Help your child to read
You as a parent-carer play a VITAL role in helping your child read.
There are many ways in which you can help....
Sounds
We closely follow the Letter and Sounds document. Ensuring that your child knows their sounds and can say them correctly will help them to develop their spelling, reading and writing.
Phase 2 is involved with learning the sounds of the following letters, putting the sounds together (blending) and breaking down words into individual sounds (segmenting):-
Set 1 : s a t p
Set 2 : i n m d
Set 3 : g o c k
Set 4: ck e u r
Set 5: h b f, ff l, ll ss
Phase 3 is involved with the teaching of 25 further graphemes, most of them comprising of two letters (oa).
Set 6: j v w x (ks)
Set 7: y z, zz qu (kw)
| Graphemes | Sample words | Graphemes | Sample words |
| sh | shop | or | for |
| ch | chip | ar | farm |
| th | thin | ur | hurt |
| ng | ring | ow | cow |
| ai | rain | oi | coin |
| ee | feet | ear | dear |
| igh | night | air | fair |
| oa | boat | ure | sure |
| oo | boot | er | corner |
Phase 4 is involved with the consolidation of children’s knowledge of graphemes in reading and spelling words containing adjacent consonants and polysyllabic words.
Phase 5 is involved in learning new graphemes and alternative pronunciations for these and graphemes the children already know.
New Graphemes
| ay | day |
| oy | boy |
| wh | when |
| a-e | make |
| ou | out |
| ir | girl |
| ph | photo |
| e-e | these |
| ie | tie |
| ue | blue |
| ew | new |
| i-e | like |
| ea | eat |
| aw | saw |
| oe | toe |
| au | Paul |
| o-e | home |
| u-e | rule |
The link below shows your child the correct way to say their initial sounds.
High Frequency Words
Ensure that your child can read their high frequency words without needing to sound them out. This will help your child to read with greater fluency, confidence and accuracy. Please click on the links below to access the high frequency words.
Talking and Listening
Make the most of every opportunity to talk about everyday situations in the home, garden, street, shop and on visits. By talking and listening you help your child become familiar with language and understand a wide variety of words.
Playing
Give your child plenty of opportunities to enjoy a wide variety of play activities. By playing your child will get to know and understand more about the world. This will help them when they come to read about our world. Sorting and matching games and jigsaws will help your child be aware of differences in shape and size. This skill is essential when they come to learn letters and words.
Signs, Shapes and Symbols
Even very young children learn to 'read' signs and symbols. Play 'Spot the Sign' encouraging your child to notice signs and words around them - shop names, street signs, food packages.
Drawing and Writing
Let your child draw and 'pretend' to write. Encourage them to make shopping lists, note cards. Drawing and writing are closely linked with reading.
Learning by example
Let your child see you reading for pleasure and for a purpose. Children love to copy adults. By letting them see you reading, you are giving positive messages about reading.
Making books
You can have fun as a family by making books using photographs, pictures from magazines or wrapping paper.
Play family games
Cards, dominoes and I Spy are lots of fun. They help develop reading skills and concentration.
Sharing Books
Take every opportunity to share a book with your child. You don't always have to read the words. Talking about pictures is just as important. If you are reading the words, point to them as you read. This helps your child to start to recognise the shape and size of some words.
If your child is reading always look through the book and talk about the pictures before you start reading.
Encourage your child to use pictures, letter sounds and the rest of the sentence as a clue to new words. Encourage them to read to the punctuation; for example, stopping at full stops and to read with expression.
If your child makes a mistake with a word, there are three ways in which you can help:-
- if the word starts with a different sound, point to the word and ask 'Does that look right?'
- if the word does not fit into the structure of the sentence, read the whole sentence just as the child did and ask 'Does that sound right?'
- if the word does not help the sentence to make sense, read the whole sentence just as your child did and ask 'Does that make sense?'
- if your child still cannot read the word tell them what it is. Remember to give them thinking time so they can try to solve the problem for themselves.
Always ask some questions to make sure your child has understood the book. Here are some examples of possible questions you could ask:-
- What does .... mean?
- Can ..... have more than one meaning?
- What happened at the beginning/middle/end of the story?
- What did .... do?
- Which word told you that the giant was sad?
- Where did .... go?
- Describe ...
- Which paragraph tells you ....?
- Look at page .... Why do people like superhero adventures?
- How did ....?
- Why did ....?
- What does the word .... imply about .....? Eg What does the word plush imply about the owner of the house?
- What does the author think about the Roman army?
- How did ..... react?
- Why is ..... important in the story?
It is very important to also ask your child their opinions about the text they have read, encouraging them to realise that there are no right or wrong answers. Encourage them to give evidence for what they say.
