address  Mrs S.L Whalley  phone  01392 824340  mail  admin@exminsterschool.co.uk

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/common-reading-issues/encouraging-boys-to-read/

Cressida Cowell reads How To Train Your Dragon:
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/hometime

https://www.worldofdavidwalliams.com/elevenses/

Today was World Book Day. Here is a taster of some of  the words that our children and staff chose.

Last week was Poetry Week. Macsen in year 6 was inspired to write his own poem.


Check out this article for some great advice on supporting your child's reading:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zbxby9q?xtor=CS3-31-%5BBitesize%7EN%7E%7EBitesizeJan_Reading%5D-%5BFacebook%5D-%5B23844107251330553%5D-%5B23844107302060553

Earlier this term, each year group rose to the challenge to write a poem about trees. The children were encouraged to think about interesting and engaging vocabulary and use of language. These were then entered in to the Somerset Literacy Network poetry competition. We are very proud to say that our school hosted 7 winning poems. Read them here.

This video has some great  ideas on how to help your child develop a wider vocabulary.

https://biteable.com/watch/feeding-your-little-one-with-words-2162859/

Reluctant readers? Try nudge reading – you share a book (or any other form or reading material) and nudge each other when you want the other person to take up the reading. You both have to follow the text as you never know when the nudge might come! It could be after a word, a sentence, a paragraph, a page or a chapter. Enjoy and gave fun!

Understanding what you read is an essential part of the reading process. This blog will give you lots of ideas when supporting your child in this area.

https://blog.oxfordowl.co.uk/supporting-your-child-to-develop-their-reading-comprehension-skills/?hootPostID=5bc71bb844bb103dbe6dbed62d6b1b5f

Understanding what you read is an essential reading skill. This blog gives lots of ideas  that you can use when reading with your child.

https://blog.oxfordowl.co.uk/supporting-your-child-to-develop-their-reading-comprehension-skills/?hootPostID=5bc71bb844bb103dbe6dbed62d6b1b5f

Sometimes we come across a word which we don't and still somehow fit it in to the sentence we are reading. At Exminster, we are working hard on getting children to speak up and say when they are unsure of words and what they mean. Hearing that you do not understand a word can give the children confidence to do this at home. You could look the word up together. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/ Simply type in a word and away you go!

Have a go at playing a game with your child. Games that don't involve any equipment can be fun and are great to play in the car! ‘Who has the best word?’: e.g the big car, the huge car, the ginormous, spectacularly fast car. ‘Find a rhyme’ game where you can only rhyme real words, foil, coil, toil, soil, recoil... if you say a word which is repeated you are out! Also, games that you can buy are great too: Scrabble (there is a junior version too), Boggle, word searches, crosswords … and many more! All of these activities add to your child's language development.

Shared reading can be fun. Children can read anything with you alongside them. Let them choose a book and encourage them to read all of the words that they know – you can support them by reading all other words. They will be excited about reading a book that they felt was ‘too hard or too high a level’. Let them try!

“Children need to be interested and motivated to read.” Talking to your child/children about the books they are reading is a great way to motivate them. Encourage them to re-tell the story and talk about what they like or dislike. If they do not like a book, that’s ok. https://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk is a great place to find that next book. It has books sorted in to age related groups, with reviews that can be shared before reading.

“If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.” – J.K. Rowling”

“A good level of language is associated with learning to read and is essential for writing.” Rhyme in early stories and picture book can help children to enjoy the rhythm of the language around them. You are never too old to read a picture book – the language in them can be quite complex, encouraging the use of a range of interesting words and ideas.

 
 

Harry Potter Book Night – 7th February 2019

Warning: Muggles viewing this post will be obliviated in order to keep the magical world safe.

 Just a few comments from the Wizards and Witches

Ava:​‘I enjoyed all of it and my House (Ravenclaw) won the House Cup. The trolley was great!

Susie:​‘I absolutely loved it! The way we choose our house, made dragon eggs and played Quiddichwas amazing! I also really like the food trolley (some of it)’

Lexie:​‘Loved it. It was amazing!’

Jasmine: ‘Harry Potter Book Night at Exminster School was absolutely amazing and all the activities were so fun. I got really engaged in all the activities and I made new friends. I would highly recommend going because the experience and setting was amazing. It looked like Hogwarts. I give it 100/10’

Sophie:​‘When I walked into the Hub I was amazed! The amount of creativity that had been put in was immense; it was definitely the highlight of my week!’

Matthew: ‘I really enjoyed it and it was fun to dress up, have a competition. I really, really had lots of fun and thank you’

Bonnie:​‘The Harry Potter evening was absolutely amazing! The activities were incredibly fun – especially the blindfold taste test! I would 100% recommend this activity again as I really loved it. Please do another one before I leave the school.’

Emma:​The Harry Potter evening was amazing, everything was decorated with everything in Harry Potter. The evening was a fun filled extravaganza. The activities were super fun. I especially liked the blind taste test. I liked 4/5 of the food.’

Hannah: ‘It was absolutely great. I loved it and I especially enjoyed making the dragon eggs and I enjoyed eating the cakes. I’m sad the Sorting Hat was ill.’

George: ​‘I absolutely loved it! It was the best! My favourite thing was the Platform 9 ¾ and the Trolley Challenge when you don’t know what food it is and have to guess.’

Joe:​I loved going to the Harry Potter evening. It felt like we really were in Hogwarts. Such anauthentic atmosphere!’

Hattie:​‘I found the evening fun. Doing all the activities was exciting and dressing up as well as eating chocolate and cake. I think my favourite part was making the  potion and dragon egg.’

A special thank you to Professor Nowell and ProfessorGodbeer, who worked so hard to make this event happen.Also, thanks must go to Wizards David and Kieran Gibson who helped to sponsor the event and create the magical Platform 9 ¾ and along with Professor Munslow, Professor Sydenham and Professor Fuller who gamely supported the activities throughout the evening.

Professor Gibson

Head Mistress

"Lucky children have opportunities to interact with books." Make your child lucky. Join your local library - there are lots to choose from. Did you know that there are libraries in Exeter town centre, St Thomas, Pinhoe, Topsham and Dawlish. The mobile library van also visits Exminster, you can find out when by using this link https://devonlibraries.org.uk

Why not try 'extreme reading' - where is the most exciting place you could be caught reading?

" I visited Year 4 last week and watched the amazing children during their teaching sequence on writing. It was a vocabulary development session where children were capturing ideas to include in their own version of Iggy Peck, the Architect (changing it to ‘the Scientist’). Children were searching for scientific words, rating the words (traffic lights: red, amber, green) to show their understanding of them – RED if they didn’t know what they meant, AMBER if they had heard them but not quite sure and GREEN if they knew the meaning and could put it into context. They were searching, defining and challenging one another with the words. At the end of the session there was a word battle where groups had to decide on their best new word to fit into their innovated story and present it to the class giving a definition and putting it into a context. The class then decided on the strongest words, storing them on the word wall for future use. It was great to see the children’s buzz around exploring and experimenting with new language, not be afraid of trying, making mistakes, finding some great words and having the competitive element that they really enjoyed." Mrs Whalley

What do you read?
Children learn the importance, and joy, of reading through seeing it happen. Talking about what you are reading, your likes and dislikes, will encourage this behaviour in your child/children. It doesn't have to be a novel - it can be anything! 

Reading to your child helps them engage with stories and language in different ways. We actively encourage the children to read, and listen to reading, for pleasure. You too could continue to read to your child. This doesn't have to be at bed time- it could be morning, afternoon or ............. Reading is an 'any time' activity.