reception class reading books

[alexsmum]

ds brought home his first reading book from school today and the task in his reading record book was to share it with him.Well, even with talking about the pictures and pointing out letters he recognised etc.it took about 5 minutes.It was incredibly basic and dull. Any ideas what to do about this?? We have a meeting tomorrow about the school's approach to teaching reading.Should I say something like " give them more intersting books?" Any tips from more experienced mums please?

For some kids the books are boring initially, but if your child is bright he will be given more challenging ones once the teacher recognizes this. Was the book boring to him or was it just to you?

It was boring to him too, I think.It had 2 words on each page and he just wanted to whizz through it as quickly as possible. Although he went back to it to show his dad, later.He was quite proud that he had a reading book from school iyswim.We share books a lot, and he's used to proper story books if you know what I mean.I know this is different because it's a book for HIM to read rather than for me to read to him

I would just mention to his teacher that he found the task very easy, and then give it a couple of weeks to see how they manage his progress. If he's really whizzing through, they'll probably start giving him a new book every couple of days, maybe every day, and moving him quickly up through the levels. On the other hand I would definitely complain if he's getting left with the same dull, easy book for a week at a time.

Unfortunately reading scheme books are usually a bit uninspiring - maybe something to do with being sure to consolidate what's learnt at each stage - so I'm not sure the school is going to be able to make the core reading process more exciting. But he ought to have access (school library, etc.) to other livelier books.

alexsmum, could he read it then? That's brilliant. dd2 (4) comes home with her book in her book bag with comments like 'sounded out the last letter'. Good luck to you

My son is doing the same thing. We are lucky in that he enjoyed doing this. It only takes five minutes, but that is plenty at his age, I think. Dd was already reading at this stage and her school soon moved her on.

The books in DS1s reception class last year were, on the whole, books to be read to the child by a parent. The child chose whatever one they wanted to take home, whever they wanted to. Any "taught" reading was done in class with activities etc and our job as parents was to make them enjoy reading rather than to help them to read IYSWIM - hence the interesting reading matter.

Alexsmum - well done your ds if he's reading already! I would concentrate on just doing max 5 mins with the school book, and making it as fun as possible; I'm sure they'll soon give him some more challenging books.

At our school they start all children (regardless of their current reading ability) off on books with no words at all, and get them to tell the story. Some parents thought it a bit odd, but it works well, and picture skills/story telling skills are important at this age. We were advised in the early stages to still let them tell the story in their own words first by looking at the pictures, before even tackling the words. And those early books with one or two words are a bit mind-numbing!

Keep on enjoying books with him ... bear in mind lots of families don't even spend 5 mins a week looking at books with their children.

Ds1 has good word-recognition skills but when it came to choosing his own book from the school library last week he chose a book with just a few sentences in it because he liked the dragon on the front cover. Although the printed words themselves were fairly easy for him he really enjoyed talking about the pictures and we had some good discussions about other topics that led on from this.

His actual reading book will be one of those with no words in it at all. I think he will get a lot out of this even though he technically could manage more difficult books.

Okay, I take it all back. Ds1's teacher heard him read today. Instead of giving him a book with no words in it (as we'd been told would happen) she has moved him up to Stage 1+ which has short sentences in it. He has read this one to me fairly easily so I'll see what happens next.

Your ds's teacher will probably adjust the level of books that he is given when she has listened to him reading.

I think it all depends on how your school teaches reading. My ds started P1 in August and has been given a different book each day. Started off with nursery rhymes that he knew and now is things like "pets" with a picture and 2 words (ie. "a dog" on each page. He has to point at each word as he says it so he associates the word he is saying with the letters. A agree it's boring - but there is a purpose to it! We still share lots of stories at bedtime as well,so he sees what enjoyment can be gained from reading.

Thought I'd ressurect this thread as dd has been bringing home books from reception for a couple of weeks now.
They are "share together" books that Iam supposed to read to dd and then talk about what is happening etc.
She brings home a different one every day But They are to me Obviously not first readers for the children. They have a few sentences on each page, whereas I suspect that the first stage readers that are designed for the children to read not the parents wouls only have a couple of words on each page.

DD can read a few words herself such as dog, in , look come, here etc.
How is everyone else getting on and does anyone know what the baseline assesment looks for?

Wow, I am amazed! Can all of your reception year children read a few words, if not sentences??

DS is 5 in November and can't read any words at all. Can just about recognise some of the letters in his own name when they occur in other words. I think he may be able to recognise his name as a whole, although last night he pointed at "San Diego" today and thought that was his name.

Actually, I know a little boy in Year 1 who only reads a few words, and I thought he was average.

I think DS is ahead in maths, though. We have some very good computer games that have helped him learn.

Zebra, Iam not sure but I think it can depend on the school. Dds school really push the reading and have been doing the same words every day with them with a view to starting reading books after half term.
Some schools are more relaxed in the reception yr. I think dd is on the brink of sounding out words but she can't do it quite yet I think once they can grasp the connection of phonetically sounding out the word and reading it they are away.
The words dd knows are on sight, she has learnt the whole word rather than sounding it out.
She has about 20 of these sight words she knows.

Ds1 is a pretty unusual case as he did things the wrong way round. He had/has signs of hyperlexia which means that he could read quite complex words but had absolutely no understanding of what he was reading. His language skills are finally catching up so he now at least understands some of what he is reading.

In the Foundation Stage they tend to start off looking for things like:

• does the child understand that the text actually means/represents something

• does the child understand that in this country we read from left to right.

There are also the key words that they like them to be able to recognise by the end of the Foundation stage.

Ds1's first book was a non-reading-scheme book with about a sentence on each page. I think at this stage schools like to focus on showing children that books/reading can be enjoyable. I suppose different schools must spend different amounts of time on this stage.

Just wanted to give an update.Ds's teacher has started giving him more interesting reading books!! I noticed that this week's one is level B rather than Level A.A bit more to get his teeth into.
He can't read properly but is certainly recognising words, and can write the words he recognises. We had a parent's evening this week and teacher said that he had scored very highly in the baseline assessment on reading skills and was 'more able' than average for his age.Which is fab, and I'm very proud.
My main thing is to make sure that he continues to think reading is fun and realises how much pleasure he will always get from books, iyswim.
She also said that some children of that age can't grip the pen properly and that's also ok for their age.they all just develop at different rates.

Hi alexsmum, Are the books ds brings home meant to be for him to read or for you to read to him.
The books we bring home are "share together" books but dd knows a few of the word in them .
The books we have at the moment don't have a level written on them tho.
We have been told that only "some" children will be bringing a book home after half term to read themselves. So I will have to wait and see if she is one of the lucky few!
Btw, When is your ds 5. My dd is one of the youngest % in April.

hi charlize! ds's books are for us to 'share together' as well.They write the task for the week in a little notebook, for eg, share this book with alex,help him to recognise the following words, and a list of usually 3 words.
Will post more later, i have to go as dh is getting stressed with the kids.