Here is some information and ideas, to help your child learn to read with you at home.

Sight words

• The school’s reading scheme is Oxford Reading Tree (ORT).
• ORT books from Stage 1 - Stage 5 have words which children need to learn by sight.
• These are called sight words.
• Reading these words instantly, will help your child’s fluency.
• To teach these words, you need to choose 3-4 words to practise each day.
• Read the words for about 5 minutes with your child.
• These words should be read by sight and not sounded out.

You can help your child remember them, by looking at how the word looks e.g. it’s a short/long word, it begins with a P.

Games to learn sight words

As well as, reading the words, you can play games at home:

          Sight Word Search:

Hide, two or three words around the house, (written on post-it notes or pieces of paper).  

Have your child find them and read them. 

Memory:

Create pairs of sight words (written on post-it notes or piece of paper). Turn the words upside down. And play the pairs memory game. The children find and read the pairs and keep them. 

Sight Word Detective:

Look for sight words in your favourite story each night.

Catch:

Use a ‘sharpie’ to write sight words on different parts of a beach ball. Throw the ball to each other. Saying the words that face up each time.

Word of the Day:

Put one or two words written on card or paper on the front door. When EVERYONE in the family leaves or enters the house. Ask them to touch the word and shout it out.

Eat the Words:

Write one of the sight words with a ‘sharpie’ on a banana or orange skin.  Your child has to read the word before they peel it.

Other reading strategies

As well as learning to read sight words, you can teach your child other reading skills to use.

• They could blend the sounds (phonemes), ‘sound it out’.
• They could look at the first sound (phoneme) to make a good guess.
• They can use the picture for clues.
• They could read on and think about what would make sense in the context of the sentence.

Understanding- comprehension

As well as, reading a book, it is important for children to show that they have understood and can make links between characters and stories.

• So ask your child what they think the book will be about looking at the front cover and the title.
• And ask questions afterwards. E.g: What happened in the story? What do you think will happen next? How is this character feeling? Why?
• When reading books you can also discuss features of the book, such as,

The title, author, illustrator and blurb.

Fiction, non-fiction and poetry.