Your child will have a reading diary to bring home and we encourage you to hear your child read daily –at least five times a week - and to record it in the diary. This is really important and makes a huge difference to the progress of the children. They will need to bring their reading diary and book to school every day. Please date and sign the reading diary (with a comment if you wish), to let us know you have heard your child read. This will help us to decide when your child is ready to change their book. We would also recommend that you continue to ask your child questions about the book.

We will be continuing with the reading scheme followed by your child in Class 1. Your child will need to know the sounds from the next colour band before progressing. Once they have reached the end of the Orange band, they will move onto books from the library. At this point, when they have read their book accurately, they will be asked to complete a short reading quiz, before changing it. This scheme is called Accelerated Reader and your child will progress through it during their time at school.

For shorter books, your child might prefer to read them through two or three times, to aid fluency and understanding. However, once they are on chapter books, they should feel confident enough to quiz after one read through.

Here are some quick tips to encourage your child’s love for reading.

• READ! READ! READ! Make reading important. Be a role-model for reading. Let your child see you reading throughout the day and use daily routines as reading opportunities. Cooking, reading TV listings, looking for information on-line, reading directions, or following a map all provide authentic reading experiences.
• Give your child the power of choice. Having reading materials available, such as: books, magazines, comics, etc… is key to helping children love to read, and the reading materials they choose themselves are best. Help your child find texts that appeal to his or her interests, yet are age appropriate and ‘just right’ in difficulty.
• Find opportunities to read aloud to your child. Read your favourite childhood book aloud, read signs while driving in the car, read at stores, and read while you’re on holiday!
• Take frequent trips to the library.
• Read a great story over and over again to help your child with fluency and reading with expression.
• Talk it up. Talking about books during and after reading helps improve comprehension. Encourage your child to share their ideas and opinions by asking open-ended questions. Talk about what you read to let them know that reading is an important part of your life. Tell them why you liked a book, what you learned from it, or how it helped you— soon they might start doing the same.

Your child needs to experience the wonder of beautiful stories, well told, with all the joy and excitement that entails. How else are we going to make them want to be writers?