Holywell Newsletter Issue 16 150515

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