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JOTMANSHALL PRIMARY SCHOOL

 

Pre-SchoolEducation

 

 

AGuide for Listening to Children Read

 

Weaim to provide children with a wide choice of interesting and entertainingbooks, to foster a love of reading and to help children become effective,successful readers.

 

Itis not only important for us to ensure that children can read but also thatthey do read regularly, both at home and at school.

HowParents can Help.

 

Seethat your child belongs to the local library and take him/her along regularlyto choose and change books.

 

Thereare Bookshops several times a term in school, where good books at reasonableprices are available to parents and children.

 

Takean interest in the books your child brings home from school.

 

Assoon as your child starts at Jotmans Hall, he/she will bring home books toshare with you. At this stage, yourchild will not be actually reading unless he/she was reading before beginningschool, but you can enjoy the books together.Meanwhile, the teacher will be teaching your child the early skillsneeded to embark on the process of reading.Soon your child will bring home a tub containing basic words used in thereading scheme and when the teacher is satisfied that your child can recogniseand remember these words, he/she will bring home books from the early stages ofthe reading scheme.

 

Thisis an exciting time for child and parent; it means that the process of learningto read has begun in earnest!

 

Conditions. - Make sure that your child is sitting comfortably with thebook. Many children enjoy physicalcontact with a parent, when reading.

Tryto make your child feel that you are both there to share and enjoy the book;the excitement of the story or the interest of the information.

 

Choosea time when you can both be unhurried and relaxed; it shouldn't be achore. Please don't make it into atest.

Talk- Talk about thebook first; what it's about; what might happen; what your child already knowsif he/she has read some of it already.

 

Lookat the pictures and use them for clues, especially to help with unknownwords. Please don't cover up thepictures and make the experience into a test.

 

Animportant part of learning to read involves making good use of all the cluesavailable, including pictures, meaning and phonics. (See next page.)

 

Read - Some children are helped a great deal by adults who read thefirst line/paragraph/page (depending on the child's reading level) to help them"tune" in to the print, concentrate and familiarise themselves with the subjectof the story/information.

 

Alternatively,you might take a turn in reading a passage, so that the book is sharedtogether.

 

Encourage. - In the early stages (infants), encourage your child to traceunderneath each word with a finger, as he/she is reading. When children become more fluent, usually atthe junior stage, isolating each word with the finger can actually hamperfluency and at this stage, encourage your child to tackle groups of words at atime so that the reading flows.

 

Encouragereading for meaning i.e. if your child puts in a different word from the one inthe text, but it still makes sense, don't stop or correct it at that point, asthe flow and meaning may be lost. It isbetter to go back and check the word later.

 

Encourageyour child to make a guess at an unknown word; it sometimes helps to read on tothe end of the sentence, to get the general meaning and then return to theunknown word. If this fails, encourageyour child to look at the phonic clues in the word; sometimes the initial soundwill be a sufficient help for an accurate guess. If the word is made up of regular letter sounds your child may beable to "sound it out" if he/she is at the stage of having been taught how todo this at school. Please do notencourage your child to sound out every word when reading; this can beextremely frustrating with phonically irregular words and also destroys anymeaning the child may glean from the text.

 

Ifthese strategies fail, then just tell your child the word and get on withenjoying the book, otherwise the thread of the story and the interest will belost.

Praise - Praise foreffort as well as for achievement; remember that children learn at differentrates; some find reading more difficult than others; some will learn to readfluently more quickly than others.Praise will give your child confidence and spur him/her on to greatereffort. Reading isn't simply about being easy or too hard, it is about beingenjoyable and informative. Therefore,we encourage children to read within their capability level, not beyond it,since struggling with every other word leads to frustration rather than readingprogress.

 

Remember,that learning to read is a very long process, lasting many years and childrenneed to be continually encouraged throughout their primary school years, notjust at the beginning of this process.We hope that they will all become enthusiastic adult readers, when theirschooldays are over.

Helpingyour Child with Mathematics

 

Pre-School - Learning about mathematics doesn't start at school, itbegins long before that and you can help your child to have a goodunderstanding of mathematics, through play and every day experiences athome. Remember to make it interestingand fun to learn!

 

Itis very important to talk to your child when he/she is playing. Take an interest yourself and develop thechild's interest further by extending the conversation.

 

e.g. Child: "Comeand look at my trailer."

Adult: "It's full of bricks. Will they fit into your lorry too?"

 

Child:"Yes, let's try."

Adult:"We can count them as they go in. 1, 2, 3 etc."

e.g. Child: "Look how big I made my tower!"

Adult:"Can you make it as high as the chair?"

Child:"No, I can't."

Adult:"Why not?"

Child:"I haven't got enough bricks."

Byasking more questions and giving suggestions, you prompt your child to thinkand try to find some answers himself/herself.

 

Encourageyour child to compare sizes of objects and encourage the use of words like:

big small

tall short

fatter thinner

higher lower

more few

first second third

fast faster fastest

slow slower slowestetc.

e.g. "Which is the biggest/smallest apple?"

 

"Whichcar came first?/second?/third?"

 

"Willthese trousers fit Teddy? Are they bigenough?"

 

Counting - Encourage your child to count at every opportunity.

 

e.g. Countthe stairs on the way up to bed.

 

Lay the table: 4 knives, 4 forks, 4 spoons.

 

Howmany red smarties in the tube of smarties?

 

Giveeach child a biscuit; count each one as you do so.

 

Recognising Written Numbers- Pointout the shapes of numerals to your child and help him/her to recogniseindividual numbers. At first, introducethe figures 1 to 10 in order, so that he/she can point to each one and say thenumber. If your child becomesproficient at this, try presenting the figures in a different order to pickingout individual numbers at random, to see if they are still recognised. You canalso encourage your child to trace numerals and then write them.

 

AtSchool

 

Wefollow National Curriculum mathematics and the National Numeracy Framework anduse published mathematics schemes and practical apparatus to teach thechildren.

 

Allwork is carefully graded, so that the children build on knowledge and skillsgained at each stage, before progressing to the next.

 

Ourmain aim, throughout the school, is to equip the children with the basic skillsnecessary to cope with the four rules of number; addition; subtraction;multiplication; division. They aregiven plenty of practice in the form of exercises in their books, as well asproblem solving and application of skills learnt in practical activities.

 

Hotel a MadridObviously,all of this is a gradual process and the four rules are introducedprogressively at the appropriate times.

 

Pleasedon't confuse your child, by teaching different methods at home or introducinga new rule, e.g. multiplication, before he/she has the necessary skills to copewith it. If you want to help your childat home, first check with the teacher, what is being taught and the appropriatemethod to use.

 

Learningtables is very important and again, these are taught systematically through theschool, starting with older infants.Please encourage and support your child to learn tables at home, afterthe teacher has covered the background work in school. Older children are tested on tablesregularly.

Helpingyour Child with Science

Pre-school - Science is all about "how" and "why". Encourage your child to ask questions abouthow things work and why things happen.When he/she asks questions, don't simply supply an answer, but let yourchild guess or try to find out how or why.If you don't know the answer yourself, don't be afraid to say so andsuggest that you try to find out together.

 

Encourageyour child to be curious and provide opportunities for finding out anddiscovering things in everyday surroundings.

 

Venice hotel roomsObservationis very important in science and the following suggestions will help yourchild's progress:

 

1. Noticing theproperties of things

e.g. Is it hard, soft?

light,heavy?

moving,still?

quiet,noisy?

hot,cold?

2. Usethe senses to:

feelthings

listento sounds

smellthings

tastethings (supervised, of course).

3. Notice changes

e.g. seasonal changes, which affectweather, trees, flowers

clotheswe wear.

 

4. Observe living things

e.g. Insects- how do they move?

howmany legs?

dothey have wings?

watchthem grow.

whatdo they eat?

 

Plants - watchbuds and flowers develop.

collectand germinate seeds.

observe fruitdevelopment. etc.

 

AtSchool

 

Wecontinue this same approach to science in school. We work through the topics in the National Curriculum, which setsout the areas to be investigated at different levels. Children are given opportunity to conduct simple experiments, toask the how and why questions and to record their results.