What and how many books per week for a 4-5 yo?

[thecaptaincrocfamily]

What do they read?
How often do they change the book?
What level is which?

I am clueless!! Reception is a mystery to me!

What is Rocket pink level?

Ds in Y1 gets his book changed once a week and it is the book he reads with the teacher in a group (Rigby Star). I don't think they follow the system though as sometimes he has purple, then yellow and then blue books?

His teacher says he reads very well and fluently but is in a reading group with a boy who gets extra help with his reading?

Never mind the school books, I hope they know what they are doing - at home we just read whatever he is happy to read - e.g. ORT Floppy stories, Horrid Henry (for young readers), Harry and the Dinosaurs and any other picture books he still enjoys.

In DS's class there is a box of reading scheme books where you can pick any book within your child's 'band'. You can change as frequently/infrequently as you like, teacher/reading volunteers also sometimes change the books when they read with the child in school.

TBH I'm kind of going through the motions with the reading scheme books as they are by necessity v dull and reading lots more interesting stuff with him at home. I'm sure he'll pick it up in time - we also practise sounds with him, oh and talk a lot!

Same as PP we change our own child's books by picking out a book from their "level" box. So we can do it as frequently as we wish.

I'm always surprised to hear so many schools rely on teacher/TA/volunteers to change the books - this must be a hugely time consuming job?

It seems a good idea to change the books ourselves. In our school the reading log and the scheme book is gone on a Thursday and on Friday a new book and the reading log with sometimes a lengthy comment on how well DS read the very same book appears again in the bookbag.

Wish we could change it ourselves tbh.

DD is in reception and doesn't get any books yet.(seems unusual judging by what other schools do) They start reading after christmas. However, I have been getting books for her from the library for a year and she reads everyday at home.

Depends on the child and the book. When our dd was five it would take all week to get through a book because they were basic chapter books.

When she was four, we would probably read a couple a week because they were less long.

Now she is six, it can take us a few weeks to read her school library book (she became a 'free reader' at the end of year 1, so we don't have scheme reading books anymore).

DS is in reception, on ORT, and brings home 2-3 books a week. We read masses at home.

Our son is 4 and the teacher changes his books twice a week. Each time he brings 2 books at home. Also once a week they get a book for parents to read to children which he also reads to me :)

He reads all the words in his books with no problem. He is on blue level (4) atm and I can't see the difference from the previous yellow level. I have no idea how they change their book bands since he finds his current band very easy. At home and outside he will read absolutely anything and I wonder why they don't skip at least two more levels to make it a bit more exciting for him.

Surely, isn't it essentially the teacher's job to evaluate their reading and not the parents'? On one hand I wish my son was moved at least one band higher but on the other hand I am more than happy that his teacher, TA, other Reception teachers, literacy coordinator etc. listen to him reading every day.

civil - do you mind me asking at what level children at your DCs school become free readers? Do they follow the national book band colours - pink, red, yellow, blue, green etc - and could you give me a couple of titles if you can recall?? My dcs school have a mad system with about 20 levels, plus sub-levels, so actually about 40 levels, and my DC in yr5 became the first free reader in her year this September. I personally think their scheme is too long-winded and unnecessary.

civil? cooeee!

Mejon I am in Wales too, in fact the same county as you, as my DD doesn't have reading books home yet either. She was 4 in February and started school last Easter. I know they have started reading with her in school as her teacher told me (I knew that she could read as she reads simple books from the library, but she is my third so I am quite laid back about it all). I think they might possibly start bringing books home after Christmas, I think that is waht the boys did when they were in Reception.

As for being a free reader, I have no idea when that is likely to kick in. DS1 (yr 3) and DS2 (yr 2) are both on ORT Level 11 and they aren't the most exciting books to be fair! DS1 has already clocked ORT level 12 on the shelf, so there must still be some way to go...

OOh, hi domestic, I'll nab you if I may; does your DCs school only have ORT books? Are other schemes mixed in? And do the ORT stage 11 books have a colour band? Asking lots of questions to help to prepare a case for allowing able readers to drop the school's reading scheme earlier than is currently possible!

No, they have other reading schemes as well, DS2 has read several different schemes but now seems to be just on ORT. DS1 seems to have mainly read ORT. I'm not sure whether they have a colour band TBH, sorry that isn't much use is it?

It might be a bit different for us too as they learn to read in Welsh first, then start to read in English from Year 3. So DS1 for example is in Year 3 and is on a Level 11 ORT book in Welsh and is reading Dogspell in English which does have a coloured sticker on the back but I can't remember what colour it is! To begin with in Year 3 he was reading the Ahlberg's Happy Families books, but then moved up.

Does that help at all?

Yes, thanks domestic, forgot you were in Wales - although if I had read your thread of 11;44 it would have reminded me!

Does anyone else have any opinions or experiences regarding "Free reading?" that they would like to share? Thanks.

{chwifio at domesticsluttery} Thanks for that - I was beginning to worry that we are very 'behind' here. DD hasn't had any homework yet either which seems unusal if you compare with those in England if threads here are anything to go by!

DD does get homework, but only in that they get a theme each week (this week it was the nativity story, last week it was the snow) and they do a page of their homework book on that theme. They can do whatever they want, draw a picture, write something if they can etc. It is very relaxed.

When DS1 was in Reception they didn't have any reading books or homework as the teacher didn't believe in it. It certainly didn't hold him back.

Sorry lovecheese - not at the computer for a few days.

Our school follows the National book band levels and once they get to white or lime (can't remember which - about ORT 11?) they are allowed to choose library books instead. So, my year 2 dd chooses things like those awful Rainbow fairy books, Worst Witch and that kind of thing...

About a quarter of children were free readers by the end of year 1.

However, I get the impression that schools do all these things very differently, with some schools making every child read every book in the scheme, or keeping children on a reading scheme until year 6.

Our school used mainly Rigby Star books in the upper book band levels but I think that ORT were used at an earlier stage. (Our dd learned to read quickly so we didn't really do much of the early stage - spent a lot of time on purple if I remember!)

National Book Band Levels - pink, red, yellow, blue, green, orange, turquoise, purple, gold, white, lime

civil thanks for replying, up to my ears in children, cooking and homework at the mo so will get back to you later.

Well this is a really useful thread and I have learned loads.
About the free reading, dd (just 5) is on yellow books but reads them twice through fluently x 2 in approx 5 mins, so I gather it is too easy and really she would benefit from going up a level. I think I might ask the teacher to send her with 2 books a night too!

Can I ask a stupid question about older kids. Slightly off OP.

When they are 'free readers' I take it there will still be a few words now and then they can't do. Does the instructional level 90 to 95% thing still apply or should the number of new words they struggle with be fewer than that at that stage. It would seem quite a lot as that would be maybe 3 or 4 words per page in a Roald Dahl novel.