Dear Parents and children,

Woo hoo it is nearly the summer holidays! I hope you are all looking forward to the freedom of the break from school and enjoying family time together. I’ve been putting together some ideas of how you can keep up the great progress in reading and writing your children have made over this last year and wanted to share them with you …

Read to your children, ask them to pick a story they want you to read or simply tell them a story, make one up together, have fun with the magic of storytelling.

Going out? Pack a book to read - off out on a journey, for tea, to the park, pack a book to read, take pen and paper. 

Always let your children choose their own books.  Join your local library if you haven’t already, we are lucky to have great libraries close to us, Poulton, Garstang, Kirkham and Preston. There are lots of free events held in our libraries throughout the summer if you search the library you’d like to visit (or ask when you next visit) you can find out what’s on. Click the link at the bottom of the page to see what is happening at Garstang library .

This summer Lancashire libraries have a summer reading challenge. “This summer, we are challenging children across Lancashire to become a Reading Hero and help Dr Paige Turner to stop the evil super villain "The Spoiler"!”

Reading Heroes is the brand-new summer reading programme offered in all libraries across Lancashire, which encourages children aged 4 to 12 (although not exclusively) to keep reading through the summer holidays, offering prizes for those who manage to read 5 books over the summer, and additional incentives for those who manage to also complete a number of challenges.  Click on the link at the bottom of the page to find out more. 

Postcards - if you travel anywhere, a holiday, a day trip to Blackpool, encourage your child to send a postcard to a relative, friend, anyone they choose. Let them choose their own postcard from the display and don’t correct the spellings (help them if they ask) but let them have the fun and ownership of writing it themselves (you are allowed to help with the address!). 

Scrapbooks - buy your child a big scrapbook, let them glue in anything they like and find over the holidays (postcards, photos, leaves, ticket stubs, leaflets, etc). Let them draw pictures, write stories, captions, diary entries etc in it. Tell them it is their private book and they can put anything they like in it, you won’t look unless you are invited to. I still have the scrap books my two children made when they were little and we love looking back through them (see the photos below).

The most important message I can give is, keep reading and writing over the long break light and spontaneous. If your child is simply not engaging in any literacy activities that you provide them with, don’t panic: keep modelling reading and writing. Share jokes, riddles, poems and stories with them. Leave books and comics of all kinds lying around in different corners of your home. Play word games, read signs, menus, leaflets when out and about, every little bit counts. 

Have a FANTASTIC summer break, I will see you all when you’re all a bit taller and your brains have grown even bigger! (Not that I’m expecting Mums and Dads to get taller ha ha!).

Love from Mrs Kemp 

 

An interesting article with tips and advice about reading in the holidays  https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/reading-site/expert-help/reading-in-the-holidays

Help to find books your child might like to read https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/bookfinder/ 

This website Love Reading 4 kids https://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/browse-by-age has a great feature of allowing you to download an extract of the book that you can look at with your child.

Competitions to win books https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/have-some-fun/competitions/

Events at Garstang library https://events.lancashire.gov.uk/search/index.asp?q=&area=allVenue&venue=Garstang

Summer reading challenge at Lancashire Libraries https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/libraries-and-archives/libraries/lancs-reading-heroes/

Summer Scrapbooks