Information for Parents- Reading Colour Bands Your child is now on pink books. In order to help them progress further, please consider using the ideas listed below. • • • • • • • • • • • • Look at the front cover together. Read the title together and talk about what the story might be about. Look for the name of the author (person who writes the story) and illustrator (person who draws the pictures). Read the book together, so the child is familiar with the story. Use the pictures for clues. Ask questions about the pictures eg What is she doing? Why is she laughing? What will happen next? Point to the words as you read them. Ask questions about the words in the text ie Can you find a word beginning with the letter “b”? Can you find the word “sun”? What was your favourite page in the book? Why? Allow opportunities for the child to reread to others or toys. Do you know all your letter sounds? Can you sound out any words eg c-a-t? Your child is now on red books. In order to help them progress further, please consider using the ideas listed below. • • • • • • • • • • • • Look at the front cover. Can the child read the title? What might this book be about? Introduce the terms author, illustrator and front cover. Is it a story book? You may wish to read the book together, before you expect the child to read it to you. Use the pictures for clues. Ask questions about the pictures eg What is happening? Why did he say that? What will happen next? Point to the words. Ask questions about the words in the text ie Can you find all the words beginning with “p”? What was your favourite part of the book? Why? Allow opportunities for the child to reread to others or toys. How many of the phase 2 words can you read or match? Your child is now on yellow books. In order to help them progress further, please consider using the ideas listed below. • • • • • • • • • • • Look at the front cover and read the title. What might this book be about? Look for the author and illustrator. Is it a story, poetry book or non- fiction book? Ask questions about the book eg Why did he say that? What will happen next? Try to say each sound when sounding out words eg h-a-n-d hand. Allow time for the child to attempt to sound out a sentence on their own. Find specific words in texts. What was your favourite part of the book? Why? Allow opportunities for the child to reread to others or toys. How many of the phase 2 and 3 words can you read? Your child is now on dark blue books. In order to help them progress further, please consider using the ideas listed below. • • • • • • • • • • • • Look at the front cover and title. What might this book be about? Look for the author, illustrator and discuss these terms. Talk about the differences between fiction and non-fiction books. Name and talk about the characters in the story book. Does the non-fiction book need to be read in a certain order? Look for capital letters and full stops. Discuss taking a breath for a full stop. Reread the story. Put letter sounds together to build words and allow time to sound out sentences. Teach the alphabet sounds and use when needed to read words. How many of the phase 3 and 4 words can you read? Use pictures for discussion ie Why do you think it is..? How do you know? Your child is now on green books. In order to help them progress further, please consider using the ideas listed below. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Look at the front cover and read the title. What might this book be about? What type of book is it? Discuss differences between fiction (eg story) and non-fiction (eg information book). Look for the author, illustrator. Read the “blurb” (information on the back of the book). Talk about good and bad characters and the order of the events in the story. Use pictures for discussion ie What time of year is it? How do you know? Use the index or contents page of a nonfiction book. Find specific words in texts. What was your favourite part of the book? Why? Look for and name full stop, exclamation mark and question mark. Look out for headings and labels. Look for words that rhyme. Reread book to others. How many of the phase 3 and 4 words can you read? Your child is now on orange books. In order to help them progress further, please consider using the ideas listed below. • • • • • • • • • • • Look at the front cover and read the title. What type of book is it? Discuss differences between poetry, stories, rhyming books and plays. Look for the author, illustrator and blurb. Talk about good and bad characters and the order of the events in the story. Use pictures and discuss what can be seen, in order to predict how the characters feel and what might happen next. Discuss how you know or why you feel that. Use the index or contents page of a nonfiction book. Look for and name full stop, exclamation mark, question mark, speech mark and speech bubble. Find a word in bold or capital letters. Why is it written like this? Look for captions and diagrams in nonfiction books. Reread book to others. How many of the phase 3 and 4 words can you read? Your child is now on turquoise books. In order to help them progress further, please consider using the ideas listed below. • • • • • • • • • • • • Discuss differences between poetry, stories, rhyming books and plays. Talk about characters, settings (where the story is happening) and the order of the events in the story. Use pictures and discuss what can be seen, in order to predict how the characters feel and what might happen next. Discuss how you know or why you feel that. Look at the alphabetical order in an index. Put a set of words in alphabetical order to one letter. Look for and name speech marks. Think of another word meaning happy/sad/angry and other feeling words. Look at how punctuation is used to help with expression when reading aloud. Demonstrate reading with expression. How many of the phase 4 and 5 words can you read? Use a dictionary to find the meaning of unfamiliar words. Think of another title for the book. Find any “doing words” (verbs) in the book. Your child is now on purple books. In order to help them progress further, please consider using the ideas listed below. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Look for books written by the same author or collections of books with a similar theme. Discuss how books are set out. Discuss events, characters and settings. Why did you like/not like them? Discuss what the main problem in the story is. Teach child to use a glossary, contents and index. Look at the alphabetical order in an index. Put a set of words in alphabetical order to one letter. Look at how punctuation is used to help with expression when reading aloud. Demonstrate reading with expression. Consider what could happen after the story you read has finished. Find any describing words (adjectives) in the book. Non- fiction text- What would you like to find out from this book? Non-fiction text- Look for headings and sub-headings. Reread to others. How many of the phase 4 and 5 words can you read and spell? Use a dictionary to find the meaning of unfamiliar words. Look up the meanings for a list of words. Your child is now on gold books. In order to help them progress further, please consider using the ideas listed below. • • • • • • • • • • • • Read a variety of texts including looking at a poem in depth, dictionaries, plays, leaflets and books by the same author. Read to self at times. Attempt different voices for the characters in a story, taking account punctuation and making the story interesting. Discuss the main characters in the story and how they affect each other. Look for a smaller word within a bigger word. Read all phase words and most common words from the 200 word list. Use a dictionary, encyclopedia and the internet to find out information and check understanding of unfamiliar words. Order a set of words alphabetically by looking at the first letter. Non-fiction text- Notice that the contents page is in page order and the index is in alphabetical order. Non-fiction text- Look at the glossary. What is it used for? Find speech marks in a sentence. What are they used for? Look for and name exclamation marks. Suggest a different ending for the story book. Your child is now on white books. In order to help them progress further, please consider using the ideas listed below. • • • • • • • • • • • • Read a variety of texts including looking at a poem in depth, dictionaries, plays, autobiographies, encyclopedias, leaflets and books by the same author. Read to self when required. Begin to look at hidden meaning with stories. Attempt different voices to make the story interesting. Discuss the main characters in the story and how they affect each other. Use the contents page, glossary and index to answer questions. Scan a short text to find the answer to a specific question. Order a set of words alphabetically by looking at the 1st and 2nd letters in words. Eg hand, head, hit. Non-fiction book- Tell your child a fact from the book. Is it true or false? (Give them some incorrect facts too)! Ask why/what/where/when/how/who questions about the characters. Pick out speech in the text, and write it out with speech marks. Look at different ways that the story uses “said” ie muttered, whispered… Your child is now on lime books. In order to help them progress further, please consider using the ideas listed below. They will then be ready to be a ‘Free Reader’; free to select any book from the library. Keep reading! • • • • • • • • Read a variety of texts including looking at a poem in depth, dictionaries, plays, autobiographies, encyclopedias, leaflets and books by the same author. Suggest an alternative title to the book. Understand and discuss the feelings and actions of the characters. Find a word which is used to describe… Ask questions about the ending of the story eg Do you like the ending? Can you think of an alternative ending? Write book reviews. Pick out unusual or interesting words and consider what they mean. Look for any apostrophes in words (eg I’m, can’t) and discuss what they are used for.