Another colour band question!

[Mehfruittea]

DS is in yr 1 and started on Green books in Sept. He’s now been bringing home Grey books, that appear to be ORT turquoise. So far the school have followed ORT colour bands so I’m thrown by this.

Shouldn’t he move to Orange next? These Grey banded books are a little bit harder but he’s mostly fluent with the words. The length of book is hard, he struggled to stay engaged so we’ve read them across a few nights. Is this right? And what’s he missing out on in Orange? TIA

AFAIK each school has a different system. So it's best to just speak to your child's teacher and ask them I'd say.

If he is reading fluently he must be on right level. Ds skipped few levels, and didn't go through every level.

We have a parents evening next month. I was worried because ORT have a grey band but that’s towards the end. And these books are turquoise but with a grey band sticker.

Should I just assume turquoise? We have been supplementing with books at home so wanted to get the right level for him.

There isn't much difference between orange and turquoise IIRC

How old is he?

Green to grey seems quite a big jump, but you never know, especially you have been supplementing at home. Just ask the teacher.

My ds missed orange entirely and for some of the bands he read few books.

Thanks everyone. He’s yr 1. We have the project x books at home, which start at turquoise. When he looks at those, he doesn’t feel confident enough to start them. He’s really keen to read them as well.

I have a son in Yr2 (he's 7 in January). He's on dark blue books now, then he's only got dark green to go and he'll be what our school call a "rainbow" reader (free reader).

Our main focus has always been that he enjoys reading, so try not to fixate on colours and bands and let him choose what to read. We sometimes read a paragraph each, or a page each.

Mention it to his teacher at parents eve if you'd like to know where he is.

My DD worked through the 'standard' book bands (as per this site), and then 'jumped' from Lime to Dark Blue. I queried it with the teacher, and it turns out the school do their own colour bands after Lime. It's likely your child's school is doing the same: I'd ask them.

Moving from green to grey is a huge jump. Moving from green to turquoise is fine if he's reading fluently and understanding what he's reading.
I've found that children find the magic key and the songbirds books easier to read in turquoise band than the project x.

My children's school also stop ORT book bands after orange. I think they follow them throughout all the phonics learning and then have their own bands after that.

Surely as long as his reading level matches his ability and he's progressing it doesn't matter what the colour says. Just get the teacher to explain the system to all the parents.