Dear parents,

Welcome back! We hope you had a relaxing break and are ready to get back to learning!

Before we went off to our break, we had our traditional Easter Egg Hunt throughout the school... children had lots of fun!


This week our photographer will take individual pictures in both campuses, please avoid absences so we can have pictures of your child! =):

Pinheiros : Monday  April 24th   PYP 4 Beta
Jardim Europa: Wednesday 26th PYP 4 Omega, Thursday 27th PYP 4 Sigma

Of course, if your child couldn't make it, we will try to make it up somehow!

PYP 4 is a very important year level when it comes to reading. We encourage children to read as often as they can, focusing not on quantity, but on quality. For this reason we teach them many reading strategies so they can build their fluency and comprehension. Some of them are listed below and can also be used by you to make sure they understand the books they take home every day.

MR. CHECK IN
Stop and Check for Understanding! While reading the story or a certain text, stop after two or three pages and ask your child: Who appeared in the story? Where is it taking place? When did this happen Why? How? What is going on? Repeat every couple of pages...

PREDICTION

This can be done in two ways:

Before beginning reading the book, take a look at the cover. Discuss with your child: What do you think the book is about? Who’s the main character? Does he have friends? How does he look? Sad? Happy? Why?

Tell your child he can have ‘smart answers’ by looking at the pictures, the heading, his own experiences to try to PREDICT what is going to happen. PREDICTION involves thinking ahead while reading and anticipating information and events in the text.
This can also be done in the middle of the story, when your child already knows the characters but does not know what will happen next: 'What do you think will happen now? What will happen to the main character?Do you still think that what you said is going to happen? Why? Why not? Why did you change your mind? What do you think is going to happen now? Why do you think that?

MAKE PERSONAL CONNECTIONS
Children were also taught how to make personal connections to what they read. They make connections with their own lives. A good strategy is to tell them 'when you listen to the story, you have to think about three things:”

1. The part when…
2. Reminds me of....
3. This helps me understand the story better because…

VISUALIZATION
Children love this one because it is pretty straight forward... they simply have to visualize what they are being read in their minds... they see the pictures in their minds...

They will be read a story and they must create the images of the story in their minds. They have to visualise the story as it’s being read.

Visualization is when the children create their unique mental images... these are influenced by what we know and the experiences we have lived.

Parents... it is important that children carefully read their books at home... with no rush, always focusing on understanding and not on quantity on books read. As you saw above, students are taught many different reading strategies and should be using these at home too... we value understanding. Reading a book more than once it is very beneficial as well as they can build fluency and gain a deeper understanding of the story. For this reason, a teacher might ask the child to take the same book home again to re-read. It is completely normal not to understand a book the first time it is read... as teachers and a whole school community we are not in a rush to change levels... we want children to read and understand what they read as much as possible!


For this reason too, this week's homework is about reading. Click here.


Have a great week!

PYP 4 Teachers