Year 1 Teacher Guidance

Sharing rhymes at home Shared reading experiences outside school are vital for developing a love of reading. The Rhyme Challenge comes with a rhyme sheet for each child in your class to take home, so they can continue to enjoy reading and rhyming with parents, carers and other family members. A letter explaining the Rhyme Challenge for parents is available to accompany these sheets on the website: booktrust.org.uk/ant-club

The pack also contains a certificate for each child, so you could choose to invite parents and carers into school for a special Rhyme Challenge presentation. This not only provides an opportunity to promote and celebrate their child’s reading achievements, but also allows you to model reading-related interactions and activities which can be further developed at home.

The BookTrust website has lots of regularly updated resources and book recommendations for parents and teachers looking to engage further with reading: booktrust.org.uk

Why get involved in the Rhyme Challenge? Flexible and easy-to-use

• Teachers tell us that the ready-made resources save valuable planning and preparation time, allowing them to build additional activities around the Rhyme Challenge.

• While the challenge element provides a structure to explore rhymes and poetry, the resources can be used however you choose. This flexibility allows you to adapt them for your existing planning and supports you to deliver the English curriculum creatively.

• The range of topics covered in the Rhyme Challenge also makes them suitable for use as part of cross-curricular thematic teaching. This helps embed reading enjoyment across multiple learning areas.

Inspire a love of reading

• Interest and enjoyment are linked to reading motivation. Engaging pupils with colourful resources, accessible rhymes, and creative supporting activities generate stimulating experiences which make reading exciting.

• Rhymes and poetry offer an alternative route into reading for pleasure which can be particularly important for children who are struggling with reading ability. Listening to rhymes and stories read aloud supports understanding and comprehension, which in turn improves confidence and attitudes towards reading.

• The more a child enjoys reading, the more likely they are to read. Sharing the Rhyme Challenge in school and at home not only extends reading experiences, but encourages discussion about rhymes and stories. Building reading relationships can help develop a lifetime love of reading.

The importance of reading for pleasure

• Research shows regularly reading for pleasure has a significant influence on children’s reading, vocabulary and wider attainment.

• Reading for pleasure is particularly important for children from disadvantaged groups as research shows it’s more important to a child’s educational development than how educated their parents are.

• Aside from academic benefits, reading for pleasure also provides children with the opportunity to expand their horizons, experience other cultures, and develop empathy and self-understanding.

• Reading for pleasure offers children time to relax and escape into their imaginations free from external pressures or distractions.

TheRhyme Challenge

BookTrust is the UK’s largest children’s reading charity. Each year we reach 2.5 million children across

the UK with books, resources and support to help develop a love of

reading, because we know reading can transform lives.

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What is the Rhyme Challenge? The Rhyme Challenge is a series of nursery rhymes and poems, carefully chosen for their ability to engage children, develop confidence, and inspire a love of reading.

This pack contains:

• this guidance leaflet

• one poster

• A4 individual rhyme sheets

• A2 prompt sheet with rhyme names and illustrations

• 35 children’s certificates

• a class certificate

• a separately wrapped set of 35 A3 sheets of the rhymes for each child to take home and keep.

On the website you will also find:

• a letter explaining the Rhyme Challenge for parents, carers and families, including suggestions for engaging with reading at home

How to use this resourceThis resource is designed to be fun and flexible, giving you the freedom to choose which rhymes are most suitable for your lessons. You could learn the rhymes together and perform them as a class, or support pupils in small groups to choose their favourites to share with each other.

The rhymes cover a range of themes, so can fit with topic-based schemes of work including animals, the body and the outdoors. They have also been chosen to meet the needs of pupils of varying abilities and reading stages, with a mix of short, repetitive rhymes and longer, more complex poems. You will find familiar rhymes, such as Five Currant Buns, as well as new favourites for your pupils to discover.

Why Rhymes?Great rhymers make great readers!

• The simple but varied rhymes and poems provide pupils with accessible and enjoyable reading experiences.

• Sharing rhymes with others makes reading more engaging and encourages more time spent discussing reading and books in school and with parents or carers.

• Learning and performing rhymes provides a sense of achievement and boosts reading confidence.

• The Rhyme Challenge supports pupils to access traditional rhymes.

Making the most of The Rhyme Challenge resources Get excited about rhyming

• Rhymes are a portable resource and don’t need to be confined to a book corner, library or classroom. They can be sung or spoken in any location, outside or in. Take your pupils into the playground to make sharing rhymes even more exciting.

• The bright, high quality resources look and feel different to other worksheets. Make the most of this by emphasising how special they are when giving out individual rhyme sheets or certificates, encouraging pupils to feel a sense of ownership and achievement.

• Stick your class’s favourite rhymes on the classroom door so they can share them with the rest of the school and spark reading conversations.

Creative responses

• Creative responses to rhymes and poems enhances comprehension and understanding.

• Incorporating music, movement or art builds familiarity and confidence with the rhythms and language. Role play or drawing a scene from a favourite rhyme allows pupils to explore and engage with their content.

Increasing reading confidence

• We know that repetition and familiarity help build up a sense of anticipation and excitement. Your pupils will have used a similar Rhyme Challenge in summer term of Reception, and therefore we suggest you use this resource in the autumn term of Year 1.

• There are some repeated and similar rhymes from the Reception collection in this pack, so the pupils will already be familiar with them:

• Five Currant Buns

• Rainy Day Rhymes

• Rickety Train Ride

• Old MacDonald – this pack includes On Old MacDonald’s Mixed-up Farm

• This repetition and familiarity will increase pupils’ reading confidence as they are introduced to a more advanced curriculum, developing positive attitudes and a love of reading for pleasure.

Rhyme-specific suggestions Five Currant BunsYour pupils may be familiar with this rhyme from the reception version of the Rhyme Challenge. It can provide an accessible and enjoyable introduction to more complicated numeracy concepts. For example, role play with coins could help relate counting and money to their everyday life.

Just WatchThis rhyme can be used to bring poems into PE or outside playtime. Use it as warm-up, to guide activities, and challenge pupils to stop and listen as fast as they can when you give a sign.

TigerPerforming this poem with dramatic actions and voices can bring the scary tiger to life, supporting comprehension and enjoyment. Pair it with a story about a tiger and ask pupils to predict what might happen next at various points.

Rainy Day RhymesLook at a calendar and world map with your class. When is it likely to rain or shine? Point out the countries and months mentioned in the rhyme and discuss how the weather can be different in other parts of the world.

Visit booktrust.org.uk for book recommendations, resources and activities to boost reading for pleasure in your classroom.

All our resources can be downloaded from our website: booktrust.org.uk/ant-club

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