Monthly Archives: June 2018

Our Reading Adventure at the Park: Free Reading Libraries, Reading Areas and Word Play Centers

 

Local parks are promoting reading with free little libraries, designated outdoor reading areas and outdoor word play centers with letter manipulatives.

I have seen playgrounds and parks with free little libraries in places all over the country. Free little libraries are small outdoor cabinets with free books. The idea behind the free little libraries is that people will take a book and give a book. These are often books that people  have already read or books that their children have out grown. This week at the park, Tim and I found Bats at the Beach and a Magic Tree House book at the little free library.

We plan on giving two books to the little free library when we return to the park the next time. Bats at the Beach is a wonderful read aloud for children ages Pre-K through Grade 2. Discussion ideas when reading Bats at the Beach can include facts about bats, rhyming words and new vocabulary. You could also discuss what happens in the beginning, in the middle and at the end. The Magic Tree House is a series that is part of the tools of the mind curriculum at Tim’s school. The first 12 books have been read aloud to him st school and I thought I might read a couple more Magic Tree House books to him over the summer. Overall, two great finds from the free library!!

This park had a cute outdoor reading area in a shady spot of the park by the playground. The area was labeled “Reading Room” and there was a sign advertising the free little library. I only pictured one area with adult and child chairs, but there were several other areas under the shade. Tim and I took a break from playing on the playground and we read Bats on the Beach in the shade. It was a beautiful, sunny day that day and he loved being outside and reading at the park in a different spot.

The word play area was awesome! This was something new that I hadn’t seen at a park before. It was a table with colorful letters, both uppercase and lowercase, painted on rocks of all different sizes. There were a couple of basic sight words painted as well. Tim had fun making some word family words such as words from the -at family like cat, bat, hat, rat. He also made other short three letter words such as the word “fun.”

I could see this word play area being fun for kids particularly ages 3-6. Digraphs such as ch, sh, th and vowel teams such as ea, ee, oo could be painted on rocks for older students as well. What a fun way to practice some phonics skills and have kids engaged in making and reading words while playing outside at the park!

Check out your local park to see if your park has any of these reading areas or activities. You could easily make your own outdoor “reading room” in your backyard. The word play area could be made at home if you have a sand table or a water table. You could write letters on rocks or other objects that you could put in the sand table. For a water table, you could write letters on ping pong balls. You could use something to scoop out one letter at a time for your child to make words that way.

While we had a blast making words and reading at the park, we had lots of time to run and play! Tim had fun playing at the playground and riding the different cars in the tennis court!


Hope that you enjoyed reading about our reading adventure at the park. I also hope that this post gave you some ideas of how to making reading fun while being outside in the summer!

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Summer reading charts to help your child stay motivated to read this summer

 

 

This post includes links to some creative and fun summer reading charts to help your child stay motivated to read this summer.

Summer is full of fun activities, nice weather, beach days and trips to the park.  It can be hard to stay motivated to stick to your regular reading routine with these fun distractions. I have found some amazing links to summer reading charts and logs to help your child want to read regularly this summer! These links have charts that turn daily reading into scavenger hunts, bingo, board games and there is even a balloon popping reading chart!!

Summer Reading Challenge Chart

This chart is a customizable and free printable summer reading chart with circles that kids can color. Each circle is worth a point and you can decide how many points each book is worth. If your child is reading longer books, each circle might be worth reading a chapter or a number of chapters. After a certain number of circles are colored in, an icon shows a picture of prize that your child can earn. 

https://www.chickenbabies.com/2012/06/summer-reading-chart-2012.html

This idea is a little more involved but looks motivating and fun for kids. This mom puts coupons inside balloons, blows them up and then tapes them to a bulletin board in her house. Each time her child finishes a book, he or she gets to pop and balloon and receives the prize that is on the coupon. Tim would love this one! He loves popping balloons!

https: tinytipsforlibraryfun.blogspot.com/2014/04/summer-prizes-good-bye.html

Scavenger hunt summer reading charts are lots of fun! This chart is set up like a scavenger hunt in which your child would need to complete each reading activity on the chart. This could be easily modified and you could change the activities and complete several reading scavenger hunts throughout the summer.  I like that the activities involve other activities that support reading such as writing, having a parent tell a story, as well as a science experiment and a building activity.

lil-library.blogspot.com/2014_06_01_archive.html

This is another take on the scavenger hunt except it involves reading in different places or reading different kinds of books.

www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/free-printable/reading-printables/summer-reading-bingo-printable

This chart is bingo board and encourages kids to read different types of books as well as complete writing or drawing activities that go along with a book that they have read. This can be easily customized for your child.

Tim and I found a chart provided by our local library. To complete this chart, Tim will pledge to read a certain amount of minutes each day.  Each week, we will bring the chart to our local library and Tim will earn a prize provided by the library. Since Tim loves Star Wars, I plan on placing a Star Wars sticker on each square after reading each night. We are going to pledge to read 20 minutes a day to start. Our reading time will consist of me reading aloud to Tim and Tim reading to me as well. We will probably read closer to 30 minutes, but I pledged 20 minutes because I honestly haven’t ever timed our reading time before. Tim is excited about reading with this chart and collecting a surprise each week from the library!

I will keep you posted on how our summer reading chart goes! I hope that one of these summer reading charts help make reading fun and motivating for your child!

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Preventing the “summer slide” by setting up a summer reading routine

Summer reading fun at the beach

 

I am going to be blogging about creating a summer reading routine in the next two posts. Today’s focus will be on providing tips on how to set up a routine, the amount of time to read, and what times of day to read.

Later this week, I will share some fun ideas and links to free printable summer reading charts that can help your child stay motivated to read this summer.

It is important to fit reading in regularly this summer so that your child does not experience summer regression in reading known as the “summer slide.” Summer regression is based on research and was something that I witnessed first hand as a reading specialist and classroom teacher. While students did eventually catch up, sometimes it took a couple of months into the new school year before students were where they left off the previous June.

Summer regression can happen with students at any grade level. By making time to read regularly and do some summer literacy activities, your child will be able to pick up where they left off in June and be ready to go at the beginning of the new school year.

Reading the Boat Alphabet book by Jerry Pallotta with Dad

 

Today, I will be talking about setting a summer reading schedule. Future posts will include fun activities that you could do over the summer to prevent the “summer slide.”

Now that summer is here, our schedule has changed. We no longer have the school schedule to follow, rather our schedules revolve around summer events, activities, and vacation plans. Some days will be busy, while others will be free of plans–making a summer schedule far less predictable than that of the school year. Our change in schedule caused me to think about the best ways to make time for reading during the summer.

When setting a reading routine during the summer or during the school year, you need to do what works best for your family. In our house, we usually read at night as part of our bedtime routine. We take turns reading and we will have a “family reading night” on nights when my husband is home early. During “family reading night,” we all take turns reading and listening to each other read stories. This time can range anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes, depending upon the time we have that evening.

On weekends or mornings where we are up earlier than normal we may reading first thing in the morning before or after breakfast. There are some days where we don’t get to reading due to special events or a later night, but that is okay with me. When we return to our regular bedtime schedule, we get back to our reading routine. I find that being flexible helps keep reading a fun family experience!

We love Titus Tidewater by Suzanne Verrier!

 

Here are some thoughts and ideas as you think about your own summer reading routine.

  • Reading should be a fun time not a chore and a routine may take time to develop. Being flexible and making changes if things are not working helps keep reading enjoyable.
  • If you are beginning a reading routine, you could start off reading aloud to your child every night for 10 minutes or so on topics that your child is interested in. You could make changes gradually over time by increasing the time spent reading aloud and having your child have a turn reading aloud.
  •  Once your child can read, continue to read aloud to your child. Your child can access high level vocabulary and comprehension through read alouds. Also, by reading aloud to your child, you can model reading with appropriate fluency including expression and intonation.
  • If you child is reading, have your child read aloud to you, even in the higher elementary grades. Having your child read aloud to you, enables you to support your child with fluency, tricky words and new vocabulary. Also, you can comprehension conversations about the book with your child.
  •  If you have multiple children, it may work out that you all having a reading time together or you may have separate reading times. You may have an older sibling help by reading to younger siblings.
  • Try to be prepared to squeeze in reading on the go. Keep an assortment of books in the car for car rides, waiting for appointments, or for something to do for your other children during activities or sports practices and update this selection of books as needed.

I hope that these suggestions will be useful as you set up your own summer reading routine! Tune in for the next post that I will share this week with links to free printable summer reading charts. 

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Scholastic Book Wizard: finding books quickly by topic and reading level

Tim with Frog and Toad, characters from the Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel
 

Once you know your child’s reading level, how will you find books at his or her reading level and on a topic that your child is interested in? The answer is by using Scholastic Book Wizard: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/bookwizard/

This site is absolutely amazing! I started using it years ago to level books in my school’s leveled book room and this site has only improved with time. While Scholastic Book Wizard is a wonderful teacher resource, parents will find this site useful as well. On Scholastic Book Wizard, you can search books by your child’s level by either DRA (numbers) or Fountas & Pinnell (letters).

For example, if your child is reading at a level E, you can search for only level E books. You can narrow your search to include only non-fiction books about animals if your child has an interest in reading books and learning facts about different kinds of animals. Scholastic Book Wizard also allows you to type in a title of any book you have in your house or that you find out and about and Scholastic Book Wizard will tell you the level of that book. Many book titles are in the Scholastic Book Wizard database.

This site is extremely helpful in finding Kindergarten and beginning of first grade leveled books (levels A-F) which are hard to find in bookstores and in the local libraries. Not only can you find titles of books at any reading level, you can purchase these books right on the Scholastic website.

In addition, Scholastic book orders are often sent home from school often with deals on bundles of books. Furthermore, Scholastic Book wizard has recently launched an app in which you can scan the barcode of a book and it will tell you the level:http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizardmobile/  Scholastic Book Wizard is the perfect starting point to finding books at your child’s reading level. Here are several books from the Scholastic Book Wizard database showing the Fountas & Pinnell level. Please note: the suggested grades underneath are for interest and age level not for reading level. For example,  while Frog and Toad together is a book at a second grade reading level, parents can read aloud this book to a Kindergartener or first grader.

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Using reading level to select “just right” books

reading Stars Wars!

 

I can’t believe school is almost out for summer vacation! Tim is currently in his last week of school as Kindergartener! Tim has made tremendous progress since the beginning of the year.  In September, he was learning his letter sounds and adjusting to a full day of school and now he is reading beginner books and he is so proud of himself! Now that we are almost in summer mode, I plan on incorporating reading into our summer routine so that Tim maintains the skills that he has learned in Kindergarten in preparation for first grade.  

Upcoming blog posts will focus on what you can do to make reading a part of your child’s summer in a fun, meaningful way, as well as finding books appropriate to your child’s reading level and how to set up a summer reading routine.

Before school gets out, it is helpful to find out your child’s reading level from his or her classroom teacher. If you know your child’s reading level, then you will be able to find books that will be “just right” books for your child to read at home, meaning books that contain words that are not too hard and not too easy. This is information that should be easy to obtain via an email, phone conversation or conference with your child’s teacher. 

Typically, your child’s reading level will be a letter or a number depending upon the type of literacy assessment that your child’s school or district uses.  Many schools and districts use either the DRA2 (reported in numbers) or the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment (reported in letters). When mentioning levels in my blog, I will be listing the letter first followed by the number in parentheses. You should ask your child’s classroom teacher where your child is progressing in relation to the school or district grade level benchmarks. Here is a reference regarding grade level benchmarks that Fountas & Pinnell has out. 

Fountas and Pinnell Chart

Please note that the Kindergarten benchmark level in particular is one level higher than the standards in many districts.  This chart is meant as a guide and may vary from the benchmarks at your school, so it is important to check in with your child’s classroom teacher regarding school reading benchmarks.

When discussing reading levels it is important to note that there are three different types of levels: Instructional, Independent and Frustration. 

A child’s instructional level is most commonly the level in which your teacher in instructing your child at school and most frequently the level that your teacher reports to you. When reading a book at an instructional level, the support of a teacher or a parent is often needed to figure out tricky words, read with appropriate fluency, and accurately comprehend the content of the story. 

 A story at a child’s independent level is one that can be read accurately and understood mostly without the support of an adult. Your child’s independent level is often at least one letter or two numbers below. For example, if your child’s instructional level was a level H(14 )then his or her independent level would be a level G(12) and all levels below level G(12).

 A child’s frustration level is typically anything above your child’s instructional level, and as the level name would suggest, potentially frustrating for your child due to too many tricky words, difficult comprehension, or length of time your child spends reading the story.

reading time

Now that you know some information about reading levels, how will this information help you when selecting books for your child?

  • You should select are variety of books at your child’s independent level and instructional level. Reading a variety of books at different levels helps support different skills. Books at your child’s independent level can often increase confidence and support fluency, while books at your child’s instructional level, while often requiring parent support, can prepare your child for reading more challenging books. For example, if your child is reading an instructional level K (20) at school, you might have your child read books at H(14), I 16), J(18), and K(20) at home.
  • Having your child read aloud books at his or her frustration level should be avoided if possible. If your child selects a book at his or her frustration level, that book could be a book that you read aloud. Use your own judgement with books at your child’s frustration level as you don’t want your child to become discouraged.
  • Books that are one to three levels below your child’s instructional level can be used to support your child’s fluency (ability to read automatically with correct intonation and expression) because books at these levels will often have very few if not any tricky words. When children aren’t spending time figuring out tricky words, they can focus on reading with expression and pausing at the punctuation marks.

I hope that this information was helpful for you and figuring out your child’s reading level. Stay tuned for my next posting in which I will discuss a helpful site for finding out the levels of books that you own or find at the library!

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