Literacy At Home

To strengthen your child’s literacy learning, I encourage you to continue your home literacy experiences (e.g., reading to your child at bedtime).  I have also attached a list of ideas, which can help you expand your child’s home literacy experiences.

Home Reading Program

I encourage you to continue to read to your child at home.  This helps your child build their vocabulary and also exposes them to a variety of sentence structures.  I ask that your child also read to you or to themselves for 15 minutes per day.  During this time you have the opportunity to discuss the book.  Encourage your child to ask questions while they are reading, make predictions, and connect to personal experiences, to other books that are similar, and to the world around them.

Re-read Texts

Although it may seem that your child has mastered a book, re-reading a text can help your child develop confidence as a reader.  As they practice familiar texts, they develop their reading fluency.  Also, each time they read, it might raise new questions or topics for discussion.  Similar to the sport of soccer, practice makes perfect.

Read a Variety of Text Types

In addition to fiction, encourage your child to read non-fiction and other text types, like poetry, news articles, recipes, and biographies.  Try to find out where your child’s interests lie.

Help Your Child Select Appropriate Materials for Their Reading Ability and Interests

At school we will be practicing the IPICK method of book selection.

I - I choose a book
P - Purpose - Why do I want to read it?
I - Interest - Does it interest me?
C - Comprehend - Am I understanding what I am reading?
K - Know- I know most of the words.

Encourage Risk Taking

Mistakes are a good thing!  It is how we learn.

Have Fun

Make reading a relaxing, enjoyable experience where you can escape from the busy day and enjoy some good conversation.  I hope that together we can make your child's literacy experiences a positive and life-long endeavour.