Reading
Enjoy a story together
Sharing the fun of reading is a great experience for children and adults. By enjoying books together and sharing a love of stories from a early age you are making learning fun for your child. Spend time talking about the book, discuss the characters, settings, story line and pictures. Ask your child questions about what has been read.
Shared Reading
Encourage your child to share a reading book with their friends or other family members. Children learn a great deal by explaining their ideas to others and sharing in the reading experience together. Older siblings can play a key role by helping to teach younger child to read, modelling reading and sharing reading material.
Book Swap
Swapping books among friends and family members is an excellent way to increase your child’s reading repertoire. The children may get introduced to different genre of texts and their diet of reading becomes more varied. It paves the way for children to talk together about books that they have read.
Book review
Writing a book review allows your child to respond and reflect on their reading. Sections may include: What was the book about? What was your best part? Who was your favourite character and why? Why did you choose this book? Give the book a star rating. There are many templates to download on the internet.
Create a reading journal
Keeping a reading journal is a great way to motivate your child to read. Dedicate a page for each book read. Write the title, the author, a summary of the book and a brief review. Why not add illustrations? Create a reading challenge, set a realistic amount of books to read in a given time.
Make a bookmark
Provide your child with a piece of card in the shape of a bookmark. On one side, ask your child to draw a scene from a book that they have recently read. On the other side, write the name of the book, its author, publisher and a few sentences about the book.
Design a new front cover
This creative activity is fun for children of all ages. Write the title of the story, try using a font that matches the genre. Include the author, illustrator and publisher on the cover, Draw a picture that shows what the book is about. Think about anything else to add, like a publisher’s logo.
Write a new blurb (or synopsis)
Write a brief summary about the book, without giving too much away. Look at examples used by authors and publishers. Challenge your child to find and use effective ways to entice people to want to read the book, for example, by using persuasive language and rhetorical questions.
Make a list of different story genres
There are many different book genres that are determined largely by the characters, setting or plot and other features like the layout of the text and the use of language, for example, adventure, romance, horror, sci-fi. Challenge your child to list as many as they can.
Recite a poem
Reciting a poem helps your child to develop memory skills. Choose a poem with your child. Ask your child to read the poem, paying attention to the rhyme, structure and punctuation. Ask your child to explain what the poem is about, as understanding it is important to be able to recite it properly. Ask your child to try and memorize the poem and recite it to an audience.
Researching - create a fact sheet
With your child, decide on a subject to research using books and/or the internet to create a fact file. Encourage your child to read a range of texts to gain an overall impression and evaluate the usefulness of the information. Skim and scan read the text to locate and retrieve relevant information. Use the contents, index and subheadings to find specific information.
Different non-fiction text types
Similarly to fiction (stories), there are different types of text for non-fiction (information). These are largerly characterised by their different layout and features . How many different text types can your child name? For example, recount, reports, instructions, biography. Can your child identify the specific layout and features for particular types of non-fiction texts?