Holywell Newsletter Issue 16: Friday 15 May 2015 Reading Beyond the Mechanics Celebration The purpose of reading is for the reader to construct meaning from the text. Simply put, reading comprehension is the act of understanding what one is reading. While the definition can be simply stated the act is not simple to teach, learn or practise. Congratulations to the following children who have been selected for the Good Work Club this week. There are two elements that make up the process of reading comprehension: vocabulary knowledge and text comprehension. In order to understand a text the reader must be able to comprehend the vocabulary used in the piece of writing. If the individual words do not make sense then the overall story will not. Children can draw on their prior knowledge of vocabulary, but they also need to continually be taught new words. The best vocabulary instruction occurs at the point of need. In addition to being able to understand each distinct word in a text, the child also has to be able to put them together to develop an overall conception of what the text is trying to say. At Bede's, reading comprehension strategies are taught from an early stage but continue well in to later years. It might seem that once children learn to read in Year 1 they are able to tackle any future text that comes their way. This is not true. Reading comprehension strategies must be refined, practised and reinforced continually throughout life. As their reading materials become more diverse and challenging, children need to learn new tools for comprehending these texts. The development of reading comprehension is a lifelong process that changes based on the depth and breadth of texts the person is reading. It is therefore important that we continue to develop comprehension by asking children questions about the text they are reading. The ability to read words does not indicate comprehension. Robert Upton Director of Studies Safety in the Car Park We respectfully request that children are not permitted to play in the garden area at the front of the Holywell building. This is to ensure the safety of children as well as to preserve the beautiful borders. Thank you for your support. Iris Endean – For confident addition. Zaid Abdullah - For wonderful writing about dragons. Serena Patel - For independent news writing. Louis Poulton - For super describing words for dragons. Lydia Maloney, Finley Allan, Archie Menzies and Hugo Bryant - For their "Out of the egg" poems. Fahad Alghannam and Maayan Pesce - For outstanding reading progress. Curriculum Update Ladybirds have made a fantastic sensory line of different materials for the babies to touch and explore. Grasshoppers are reading the story The Billy Goats Gruff this week and have made different characters on sticks. Some fantastic swimming has taken place and new children are really starting to settle in. Butterflies have been exploring the seaside this week by bringing the beach into the classroom. They have been making seagulls and kites and looking at diamond shape. Buzzy Bees and Dragonflies have been using Google Maps and finding out where they live. They have been using their mark-making skills to make address cards and taking checklists home to tick off items. Children in Reception having been doing lots of halving this week in their maths lessons. As part of their topic they have also been growing cress and planting seeds in the garden. This week Year 1 have welcomed their newly hatched baby dragons. They have voted on the name of the dragons – the one in 1SR is called Treasure. They have thought of describing words and then have used these to write some super dragon descriptions. They have also worked in groups to make class dragons for the display. In maths the children have revisited addition and then moved on to adding coins. Year 2 took advantage of the good weather earlier in the week, painting watercolours of the potato plants and using directional language on the playground, giving directions to find different areas of the main school. The Week in Photographs