At St Nicholas we are thoroughly enjoying the Read Write Inc scheme to learn our sounds. Your child has been placed in a RWI group for their phonics learning. The children will go to their group for an hour a day where they will learn their sounds, read a book and complete a writing task based on the book they have been reading. Outside of our RWI lessons, your child will have plenty of writing opportunities across our curriculum. We also deliver a reading lesson every day which begins with handwriting and then we look at our exciting story or text for that week answering VIPER questions as we go. After our reading lesson the children take part in singing popular nursery rhymes and vocabulary games. 

RWI 

As already stated, your child has been put into a phonics group which they go to daily to learn and practise their sounds, to read a story that they can decode with the sounds they've already learnt and to complete a writing task that links with their book. Your child's RWI teacher will send home a book that your child can read with confidence. This means that for some children, their book may seem a little easy for them however, we want children to feel confident in their reading and to build fluency. This is also why we expect the children to read their RWI book at least 3 times a week if not more. Re-reading a book helps children develop fluency and expression. Your child's RWI teacher will change your child's book on a Monday and the expectation is that your child's phonics book is in school at all times as there are plenty of opportunities for Miss Ingamells to hear your child read. Your child will also be set homework on the Oxford Owl website from Thursday to Thursday. The homework is based on the book that your child is reading. You will be sent the e-book version as well as a quiz. Your child will also have the chance every week to borrow a book from our school library. This is a book that children aren't expected to read but instead for you to share with your child, to show a love of reading. If you have any questions about RWI and your child's reading, please don't hesitate to speak to Miss Smith. 

On the Oxford Owl website your child's assigned homework will show in the left hand box where it says 'Homework'. Once completed, it will move into the right hand side box that says progress. Your child can also explore lots of books that are available to them from Oxford Owl and RWI. This is a great resources and is used in our reading lessons often. 

Reading

As usual in Gospels, we have some exciting books to read this term. We are reading 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' and 'The Elephant and the Bad Baby'. The Elephant and the Bad Baby is a great book. The Elephant takes the Bad Baby for a ride and they go 'rumpeta, rumpeta, rumpeta down the road.' They help themselves to ice creams, pies, buns, crisps, biscuits, lollipops and apples, and the shopkeepers follow them down the road shouting and waving. All ends well as the Bad Baby learns to say 'Please' and his mother makes pancakes for everyone. We will also be reading some lovely poems from the book 'The Puffin Book of Fantastic Poems'. All our poems this term follow the theme of animals! Our non-fiction books for this term are called 'Animal Magic' and 'Beast Feasts'. These books will help develop and expand the children's knowledge and understanding of our learning in topic and science. Throughout the term, children will also read 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'.