What am I supposed to do with this book?

[Changebagsandgladrags]

DS (first day in reception) was given Oxford Reading Tree level 1 - At School. The teacher also gave me a comments book.

This book has no words, just a few pages of pictures.

So, I sort of 'read' it, got DS to do the recommended activities. But all this took just a few minutes and DS was bored by it. Am I supposed to be more imaginative?

Am I supposed to send it back tomorrow do you think? I should have asked the teacher, but assumed the book was 'meatier' than this.

Plus what do I comment? Boring

I played eye spy to begin with so whatever the most frequent word is I got my dc to look for it and therefore just seeing the picture of the word.

Comment book, is just so that the teacher knows you've seen the book. Initial it and normally comment like, good reading, well read etc would be put in.

But there are no words at all in this book.

The only words are At School on the cover.

You talk about it! Your son has just had his first day at school, what can he see in the book that is in his school, what is different, what did he do at school, can he name anything in the book, what does he think the children are called, what story could he make up that follows the pictures ( it doesn't have to be "true", just what he wants to say. What does he think happened the next day, can he draw his own picture of his classroom, who are his friends ( you could even write the names down for him) anything you can think of!
As for comments, did your son talk about the book, what was his favourite page, does he know which way up the book goes and how to change page ( sounds basic but some children don't!) Can he tell his own story or does he find it difficult, can he relate this to his own experiences,
Some schools change these books every day, some leave them for a week! just read other books too.

You'll no doubt get a letter at the end of the week explaining what to do
just write in the book 'ds liked looking at the pictures and discussing what he saw'
job done

Get DS to tell you the story of what is happening in the pictures, and ask a few questions. Where do you think they are going? How does he feel now? etc

Then just put a quick comment- Discussed pictures with DS.

change...etc I have just started getting these books from the library to look at with my youngest; we talk about what has happened in the picture, what might happen next, how the main character might be feeling, whether we liked it etc - very good for dialogue with your child even without any words.

lol - it's pre-reading skills. talking about the pictures, telling 'the story' of the pictures as they move on, describing what's happening, what you see.

i only ever initial tbh, and write 'complete' or 'please change'.

don't worry, soon enough biff, chip and kipper will be boring the pants off you.

I wouldn't count on getting a leter...

I used the comments bit as an encouragement for DS. He likes it when I put something in there.

As a teacher in Key Stage 2, I've never really understood how children are meant to learn to read from books without any words, it really confuses me!

Oh, and if you think At School is bad, wait until you get The Haircut or, my all time favourite Getting Up, joy on every page

No words at all??? Ok haven't had one of those - haven't even seen that much of a picture book for babies/toddlers.

Interested now - how's that work? how's that starting to read?

They aren't meant to learn to read from books without any words. But it gives the teacher an idea of which children already grasp the basics of books and stories -- do they know that you start at the beginning, turn the pages from right to left and work through the book that way? Can they understand the story from the pictures when they are "reading" it? Can they remember the story and tell it back to you? Can they attempt to predict what might happen next?

Children who have all those skills can progress on to reading books with words fairly quickly. But a child who doesn't grasp the way that a book or a story works is likely to wind up confused by a reading book and will need some extra support.

General approach to comments book -- describe what you did, how easy or difficult DS found it, how DS felt about the book, what he liked and didn't like so much.

These books are used as pre-reading books. Part of the skill of reading is developing story language and structure, realising that stories have a sequence, they start at the beginning and progress through to the end! That characters in books do something, that we can use our own imagination, can use pictures to tell a story, can talk about books, there is SO much you can do with books without words, I teach yr 5/6 and use them all the time!

Colapps - i think the idea is that there are kids out there who dont get read to before school age. At all. And dot have the visual example of seeing thier parents read. So they would have NO IDA how to hold a book or how a book 'works' iyswim? It is very :( in my min that there are these kids out there but it is a fact that there is. So they have to start with the basics for some kids. Obviously a fair few if not most of the reception kids would have started 'reading' eve if it is just recognising a few letters or their names. The teacher would know this but sends the same out to all the kids - no parents can complain that a child hasnt been given a book - it buys them time while they assess the appropriate level (at our school we dont get books for the first three weeks while they work it out!)

xposts! Sorry!

You give him the book and ask him to tell you what its about. You can point out we read from front to back, from left to right. You ask about pictures, try to spot small differences (lots of these in letters).

5 minutes is plenty for a 4/5 year old.

You still read to him proper books etc.

I got the same book home with dd, in this case there was a photocopied sheet in with the book with the actual story for me to read to her. Also an explanation sheet, I had to
Day 1

1. Read your child the story using the photocopied sheet
2. look at the pictures in the storybook. talk about them and tell the story together.

Day 2
Ask your child to retell the story in their own words.
Encourage them to add as much detail as possible.

HTH

The LAST thing I would do is "read" the story, I think that limits the use of imagination ( just as a book with words means that there can only be one "correct" version. I would do all the other activities mentioned first and THEN read the story!

Oh no feel worried now! My DD was in nursery class last year and had the Biff and Kipper books, with a notebook/comment book. I never wrote any comments, cos I thought it was for the teacher to write in .

Should I definitely be writing in it? We were never given any direction tbh.

I agree spanieleyes, and that is what we did, looked at the pictures, discussed what we thought was going on then read the story! Was actually really surprised to find there WAS a 'proper story' to be told, I was all ready to make it up as we went along

Can he already read?

Doesn't matter whether he can read or not, can he talk about books and story language?

He can't already read, he knows a few letters but I've been wary of pushing him too much, he's only just 4.

OK, so tomorrow I'll have a better go about talking about it and drawing.

I'm not complaining about the book, I just had no idea what to do with it. I have no imagination clearly.

The idea is that you look at the pictures together and your child tells you what he sees. It is to extend his vocabulary.

goodness.

we had a parent teacher meeting last week with dd's reception teacher where she went through the ways they teach reading and writing.

she showed us the ort books and the jolly phonics resources and explained how she uses them and how we as parents can best support her teaching etc. sadly, not many parents turned up so i imagine they too will be rather perplexed at the contents of their dc's book bag on day 1.