Reading and Vocabulary
Read With Your Child Every Day
• Make reading fun and enjoyable. Children learn about reading by watching, copying and interacting with others. How often does your child see you reading? By showing your child that you love and enjoy reading it becomes a normal and enjoyable part of every day life. It is important that your child knows that we read for enjoyment as well as for learning.
• Let your child choose and re-read books and other texts they are interested in.
• Talk about the book/text before you start reading. Talk about the title and what the text could be about. This can be done when reading recipes, newspapers, signs and instructions, as well as, books.
• Discuss the pictures and how they add to the story.
• Whilst reading, ask your child questions about the story such as, What do you think might happen next? Why do you think that?
• After reading, talk about the story. Ask questions such as, Which part of the story did you like best? or What was exciting, funny or sad in the story? You could also ask your child questions to support their inferencing skills such as, Why do you think the character did that? How do you think the character was feeling? Why?
• Have siblings or family members take turns at reading their favourite stories with each other.
• Choose a variety of reading materials such as newspapers, magazines, posters, street signs, recipes and shopping lists.
Play With The Sounds Of Letters
• Have fun with the sound of letters. Make up silly sentences using words that start with the same sound such as, “Many mice munching meatballs.”
• Make words with letters cut out of magazines, or written on post-it notes and break the word into sounds, for example, b-a-t. Then say the word again.
• When you are reading to your child, ask them to point to and say the sounds they know.
• Play sound games with your child’s name. Ask questions such as, “What sound does your name start with?” “Is it the same sound at the beginning of dad?”
Have Fun With Reading, Language and Words
• Choose books that have rhymes or riddles in them.
• Talk about rhyming words. Cat, hat, sat, bat are all examples of words that rhyme because they sound the same at the end.
• Play with rhyming words and play rhyming games. Make silly rhyming sentences such as, “Have you ever seen a snail deliver the mail?”
Talking With Your Child
• Talk with your child about a range of topics, for example things that happen each day.
• Share stories from your culture, your own stories and your children’s stories.
• Describe or talk about things as they are happening. For example, We are going to walk to school today and go past the park. Use descriptive words in the conversation such as Look at the enormous leafy green trees in park or Look at that little fluffy dog.
• Listen to your child and encourage him/her to take turns. Show your child how to listen and how to interact in a conversation.
• When starting a conversation, or when talking with your child, ask questions that require more than a yes or no reply. For example, What did you do at school today? What was the funniest thing that happened today?
• Use questions that start with how or why. For example, How many birds do you see in the park?
• When asking questions give your child time to answer. At times you may like to ask you r child to expand on their answer, for example you could ask What happened next? or How do you think that made the person feel?
• Make conversations fun. Make up funny or nonsense rhymes, talk and sing with your child.
Word Building
• Use describing words when talking. If your child says, There’s a dog, add descriptive words such as, That’s a small, fluffy, white dog.
• Build on your child’s language by teaching them new words. If your child says The house is big, you could say Yes, the house is large or The house is enormous.
• When reading with your child, talk about the words used in the texts. Discuss with your child the meaning of the words and the purpose of the text. You might also like to find new, interesting words to talk about.
• Practice using new words in a sentence.
• Make labels for things around the house.
Texts For Word Building
The Day the Crayons Quit - Drew Daywalt
The True Story of the 3 Little pigs - Jon Scieszka
Possum Magic - Mem Fox
Dunbi the Owl - Daisy Utemorrah
The Little Refugee - Anh Do