Helping Your Child Y3/Y4

Introduction

During the first two junior years, children cover subjects in much more depth. This involves more reading and children now need to learn to use different types of books - encyclopaedias, dictionaries, atlases and a range of non-fiction books.

At the same time, they still need to be encouraged to improve and extend their reading skills, so that they can read books or magazines for pleasure. As a parent you can help your child by encouraging them to use different types of books (or magazines, CD ROMs, books on tapes, etc.).

Children, generally, at this stage are more able at reading than they are at writing. They are still at the stage where they are learning about sounds and the way words are built up. Spellings still need to be learnt and your child will have a school reading book to bring home.

Helping Your Child

• Relax - make the learning fun.
• Ask your child to read to you regularly. This will improve their confidence and you can help them with words they don't understand.
• Have some interesting and useful books at home - a dictionary, a children's encyclopaedia, story books.
• Use other sources of information to make reading interesting and fun - CD ROMs, newspapers, magazines, etc.
• If you haven't already done so, take your child along to the library to become a member. (There is a worksheet on this site in 'Something to Find Out' about the library)
• Print out and use the worksheets on this site. They are a starting point for reading activities or word games.
• Play word games at home or in the car. You can buy commercial games such as Scrabble or make up some of your own. For example, using the letters of the alphabet you can take turns to name something - animals, football teams, countries, towns, food and drink, etc.

Literacy isn't just about reading books. Words are everywhere - on notices, in newspapers, in magazines, in supermarkets, on adverts. Look at words and encourage your child to read them wherever they appear

Using the Activities

Most of the activities are based around three themes - the year and its seasons, myths and legends, and school. All the activities can be printed out and used away from the computer. Some activities will encourage children to use reference books or CD ROMs.

Help your child with the worksheets, but try not to give them the answer. Read through each page with your child. Encourage them to read as much as possible themselves but help him/ her with difficult words. The activities are meant to be fun.

You will see three characters on the activity pages. Penny Phonic is there when there are sounds to learn. Word Mouse reminds the children to take care with spellings and Grammar Bug is a gentle reminder of the rules of grammar. The postman brings surprises in an envelope. These can appear anywhere.

Generally:

• Children in Year 3 should be reading short stories and starting to write their own stories and poems. They should be starting to use a dictionary and an encyclopaedia. Many children of this age enjoy humorous poems and stories.

  They still enjoy 'magical' stories but feel too old for fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Myths and legends give them the same type of magic and they will love to listen to stories of gods, princesses, knights and dragons!

• Some children in Year 4 will be ready to read short novels. They enjoy stories about imagined worlds - fantasy and adventures. Most children will be reading fairly well and will be ready to produce different types of writing - stories, poems, letters and information writing - about different subjects.

  Simple plays are popular with this age group and they will enjoy reading them with their friends and taking their turn.

Something to Read

These activities can be read by children or parents. There are poems, stories and factual accounts - to encourage children to read different types of writing. Many of them are linked to one of the other activities. Three themes are used: myths and legends, the year and its seasons, and school.

Something to Write

These activities should be printed out and used away from the computer. There is a mixture of activities - complete the story, wordsearch, jumbled words etc. Your child should be able to do most of the sheets independently.

Always check what your child has written and encourage them to talk about the activity.

Something to Remember

On these pages you will find Word Lists for spelling practice, Grammar Rules that your child should learn, or snippets of information. Use these to reinforce the written activity sheets.

In addition to the Word Lists and Word Families given here, your child should know how to write his/her personal details (address, date of birth) and the school address.

Something to Find Out

The Find Out activities are talk-about activities, simple research activities, or 'things to do' activities. They introduce children to the idea of finding and using information from different sources. For some of the activities they will need you help!

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