Book Week 2016

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We are delighted to be celebrating the 19th World Book Day (3rd March) in Powerstown E.T.N.S. with a series of in-school events 29th February – 4th March 2016. Over the last 19 years World Book Day has become firmly established as Ireland’s biggest annual event promoting the enjoyment of books and reading. The main aim is to encourage children to explore the pleasure of books and reading by providing them with an opportunity to have a book of their own. This may sound like a very simple idea, but unfortunately, many children do not have access to books in their homes.

We are holding the following events in school during the week that we would love your support in:

•  Book Fair running until Tuesday 1st March

• Dress as a book character Day Thursday 3rd March: your child is invited to come to school dressed as their favourite book character for the day!

•  Shared Reading:  You are invited to come and join us for ‘Shared Reading’ events in each class during the week.  ‘Shared Reading’ is a fun time where parents read story books to small groups of children. Books in other languages are welcomed! ‘Shared Reading’ will run as follows:

Attached you will find:

• A €1 book token which may be redeemed from any bookshop

 Many thanks for your support.

Happy reading!

Tips for Parents/Guardians

Reading at Home:

Please remember to sign your child’s reading record to show they have read at home. Your child will also be reading in school but all practise is beneficial. Prizes will be awarded for most books read and most money raised.   Please help to encourage your child at home and promote an enthusiasm for reading.

 Ideas for Home Reading:

 Introducing the book – When asking your child to read please introduce the book first, discussing the title, what it means and what they think the book may be about from the title and cover.

 Reading Strategies – When reading there are a number of clues that your child can use to work out words they are struggling with:

1.    Use the story e.g. a story about a new pet may have the word dog in it.
2.    Use the picture (looking at the page for clues e.g. c    could be cat if there is a picture of a cat).
3.    Sounding out e.g. splitting a word into sounds e.g. c-a-t blends to read cat.
4.    Recognise smaller words in bigger words (e.g. splitting playing into play-ing.)
5.    Find the word somewhere else in the story (point out if they have already read it on an earlier page)
6.    Return to the beginning of the sentence and try again (to recapture the flow of the story).

 Don’t focus to heavily on mistakes, only correct if it is necessary so as not to stop the flow of reading. Give lots of praise and be specific with it – e.g. I like how you looked at the picture then to help yourself, I liked how you split that word up to read it etc.

 After reading:

 Discuss the book with your child, did they enjoy it and why. Talk about the characters and what they did in the story. Then ask questions about specific pages e.g. Can you tell me what they played on at the park? Can you point to the full stop on page 2? Can you point to the word ‘said’ or ‘you’ on page 3 etc.