Reading Tip Of The Week – Words Words WORDS!

Real reading is about getting the message to be found in the phrases and sentences between capital letters and full stops.But we do need to be able to recognise some individual words – it the and up etc Children will be able to read more fluently when they know lots of these ‘high frequency’ words instantly.You can play games to help your child with this instant recognition:
Write 10 or 12 high frequency words from books your child has read recently on little cards or bits of paper.(It is always helpful to relate words and letters to previous reading).Lay the words out on the table and tell your child what they say. Then ask your child to “Give me ‘the’… Give me ‘go’ and so on.Help as much as your child needs, in order to make sure he / she is being successful.
Next time you will be able to show these words as flashcards and your child will tell you what they say. You can make a game:’If you say the word straightaway, you keep it. If you don’t say it straightaway, I keep it.’Make sure your child ‘wins’ by keeping more words than you. If you get to keep a word because your child didn’t know it, it can still be fun for your child because you can be excited about winning a word.Always make sure your child wins. He / she won’t mind losing a few as long as he / she ends up with more words than you at the end of the game.Build up a bank of these known word cards.You will probably be amazed at how many words your child will be able to recognise effortlessly.

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