Learning & Teaching News
10 Ways you can support reading and writing at home
1. Let your children see you read for pleasure. Share vocabulary, quotes, characters, and the story with them. Compare similarities and differences between your book and the books your children are reading.
2. Talk to your children about how your parents read to you or told you stories.
3. Let your children see you write for pleasure. Send family letters to relatives or friends. Let everyone in the family contribute a part or an illustration.
4. When you’re riding in the car, tell your children a story about when you were little or tell them a story about something that happened at work that day. Leave off the ending and let them provide an ending.
5. Have your child(ren) select three things they want to include in a story. Make up a story that includes those three things. For example, the selections might be a princess, a race car, and an ice cream cone. The children will love helping you find clever ways to include three things in the story.
6. When you look up at the sun/moon or pass a landmark/building, take turns making up a story to go with them. At night, point out the face in the moon and make up a story about the “man in the moon”. Follow up these storytelling events with a trip to the library to explore legends about people and places from our own country and others countries.
7. Try different ambiances for reading a story aloud or storytelling. If it’s a scary story, tell it in the dark or read it with flashlights. If it’s a story about when your child was little, bring out an old toy and hold it as you tell the story.
8. Make a family book that is a collection of stories: favorite stories retold generation after generation or stories of family events (first visit by the tooth fairy). Any time that stories are recorded, younger children can dictate to an older family member.
9. Help your child find a place in your home that is his/her favorite reading spot. A place where he/she can read comfortably with little distraction. Put a basket of books near the spot. Include pens, crayons, pencils, erasers and paper in the basket to encourage writing too. Every now and then, put a “literacy gift” in their basket to discover and explore.
10. Read aloud daily to your child. Talk about the pictures. Make predictions about a story and see if they come true. Read aloud a chapter-book before bed.
HELP WANTED!! We are asking for any parent helpers to assist with reading. Anytime...any day we would appreciate your help. Please email Anne Sexton if you are interested
asexton@smdplaverton.catholic.edu.au.
Daniela De Luca
Numeracy & Literacy Leader