Literacy
What a busy term it has been in Literacy at St James!
This Term we started our Mystery Reader program in the Junior school.
Each week on Friday morning at 9am we welcome a Mystery Reader into our class to share their favourite story.
The Junior school students LOVE having their family visit our classroom to share in our learning by reading a favourite story aloud to our class. These Mystery Reader sessions go for approximately 10-15 minutes. Each week the Mystery reader provides us with 4 clues and we wait in anticipation to see if our guesses are correct. It is a lovely way for parents and friends to be part of our literacy learning journey.
Thank you to all the Mystery readers we have had so far. We look forward to many more next term.
School Holidays!
School holidays are soon upon us. Keeping children’s reading up during this time can be hard. However, if you are looking for ways to get your child reading for pleasure and developing their literacy skills these school holidays, look no further than these websites.
Junior Students:
Between the Lions: A reading website with read-along folktales and fables, clever song videos of letter sounds, and many more stories to capture kids’ attention.
Between the Lions Early Reading | PBS LearningMedia
Storyline Online: Books on video and lessons aimed at strengthening comprehension and verbal and written skills for English-language learners.
Senior Students:
Harry Potter Club: Any kids who love Harry Potter will adore this website.
Kids News: Here, your child can select a news topic that interests them from space to animals to weather and a whole lot more!
Any Year Level:
Oxford Owl: This website provides you with access to over 250 children’s audio books!
Remember when you are listening to your child read, ask the following questions or use some of these helpful prompts.
- PAUSE, PROMPT, PRAISE
- Can you get out the first sound(s)?
- Does the picture give you a clue?
- Can you blend the sounds together?
- Have you seen that word before?
- Can you break it into parts?
- Does that look right?
- Does that sound right?
- Does it make sense?
- Do you need to re-read?
- TRY THAT AGAIN
Antoinette Ferrari and Mandi Joplin
Literacy Leaders