Literacy Programme Information

Reading

We do guided reading four times a week - this is reading in our ability groups with the teacher and with our group. Your child should bring home a book once a week that has been read with the teacher.

Reading on other nights at home should be suited to you and your child. You could read to your child, your child could read to you or by themselves if they are interested in a novel or you could share the reading of a story.

If you require additional books to read at home that are more at your child's reading age please come and see me and I will happily send some home for you to use.

Many students this term are working on:

• Retelling the story in their own words
• Using expression when reading aloud
• Using strategies that they know to read new words that they don't know 
• Re-reading a sentence and looking at the clue to try and understand a word they don't know the meaning of
• Finding evidence to support their reasoning and thoughts about the text.

Writing

This term we are working on recounts, poems and reports.

We do some form of writing ever day and this is linked into our inquiry topics. This term our writing is linked to learning about what make us us - our identity.

In the childrens' writing books there is example of what their writing should look like to help them know what they are working towards achieving. There is also some success criteria, this outlines the key parts that should be included int heir writing. This is developed with the children.

Spelling

For spelling we are looking at the sounds that help us to spell words and also commonly spelt words (Essential Spelling Lists).

Every week 5 spelling words come home. These words come from a spelling test on the essential words list that we have done and from our writing books.

We also have a sheet that goes home where we need to find 5 words that have our class focus of the sound of the week.

Please help your children to do this. The spelling programme is set up using our school Spelling Escalator as a guideline. In addition to this various different spelling activities are linked into the reading and writing programme within the class.

A spelling notebook should come home on Monday and should be practiced every day. See the note at the front of the spelling notebook. Please try to help your child to remember to bring this back to school every Friday for their buddy test.