Watch Ms. Ahmed pronounce the Set 1, 2, and 3 sounds to help you learn phonics in a fun and easy way! Click on the videos, listen carefully, and practice along.

Reading is one of the most important skills you will ever learn. There is never a day when you don’t use your reading skills in some way, so it’s important to read as much as possible so that your reading ability develops well.

When reading at home, make sure you sit somewhere comfortable, with plenty of light so that you can see the book clearly. If you are reading to someone, try to sit so that they can see the book as well – they can follow along as you read out loud. After you have read, make sure you talk about it. Maybe the person you read to can ask you questions, or perhaps you can summarise what you have read to them.

Here are some things you can do as you read at home (all good readers do them!):

• Predict what will happen. At the start of the book, this might be harder, because you don’t have much to base your prediction on. However, as you read more of the book, you should have more information about the characters and the plot that you can use to make predictions.

• As you read, ask yourself questions. This helps you to think more deeply about what you are reading. Good questions begin with who, what, when, where and how.

• Use the clues that are there. If you are reading a picture book, sometimes the clues can be found in the pictures. For other books, you will find clues in the text itself that help you to work things out about what’s happening in the story. Sometimes this is called ‘reading between the lines’.

• Pay attention to new words. As you come across a new word, don’t ignore it! Make sure you find out what the word means, then reread the text now that you know what the word means. Then see if you can use the word in your own sentence – that will help you to remember it.

• Think about whether you understand what you are reading. Be aware of when it doesn’t seem to make sense. If not, read it again. Maybe you misread a word, or skipped over a word or two by accident.

• Make pictures in your head. As you read, try to use your 5 senses to create an image in your mind of what the author is describing, or what is happening.

• Make connections. As you read, or once you have finished a book, can you link it to any other book you have read? Are the characters like any others you have come across? Does what you have read link to anything else you know about?

• Summarise what you have read. Think about how you can retell what you have read in your own words, keeping to the main points.