Grimsdell Books of the Week!

As it is Book Week, we have two recommended Books of the Week from our new Year 2 Junior Librarians, Alexander from 2JB and Tess from 2HD. They have both chosen books from well-known and long established authors.

Firstly, Tess has chosen a chapter book by the prolific author, Roald Dahl. She has selected The BFG.

Tess’s reason for her choice:

“I chose this book because Roald Dahl is simply my most favourite author EVER!”

We hope you agree! This fiction book (and many others by this renowned author) is available to borrow from our school library.

Mrs Harvey would also recommend incorporating chapter books into your child’s reading repertoire. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would be a chapter book to explore with your Year 2 child, to ensure good understanding of vocabulary and concepts covered.

Roald Dahl also has written some early chapter books, The Magic Finger and Picture Books, The Enormous Crocodile, that would be suitable for all Grimsdell children. Early chapter books are simple, short, illustrated fiction. They are written and designed to help newly independent readers build their reading stamina, strengthen their confidence in book selection and develop a sense of themselves as readers.

As a child transitions from a beginning reader who needs to sound out each word to a more advanced reader who is starting to decode faster and follow longer, more complicated stories, early chapter books often tend to become the reading material of choice when a child is around the ages of 7 or 8. These stories can be read independently but they should also be shared with an adult, so that your child is encouraged to think about the plot/character and to make predictions about what might occur in the following chapters. This helps to build a sense of anticipation.

Variety is key in establishing a lifelong reader and Picture Books still have a vital role to play in the development of Reception and Key Stage 1 readers. Research shows that Picture Books has a direct and positive impact on children’s literacy. Children who are given opportunities to read and respond to Picture Books throughout their primary years learn about sophisticated narrative structure, plot and character development in an accessible way. A focus on reading illustration helps to develop children’s deeper comprehension skills, allowing them additional opportunities to infer, deduce, think critically and empathise.

Secondly, Alexander has chosen a chapter book by the much loved author, Julia Donaldson, Room on the Broom.

Alexander’s reason for his choice:

“I love this story because they manage to trick the dragon. The illustrations are great too!”

We hope you agree! This fiction book (and a huge variety of other books written by Julia Donaldson) is available to borrow from our school library.

Mrs Harvey would also recommend Alexander’s book choice. Julia Donaldson has written some of the most popular and best-loved children’s stories including The Gruffalo, and Stick Man. She wrote her first book, A Squash and a Squeeze, more than 25 years ago! Her books are a regular favourite amongst the Grimsdell children, who are drawn in by not only her story lines but the rhyming style of the text.

The repetitive and rhyming style of the text has many benefits to literacy development. The repetition of a phrase/phrases encourages participation and engages children’s minds. It also encourages them to make predictions by successfully anticipating the next word or sentence. In addition, repetition is a powerful force in fiction – it encourages us to explore the author’s intent: repetition can emphasise setting, highlight a character trait or draw attention to a seemingly minor detail.

I have already written in previous newsletters about the importance of rhyme in early literacy development and its crucial role in helping children to read. Rhyming teaches children how language works; helping them notice and work with the sounds within words and to experience the rhythm of language. As they recite rhymes, they learn to speak with animated voices – this is the precursor to reading with expression. When children are familiar with a rhyming book or nursery rhyme, they learn to anticipate the rhyming word. This prepares them to make predictions when they read, another important reading skill.

Book Week Competiton Time…

As it is Book Week, our Junior Librarians set a Big Book Competition Quiz. Correct entries were put into a hat and the winners were announced in our Friday assembly. Can you link the books to each librarian’s explanation?