Chalet School

Language

Reading Tips

Here are some great tips to support your child with their reading skills whether they are at word reading level or developing early reading skills. 

There is a lot more to reading than just reading!

Top tips for supporting children who are developing early reading skills

  • Be seen reading! Be a model to your child and ensure your child sees you reading a variety of material e.g. newspapers, magazines, books, recipe books etc.
  • Read everything aloud! Books, poems, nursery rhymes, newspaper and magazine articles, food labels…anything that is close to hand!
  • Share/read stories regularly to your child, pointing out pictures, words, page numbers etc.
  • Make it fun! Enjoy reading together. Give characters funny voices or try reading in unusual places e.g. under the dining table, outdoors, in the bath!
  • Start reading books upside down and see if your child notices and corrects you!
  • Encourage your child to turn the page after you have read the text.
  • When reading, track the text with your finger and support your child to help you track the text too.
  • You don’t always need to read books, try discussing the illustrations too and ask simple questions e.g. Where is the dog? What is the girl doing?
  • Encourage play based on popular story characters e.g. The Gruffalo, The Gingerbread Man etc – draw pictures, dress up, make items from the story, build play scenes and add puppets/figurines.
  • Play ‘I spy’ games when reading books with pictures. E.g. I spy something beginning with ‘s’ – sun!
  • Continue to build your child phonic awareness – model the initial sounds everyday items in the environment e.g. t for table, b for bin, c for car.
  • Encourage your child to join in with repeated phrases in the stories being read.
  • Sing songs and nursery rhymes and play listening games.
  • When reading, encourage your child to ‘fill in’ a word that you miss out e.g. “Humpty Dumpty sat on the…..”
  • Point out print in the environment e.g. road signs, posters in shops, logos.
  • Play letter, word and rhyme games e.g. board games, apps, online.
  • Visit your local library and share/borrow books that your child shows interest in. 

Top tips for supporting children who are at word reading level

  • Be seen reading! Be a model to your child and ensure your child sees you reading a variety of material e.g. newspapers, magazines, books, recipe books etc.
  • Read everything aloud! Books, poems, nursery rhymes, newspaper and magazine articles, food labels…anything that is close to hand!
  • Ask questions about the story during reading:
  • - What is happening?
  • - What can you see?
  • - How do you think the characters are feeling? How do you know?
  • - Where is the story set? What other stories are set in a similar place?
  • Use book specific language when sharing books e.g. author, illustrator, page, index.
  • When reading encourage the children to use expression, especially for the voices of different characters.
  • Discuss the punctuation on each page. Ask, what are these for? What should you do when you see an exclamation mark?
  • You don’t always need to read the entire book in one sitting. Read a few pages and discuss what has happens. Recap the next time and continue to read and help your child digest.
  • Take turns to read so your child can hear you reading too. Continue to read stories to your child e.g. bedtime.
  • Discuss the meaning of words. Model finding the meaning in a dictionary.
  • Discuss alternative words e.g. what is another word for ‘big’? Introduce a thesaurus.
  • Make predictions. What do you think will happen next?
  • Discuss whether the book is fiction or non-fiction. How do you know?
  • Encourage your child to use their phonics to decode unknown words and to use their sight/’tricky’ words to read some words from memory.
  • Keep a note of words your child is finding difficult and revisit these on flashcards, post it notes around the house, spelling them out with magnetic letters, pointing them out in other text around and outside the house.
  • Visit your local library and share/borrow books.

We hope you found them useful and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact the school office.