Reading with KG Children at Home

Introducing a new book

Predict the story using pictures, title etc

What do think it’s about?

What does the front cover tell us?

How do the pictures make you feel?

What do the pictures/titles make you think of?

Highlight possible new vocabulary.

Read the book

Modelling – read to the child.

Shadowing – you read, then read together, then the child reads on their own.

Take turns – share the reading, taking turns to read sentences, paragraphs or pages, depending on what you feel is appropriate.

Independent- the child may want to read themselves and this is to be encouraged. See section on prompting and encouragement.

Review

Talk about what has been read. Some sample questions:

What do think of the story?

Can you retell the story in your own words?

Where was the story set?

What happened in the beginning/ middle/ end?

What was the problem in the story? What was the solution?

How would you solve the problem?

Which characters were good/ bad? Why?

Who was your favourite character? Why?

What part did you like most?

How would you change the ending?

Word skills

Definitions: Check if there were any words the child doesn’t understand.

Word search: Choose words from the text for the child to find. They can be specific words or words with a specific characteristic e.g. Can you find a word…

Which means the same as big

Beginning with ‘h’

With ‘a’ as in cat

With double letters

With two syllables

Spelling

Choose a word from the text and write it in the child’s book. Use the steps LOOK, SAY, COVER, CHECK to help the child learn the word.

Sentence activity

The child chooses a sentence from a book (or dictates a sentence) to you to copy on a strip of paper and cut up. The child can then be encouraged to specific words or rearrange the sentence.

Cueing system

When children are reading it is important to reinforce the cueing system:

Does it make sense? (meaning)

Does it sound right? (structure)

Does it look right? (visual)

When a child stops at a word give them time to have a go but not enough time to become frustrated. You can use the following to help them along.

Meaning: Does it make sense?

What happens next? Read ahead and come back to it.

Draw attention to the picture.

You said -----, does that make sense?

Structure: Does it sound right?

Is that how we say it?

What could it be?

Re-read, think about what sounds right.

Visual: Does it look right?

What is the first/ last sound?

Do you know a word that looks like that?

Positive reinforcement

It is important that a child’s effort is valued and that it is all right to make a mistake (so that they will continue trying and become risk takers) e.g.

You got the first part right.

That was a really good try.