Helping Your Child Y5/Y6

Introduction

In Years 5 and 6, children are becoming much more independent in the way they work. All subjects require children to read more and use a range of reference books. They will use an encyclopaedia, dictionary and thesaurus regularly and select their reading books from a wide range of fiction and non-fiction.

Although, the majority of children are this age are quite able readers, they still need to be encouraged to improve and extend their reading skills, so that they can read books and magazines for pleasure. As a parent you can help your child by encouraging them to look at and use a variety of books, magazines, and CD ROMs or listen to books on tape! Children also enjoy watching the video of the book.

Children will generally be able to read better than they can write. They are at the stage where they are developing their written language skills. They will be exploring their use of written language in a number of ways by writing poetry, creative stories, factual articles and accounts that extend their use of language Spellings still need to be learned and your child may have a school reading book to bring home.

Helping Your Child

• Take an interest in your child's reading. They are still not too old to enjoy a story at bedtime.
• Encourage them to use the library.
• Have some useful books at home - a dictionary, a children's encyclopaedia, a thesaurus - that can help with school projects.
• Check spellings. Most schools set them on a weekly basis.
• Use a variety of sources to make reading interesting and fun - CD ROMs, newspapers, magazines, tapes etc.
• If there is a video of the story your child has read, watch it together and discuss the differences between the written story and the film.
• Encourage your child to write for various purposes - pen pals, letters to newspapers, competitions, shopping lists etc.
• Print out and use the worksheets on this site. They are a starting point for reading activities or word games.
• Play word games. There are plenty of commercial games available such as Scrabble or Pictionary or you could play Hangman. It's a good standby for a word game - all you need is a piece of paper and a pen!

Literacy isn't just about reading books. It's about using language and this means encouraging children to talk about their thoughts and ideas as well as writing about them. Children of this age are full of interesting ideas and questions and they are beginning to have the ability to express them more clearly. Encourage them.

Using the Activities

Most of the activities are based around three themes - the Senses, Feelings and Space. All the activities should be printed out and used away from the computer. Some activities will encourage children to use reference books, CD ROMs and the library.

Help your child with the worksheets, but try not to give them the answer. They should be able to work quite independently at this age. Encourage your child to try new or difficult words and if they are unsure of meanings, it is a good opportunity to use a dictionary. 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 5 should be reading stories, poems and short plays and starting to be more creative in their own writing.They should be using a dictionary and an encyclopaedia. Many children of this age enjoy humorous poems and stories.

  Year 5 children still enjoy 'magical' stories but feel too old for fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Myths and legends give them a similar type of magic and they will love to listen to stories from the Ancient Worlds. Space, too, is a popular theme, and there are stories and activities here for you to use.

• Most children in Year 6 will be selecting their own reading books. They enjoy stories about real people, so biographies are popular. Most children will be reading fairly well and will be ready to produce different types of writing - stories, poems, letters, plays and information writing - about different subjects. Children are starting to become selective about the types of books and authors they like - and may want to read a series of books by the same author.

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: the senses, feelings and space.

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.

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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