Monthly Archives: July 2018

Reading aloud to kids supports literacy development

Summer reading outside with another Magic Tree House book adventure

 

Reading aloud to your child is extremely important to reading development and can be a special bonding time with your child. Reading aloud promotes a love of reading, allows you to model fluent reading, increases development of new vocabulary and supports comprehension.  Reading aloud can begin when a child is an infant and should continue even when your child can read.

I remember reading to Tim as a newborn.  I had all of these wonderful baby books such a Moo, Baa, La La La, Goodnight Moon, and Pat the Bunny, just to name of few.  Tim loved the fun, colorful illustrations, and he giggled as I read some of the rhymes and parts of the books that he could interact with.  He learned from an early age that reading was fun, interactive and a special time with mom and dad.  We did our best to make reading a part of our regular routine often reading before nap time or before going to bed each night.

At age six, Tim still loves books and being read to.  He is always excited to have us read the new book that he brings home from library. My husband will often read books about historical events. Tim cherishes this time.  Reading has become a special bonding time as a family. We often have family reading time whereby we all sit down and take turns reading together. 

Tim loves Magic Tree House books!

 

Here are some ways to incorporate reading aloud at home

  • Take a trip to your local library and have your child get his or her own library card. Local libraries have a wide selection of children’s books for parents to read aloud. The librarians are also helpful in recommending books that might be appropriate for your child based on age or interest. Libraries offer story times and other activities during vacations or after school. They are also free, as long as your return books on time!
  • Set aside a special time daily for reading perhaps right before bed or another time that works best for you and your family. This time could be 10-30 minutes depending upon the time that you have. During this time, you could read a book or you and your child could take turns reading. If your child has siblings, perhaps an older sibling can read aloud to your child as well.
  • When reading aloud, pause to talk about what is happening in the story. You may discuss connections that you have to the story, who the characters are, where the story takes place and what the main idea of the story is.
  • Check in with the classroom teacher or school librarian to see what they are studying or reading about in school. Perhaps the school librarian read a book that your child loved during library class and there are other books by the same author that you could check out at the library.
Loving this version of the Gingerbread Man called The Library Gingerbread Man by Dotti Enderle

 

Ideas to try when reading aloud to your child

  • Have your child get involved in the story by describing pictures and making predictions. This could occur before you read the story and during the story. You could pause during the story and have your child make a prediction about what will happen next.
  • Ask open ended questions rather than yes or no questions about the story. For example, if you are reading Charlotte’s web you could ask, “Why is Templeton important to the story? Does Charlotte’s plan to save Wilbur work? Why or why not? Open ended questions promote deeper discussions about the story which supports higher level comprehension.
  • Model making predictions, asking questions and answering open questions and describing what is happening in the pictures. Modeling will help your child develop these skills.
  • Support your child in describing the pictures by doing the following. Ask “what’s this?” and point a picture. Follow your child’s answer with another question. “What is the cat doing?” Repeat what your child says and expand on it. “You’re right, I think the cat climbed up the tree and can’t get down.”
  • Help your child make connections to the story. You should model these as well. “This part in the story reminds me of when I___________. This helps me better understand the story because I can understand_______________. Connections can be: personal connections called text to self, connections to books called text to text, or connections to events happening in the community or world called text to world.
Checking out the illustrations again in The Library Gingerbread Man

Try these tips the next time you read aloud to your child!

Continue ReadingReading aloud to kids supports literacy development

Increase comprehension in kids through conversations

family trip to the redwoods

Having conversations can increase comprehension in kids by building background knowledge and vocabulary. Talking with your children can also help them anticipate language when they are reading on their own.  This means that kids can figure out words quickly by being able to identify words based on the context of the sentence or what is happening in the story.

exploring the redwoods in Central California

How do readers solve a tricky word when they are reading?

Readers use a variety of strategies to figure out unknown words.  These include sounding out words, using the picture, thinking about what makes sense, skipping the word and going back to it and breaking up longer words. Oftentimes readers use several of these strategies at once. The goal is to figure out the unknown word quickly.

Readers don’t want to lose the meaning of what is happening in the story by stopping at a word for too long. Efficiency is key in solving unknown words. Having conversations with your children can directly support them in figuring out words quickly by helping them use the sentence structure and the context of what is happening in the story. Having conversations can also increase comprehension in kids by helping them make connections and understanding the main idea in a story.

amazed at the height of these trees

How does talking to your child help with reading?

Being a parent has allowed me to witness firsthand how having conversations can increase comprehension in kids.  In today’s world of technology, having a mini computer as a phone has meant that people often spend time communicating using their phone. Smart phones can replace in person conversation easily if we choose to let them.

It is important to make time to have conversations with each other. You can do this by taking walks outside, having dinner conversations, or spending time with your child without the distraction of technology. Talking to your child is a basic everyday thing that you can do to support your child with literacy. Also, having conversations with your child begins well before your child enters school.

Wondering why redwoods are so tall….

I remember when my son, Tim was little, that I would point to things around the house and tell him what they were. I would often narrate what I was doing when I was doing daily household tasks such as doing the laundry or making dinner. Even though Tim didn’t respond with words, he was hearing my words and listening to language. In doing so, I was helping build his vocabulary, model sentence structure and build his background knowledge about household chores.

about the check out the inside of a redwood tree

Once Tim could talk and even now, he will often use the language that has heard from me.  For example, for snack recently, I asked him if he would rather have peaches or cheese and crackers and he said that he would “prefer” cheese and crackers.  Where did he get the word “prefer”? Clearly, I must have used that expression and he picked up on it. Not only did Tim use the word, but he used it correctly when he answered my question.  Having conversations with your child regularly helps build your child’s vocabulary which in turn supports their reading comprehension.

chatting about redwood trees with Dad

To help support language and reading development  and increase comprehension in kids at home you could:

  • Go on a walk outside with your child and talk about what is happening outside during that season. For example, in the spring you could talk about the following: buds forming, trees growing new grass turning green, and why birds fly back after having migrated south for the cold winter. Seasons are often topics covered in the early grades. There are also many stories that your child will read about seasons at school.  Your conversations will help build vocabulary, comprehension and background knowledge on this topic.
  • Use sophisticated vocabulary when you speak with your child. For example, my husband and Tim were playing soccer the other day. Tim finally got the ball away from my husband. I said to Tim, “Nice Job Tim, you were determined to get that soccer ball from Daddy.” Tim asked me what determined meant and we talked about how determined means not giving up.
  • Model language with appropriate sentence structure and grammar. This is probably something that you have been doing anyway before your child could even talk. Children are still making sense of the English language in the early grades and Tim is still occasionally working on mastering tenses or using other words correctly when he speaks such as saying “I rand to get the ball instead of I ran to get the ball.” When he says this incorrectly, I might say “Oh, you ran to get the ball” to help model it correctly.
  • When you are reading together with your child, pick a couple of new words to talk about. Discuss the meanings of these words and use them context and in conversation if the situation arises. By helping build your child’s vocabulary, you are directly supporting reading development and comprehension.
Family nature walks are a great way to spend time with your child and engage in conversations

Hope these tips help you when you have conversations with your child!

Continue ReadingIncrease comprehension in kids through conversations

Kindergarten rhyming activities

This blog post is about Kindergarten rhyming activities to get your child ready for Kindergarten this fall.  I will also be previewing some skills that your child will be doing during his or her Kindergarten year.

Reading Skills taught in Kindergarten:

There are many skills that are focused on in preschool and in Kindergarten to help kids with reading readiness.  These skills include, but are not limited, to the following:

  • Rhyming
  • Phonemic awareness which is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. Before children learn to read print, they need to become more aware of how the sounds in words work.
  • Concepts of print-understanding how books work. These include: knowing where the front and back of the book is, knowing how a book opens and where to start reading in a book.
  • Knowledge of first, middle and last sounds in a CVC (Consonant-vowel-consonant) word (i.e. cat) when presented a picture or the written word.
  • Names of letters and sounds
  • Being able to say all the sounds in a word such as mat as /m/ /a/ /t/
  • Knowledge of basic sight words such as the, and, is

Why is rhyming important?

  • Rhyming helps kids anticipate language when they are reading because they can often predict what a word will be based on what makes sense in a rhyming book.  This skill can helps kids efficiently figure out words when they are reading.
  • Rhyming help kids understand how language works and can help them solve new words.  Word families such as words in the  -at family (cat, hat, bat, rat sat) are rhyming words . 
  • Rhyming teaches kids the rhythm of language which can help them with their reading expression and fluency.

Here are some Kindergarten rhyming activities to help your child prepare for Kindergarten:

  • Read aloud rhyming books such as Dr. Seuss books and nursery rhymes. Many read aloud books for babies, toddlers and young children rhyme. Rhyming is a skill that you can start when your child is an infant. You ca read and reread these books with rhymes. Have your child finish the rhyme, especially if your child has already heard the book a couple of times before. Here are some suggestions for rhyming books: http://www.pbs.org/parents/adventures-in-learning/2014/08/rhyming-books-kids/

Have fun rhyming with your child! What other Kindergarten rhyming activities have you done at home? Do you have any rhyming books that you like? Please leave a comment below!

Continue ReadingKindergarten rhyming activities

Help kids learn vocabulary through read alouds

You can help kids learn vocabulary through read alouds.  Books that you read aloud to your kids will often have more sophisticated vocabulary than books that they can read on their own.  Even when kids can read on their own, reading aloud can expose them to new vocabulary, allow you to model fluent reading and extend their comprehension. 

Here is an interesting article that supports reading aloud and vocabulary development. The article discusses how written language gives kids access to a wide range of language and vocabulary that they might not hear in spoken language. https://edsource.org/2015/study-says-reading-aloud-to-children-more-than-talking-builds-literacy/82045

Lately, we have been reading Charlotte’s Web to Tim as a read aloud at night. He has seen the movie, so he is familiar with the story and characters, but the book has so much more detail and rich vocabulary.  We have been reading a chapter or two a night and we are almost finished with the book. While we are reading, we stop and talk about what is happening in the story and I explain some of the vocabulary.  We have focused on the friendship between Wilbur and Charlotte and what makes Charlotte a good friend. We have also been discussing the difference between Templeton and Charlotte and their reasons in helping Wilbur. A lot of our discussion is prompted by Tim’s questions about what is happening in the story or about the different characters.

The other night, I was reading a chapter and the word timothy was used in a paragraph in the story. The sentence read, “Then the hay would be hoisted, sweet and warm, into the big loft, until the whole barn seemed like a hole bed of timothy and clover.” Since this word is Tim’s name, he was very interested in learning what this word meant. To help Tim figure out what the word timothy meant, we first talked about the meaning of the word clover used in the sentence.

Tim remembered the word clover from St. Patrick’s day and we talked about a four leaf clover and how clover is often seen outside in the grass. Tim made a guess that timothy was a type of plant that grows in the grass outside based on the clues that were given by the author.   We googled the word timothy and I read the definition and showed Tim some images. Our guess was close!

We discovered that timothy is a perennial tall meadow grass. We also realized that we had seen timothy grass before outside in fields or often in spots where the grass is not mowed. When we were leaving a park the next week, Tim pointed out some timothy grass that was growing in the park. He was so proud of himself for using the word timothy and for knowing what the word meant!

Here are some tips to help kids learn vocabulary through read alouds:

  • Select a few new vocabulary words in the story. Make sure to focus on just a few and not too many. This can be done by skimming the chapter or book quickly beforehand or it can be done as you read the book to your child. Have your child try to figure out what the meaning is based on the context clues in the story. Reread the sentence before the word, the sentence with the word, and the sentence after the word. You can make a guess based on how the word in used in the story and google the word to figure out the meaning.  Tim enjoyed doing this because it seemed like a game!
  • Talk about the book in advance and give your child some background knowledge. You might introduce some new vocabulary.  Before reading Charlotte’s Web, we talked about farms, the types of animals that live on a farm and what they eat. We also talked about cows producing milk for people to drink and chicken producing eggs for people to eat.
  • Select a couple of vocabulary words that are important for understanding the main idea of a chapter or a story. For example, in Charlotte’s Web, the words injustice and runt are key words in chapter 1. These words go along with the main idea that Fern is able to convince her father to keep Wilbur.
  • Use your new vocabulary words in conversation and in your daily life if the situation arises. Using new vocabulary will help reinforce the meaning and help your child to use the word correctly.

In order to help kids learn new vocabulary through read alouds, make sure to only pick a couple of words central to the main idea of the story, and keep it fun!

Continue ReadingHelp kids learn vocabulary through read alouds

Kids reading activities for the plane: what’s in our carry-on bag

This post will focus on kids reading activities that you can pack for plane trips.  I will be sharing read alouds, books and kids reading activities that are in our carry-on bag.

Airplane travel can be unpredictable. It can consist of waiting around, delays, time changes and long hours sitting still.  It can be exhausting for parents and kids! It is important to be prepared with lots of snacks and entertainment!  Traveling on airplanes is definitely easier for us now that Tim is older.  We don’t have to worry about traveling during nap time as those days are over.  Also, we don’t have to play chase in the airport or on the airplane-ha! Tim can focus on activities on the airplane. He understands that he needs to stay seated with his seatbelt fastened… for awhile!!

 While Tim does have some time on technology consisting of a show or a movie on the ipad or computer, I try to take advantage of the time to read together in the airport or on the airplane.  Waiting around in the airport or on the airplane can be a perfect time to spend time with your child and can be a great bonding time.

Here is what we packed in our carry-on bag for an airplane trip that we took this week.

For a read aloud, I packed the Magic Tree House book Hour of the Olympics by Mary Pope Osborne. The Magic Tree House books are books that Tim was read aloud last year in Kindergarten as part of the Tools of the Mind Curriculum.  He is familiar with Jack and Annie and the first twelve books in the series. He loves listening to the adventures of Jack and Annie!

With each Magic Tree House book, there is an opportunity to extend background knowledge by researching and reading more information about each place or experience that Jack and Annie have in the book. In this book, Jack and Annie are traveling to Ancient Greece and  they are learning information about the Olympics in Ancient Greece.  We researched some more information about Ancient Greece and Tim learned about a chariot, javelin and discus.

 I find novels lightweight for travel as well as opposed to hard cover picture books that take up a lot of room and are heavy in a carry-on bag.  Instead of packing a bunch of picture books, you may want to pack an anthology with lots of stories.

While I was shopping for snacks at the local supermarket, I found a small aluminum tray and these Melissa and Doug magnetic letters with both uppercase and letters.  I thought that this would be perfect for playing some word games on the plane.

We played a game in which Tim had to make some CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words such as “cat”. I would have Tim change the first, last or middle sound and he would have to tell me what word he spelled.

We also played a game in which I put out a group of letters and we would see how many words we could make with that group of letters. Tim loved that game!! We played this in the airport and he made 16 words!

I packed a variety of books at Tim’s reading level that I found on ebay.  I found that most of the books at the local libraries do not have well written books at Tim’s reading level. Most of the books in the library are appropriate for the end of first grade and older, although they can be deceiving and look like they are for younger children.  I plan on blogging about this dilemma in a future posting.

 My favorite books for Tim’s reading level are Rigby readers which are often used in classrooms to teach guided reading.  These books are often expensive. Ebay had several variety packs of Rigby books at Tim’s level for a bargain.

 I also bought a Fundations level 1 pack for $20 on ebay. Fundations is a whole class phonics program that is taught based on the Wilson program that works well for teaching children phonics skills.

 

The Fundations pack came with a dry erase board that is the same board that Tim used at school for writing letters with the sky, plane, grass and worm line.  It also came with a journal with a picture and the same lines as the white board that will be perfect for a travel journal. We packed the journal in our carry-on.

We also received a magnetic folder with magnetic letters that is perfect for traveling.  I found this after I bought the Melissa and Doug letters, but I may use both.  The Fundations magnetic letters have the vowels in a different color. Also, the digraphs like sh, ch, th, wh and qu grouped together on one letter tile. This helps kids remember and identify these sounds when making words.

 Tim had fun making and reading words with the Fundations magnetic letter tiles in the airport. I liked how we were able spread them all out on the folder and how portable it was.

 Overall, I feel that our travel activities were a success. Tim had fun playing word games with the letter tiles, reading books at his level and listening to the adventures of Jack and Annie! What kids reading activities are in your carry-on bag?

 

Continue ReadingKids reading activities for the plane: what’s in our carry-on bag