Developed in partnership with Education Services Australia

The Australian Curriculum sets the goal for what all students should learn as they progress through their school life. Skills in the Year 1-2 curriculum include:

• listening to and reading written and spoken texts
• finding meaning in texts by noticing how words, pictures, expression and layout are used in them.

It’s easy to help your child practise these skills as part of everyday life – just use these simple ideas.

Talk about the characters

In the early years of reading your child is learning how to understand characters in stories. So when you are reading together, ask questions such as:

• Who are the main characters?
• What do you think they look like?
• How do we know if the characters are good or bad, happy or sad, lazy or busy, etc. Are there clues in the words? Or in the pictures?
• Why do the characters behave the way they do?
• Do any of the characters change during the story? Do they learn a lesson?
• Can you think of any similar characters in other stories?

Go online

For online reinforcement, How to Be a Good Dog will give your child practice at:

• reading along with (or listening to) a story
• identifying the main characters
• practising word and sound association/identification.

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