. There's are used to extend your child's vocabulary and comprehension (understanding).

Books will be changed throughout the week, so please bring your reading record and reading books to school every day.

• Please read with and to your child every day.
• 2-3 books will be given per week on average.
• Record all reading you do inside your Reading Record.

Every time you read at home, we write your child's name on a 'Book Worm' ticket. At the end of the week, one book worm is drawn from the pile and a prize is given to the winner. All tokens from each week are put in a whole school box and at the end of the term, 2 winners are drawn and receive a book token each. The more often you read, the more likely you are to win a book token to buy yourself a beautiful new book. 

The Book Trust Reading Guides for reading with 4-6 year olds can be found below in 4 languages.

Behavior

In our Year R classroom, we run a positive reinforcement behavior system, often referred to as "Double Rainbow" or "Pegs". This runs alongside the school's Green Slip Policy.

Each child has a clothes peg with their name on it. At the start of the day, all children are on "Blue Sky" at the bottom of the chart. Their peg can be moved up for a range of good choices and behavior such as following instructions, good sitting and listening, or being kind to others.

The challenge is to move your peg all the way up to Double Rainbow by the end of the day for a reward.

Rewards

Sunshine: High five.

Rainbow: A sticker.

Double Rainbow: A prize from our special box (or a point towards a prize)

Children who also demonstrate good learning behavior as well as remembering our values - Love, Kindness, Respect, Honesty, Forgiveness and Hope are awarded 'Green slips', and these result in merit certificates. Your child may get more than one green slip in a day. Green slips work separately from the Year R Double Rainbow Peg system. These rewards and others are regularly presented in Celebration Assembly.

For a general overview of the school's behavior policy, please see the webpage linked below.

PE

This term Dynamic Sports Coaching (DSC) will be teaching Multisports for PE on a Tuesday morning.

Please come to school dressed in your PE kit and remove jewelry. 

Earrings should be removed before you come to school.

See the page linked below for advice on how to keep your child active and healthy at home.