Love Reading
Welcome to our Love Reading Webpage
This page is dedicated to the love of reading. We will update this page regularly with more Good read articles, activities and Teachers sharing their favourite books.
Please find below some links for you to access recommended reading lists for your children. You will see they are divided into year groups, which will help you to decide which books are suitable for your child. It would be lovely if you could go over this list with your child – you never know, they may have already read some of them.
I do hope you find these lists useful. I have to confess I have not read all of these books, so when you do read any of them, it would be great if your child could do a book review and recommendation for other children. This could then be posted on our website too. Please email your book reviews to; office@phiacademy.org.uk.
'The School Reading List' that I have chosen to use describes itself. It is curated and reviewed by a small group of librarians and English teachers who meet each summer to discuss books which have worked well with groups of children, new releases within the last 12 months and the shortlists for children's literature awards.
'The School Reading List' also decide on a book of the month which is featured on the website, normally after the 20th of each month. These titles tend to be selected from pre-release lists, or copies provided via national and local book sellers or publishers. Only books which have been read to children or 'road-tested' with classes are reviewed or suggested. https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/new-book-releases/books-of-the-month/
Happy reading!
Natasha Chamberlain
Reading Lead
The Masked Reader
Pound Hill Infant Academy introduces THE MASKED READER!
To celebrate 25 Years of World Book Day, 3 different teachers have read their favourite story disguised behind a mask.
PHIA Reading Guidelines - Book bands introduction
Phonics
The academy continues to develop our curriculum offer to ensure all pupils have learning opportunities that go beyond the National Curriculum and their initial experiences. This process will develop over this academic year and beyond. A key part of this process is increasing the profile and love of reading.
One of the most useful and exciting skills your child will learn at the academy is to read and write. This will open up a world of opportunities to them. They will use those skills to access new knowledge, to develop their creativity, and to enjoy books. As a result, the teaching staff have all been trained in the Sounds-Write Phonics Programme - the academy’s new whole-school phonics approach. Sounds-Write is structured, very logical and good fun!
I would like to introduce you to some of the basic principles of Sounds-Write to support your child when hearing your child read at home or completing home learning and/or remote learning tasks.
Please speak to your class teacher if you have any questions or would like to know more about how we teach phonics at PHIA.
A Good Read
Turn on the Subtitles Campaign
Did you know turning on the subtitles while children are watching the television can improve reading skills and double the chances of children becoming good readers? Why not join the campaign and press the subtitle button to encourage children to read whilst watching their favourite shows. The campaign is supported by many public figures including Stephen Fry, Lenny Henry, Sandi Toksvig and Rachel Riley – if you would like to find out more about the campaign have a look on the Turn on the Subtitles campaign website https://turnonthesubtitles.org/ . A quick and simple way to make television time into reading time, so click the button and turn on the subtitles!
Storytime Online with West Sussex Libraries
View more videos here.
Oxford Owl
At Pound Hill Infant Academy the love of reading is at the heart of the academy. Another great find this week is the Oxford Owl free eBook library. The website has a fantastic range of books to support the development of reading skills for children, the texts available include stories that include the much-loved characters such as Biff, Chip and Kipper as well as most children’s favourite, Winnie the Witch stories. There are also great non-fiction texts available to support the development of ore and wonder of our world. To access the books, you will have to sign up first for free.
Pearsons Education Reading guide for parents
Pearsons Education Reading guide for parents, we hope that this guide will help answer some of your questions, as well as give you some advice and inspiration on how to help children enjoy reading.
Audiobooks
Reading a book is important for reading development, however listening to an audiobook is another way to immerse yourself in a story and develop great imagination. The Harper Collins website includes free audiobooks for you to listen to – click on the link to explore their handpicked selection of audiobooks for children to enjoy! You can also visit www.booktrust.org.uk - here you can find lots of lovely interactive books to ready online or watch with singing.
Winter wonderland
With the chilly and frosty season in full flow we have enjoyed launching our Winter Wonderland topic across the academy. Reception took a trip to Antarctic when reading ‘Blue Penguin, year one enjoyed reading the traditional tale ‘The Nutcracker’ and year 2 have been getting very creative whilst writing their own winter poems.
What is your favourite winter themed book? If you were an author, what would your winter story be about? Who would be the main character of your story? What would happen at the beginning, middle and end of your story?
Virtual school library
The virtual school library brought to you by Oak National Academy in partnership with the National Literacy Trust is a great way to access free books online. Each week a popular children’s author will provide you will free books, exclusive videos and their top three recommended best reads! The Author of the week this week is Jacqueline Wilson. Happy reading!
Rhymers are readers!
It is World Nursery Rhyme week next week from 16th-20th November. Why not set yourself a nursery rhyme challenge sing a different nursery rhyme together each day of the week. There are also lots of activities and videos that can be accessed on the World Nursery Rhyme website . What is your favourite nursery rhyme? Could you challenge yourself to create your own rhyme? Also visit BBC Radio for more Nursery Rhyme fun.
Have you filled a bucket today?
Linking closely to our Academy charter, we have read ‘Have you filled a bucket today?’ by Carol McCloud. This child friendly book demonstrates the idea that every person has an invisible bucket which holds happy feelings and thoughts. It gives an insight to children about their own feelings and emotions and how others may be feeling too. The book focuses on encouraging children to become ‘bucket fillers’ by expressing daily kindness, appreciation and love to the people around them. Have you been a ‘bucket filler’ today? Who has / anyone filled your bucket?
We love to read at Pound Hill Infant Academy - Sharing our favourite books
Mrs Thwaite, Year 1 Teacher would like to share her favourite book called ‘Look up’ by Nathan Bryon. This is Mrs Thwaite’s favourite book because it is about an enthusiastic girl called Rocket who is inspired to become the greatest astronaut, star-catcher and space traveller that has ever lived! But… can she convince her big brother from always looking down at his phone to looking up at the stars with her? What do you think you would see if you LOOKED UP?
