Reading Karate
Reading Karate Bands
We are now in our seventh year of participating in Reading Karate! We are hoping to make this year more successful with more children achieving their black band. We know from experience and research, that those children who read regularly are usually the most successful in their education and gain a habit of a lifetime. Researchers in the United States who had looked at the impact of parents reading with their children quoted the following figures in a news release about their findings: Here’s how many words kids would have heard by the time they were 5 years old: Never read to, 4,662 words; 1–2 times per week, 63,570 words; 3–5 times per week, 169,520 words; daily, 296,660 words; and five books a day, 1,483,300 (The reading framework – teaching the foundations of literacy, July 2021 ) This video demonstrates why it is important to read to your child.
We hope that reading karate will encourage your child to read at home and help them to achieve different coloured wristbands. The table below demonstrates the allocation of wristbands. This table will also be in the back of your child’s reading diary. We will award wristbands in whole school assemblies on a Friday.
| Number of Reads | Coloured Wristband |
| 30 | White |
| 60 | Yellow |
| 90 | Orange |
| 120 | Blue |
| 150 | Green |
| 180 | Brown |
| 210 | Black |
If your child is a free reader (Beyond RWI books) it is their responsibility to write their reads with numbers into their reading planner. If your child is reading a book from the reading scheme you will need to sign in their planner and number. Only reading books will count towards reading karate. Reception children can share stories and books with their family and this can be included as a read until they get their school reading books. Parents MUST sign each read in the reading record. By numbering the reads class teachers can quickly identify what band your child has achieved. Please begin with number 1 and continue up to 210 which is how many reads is needed for the black band, once your child has achieved their black band they will work towards a treat at the end of the Summer Term. Your child should be reading for a minimum of 10 minutes to count as one read. It is expected that children complete ten minutes of reading every school night. Only 1 read will be counted per day but of course you are welcome to record all reading in your child’s reading planner.
Please send reading planners in daily with your child and teachers will be monitoring children’s reading records weekly. Children will continue to swap wristbands until they achieve their black wristband. Children can keep their black wristband. If children do not return their wrist band they need to pay 50p to replace which ever colour band they have lost. They may not receive the next band until this is paid. Wristbands will be cleaned and stored to ensure they are safe for the children. Reading bands can be attached to children’s book bags.
If you have any extra wristbands at home please return them to your child’s class teacher. Children can keep the colour wristband they finished on last year. If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to ask the class teacher. Thank you for your support.