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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.