Year 1 reading level confusion.

[TickledOnion]

DD's school has never sent her home with banded books until the last couple of weeks. Recently she's brought home a couple of chapter books with a brown sticker. (DD reckons it supposed to be gold). One was a Flat Stanley book and one was Make friends, break friends.

She can read the books fairly well but has almost no understanding of what's going on. So she's not inclined to keep going and it's becoming a chore. Does that sound like she is on the right level? I think she'd enjoy it more if she could follow the story.

It's 2 weeks till the end of term. Shall I bother saying anything or wait till next year? I'd like to encourage her reading over the holidays so knowing the right band would help.

I'd speak to the teacher.

We bought a subscription to Reading Eggs which DD loves (started it in Y1). It does a little test at the start I think, so you start at the right place. Often has a free trial so you can try it out. DD wouldn't even do phonics before Reading Eggs!

Yes sounds too hard if she's not following and not enjoying.

At this point I'd wait till next year. They probably won't have many more books in the next two weeks will they? DS' teachers have started collecting them in at least a week early to avoid people forgetting them and not getting them back before the end of the year.

I'd just find stuff in the library that she can really read and enjoy over the summer. Libraries usually don't match to bands anyway. Just let her choose from the picture books or easy readers section. Simple chapter books with pictures, like Winnie the Witch chapter books, or Jeremy Strong's pirate school books, might be more approachable.

I just had a quick check of the book, and it said book level "4.2", interest level "MY". So more likely to be brown level.
4.2 means "2nd months of 4th year of school" = YR3, and interest level MY means middle years.(age 9~13).

Thanks everyone. I don't think the books are year 3 level but definitely year 2. The flat Stanley one says age 7+ on the back.
I'll have a look for something a little easier at the library.

Possible she's been told to grab gold books (L9?) and has picked up bronze (L12?) instead?

Sorry the book I checked was "make friends.."

Text maybe easy, but interest level 9~13yrs suggest it may not be appropriate for YR1 child.