Our Reading Adventures

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

Support reading development through experiences

4th of July beach day!

Teaching your child through experiences helps support reading development in that it helps build a child’s background knowledge. Reading doesn’t always have to involve reading a book or having your child read a book to you. Background knowledge includes the following: children’s memories about themselves, others, objects and the world around them and values and expectations for behavior developed in different environments.

Fireworks!!

Building background knowledge is crucial to reading comprehension in that it helps a child make connections with the characters in a story, supports vocabulary development and builds a deeper understanding of a book’s main themes. Having background knowledge on a topic can also help children use context clues to sound out tricky words quickly when they are reading. Children’s experiences with their families and communities help develop their background knowledge.

Tim with one of the colonists

Since we just celebrated the Fourth of July, I thought that I would tell you about a recent trip to the Boston Tea Party ship in Boston, Massachusetts. My husband loves history and has been teaching Tim about the American Revolution. We recently visited Lexington and Concord and took a tour of the Boston Tea Party Ship and Tim loved it. My husband had discussed the tax on tea and the colonists, so Tim already knew some information about the Boston Tea Party before we arrived.

Tim throwing the tea overboard

At the beginning of the tour we were each given a card with the name and description of a colonist who we were supposed to pretend to be. The tour guides were dressed in period clothing, and “Samuel Adams” led the meeting about the new tax on tea. Through role playing on the tour, we learned more about why the colonists threw the tea overboard, and why they wanted to break away from England and form their own government. Tim was able to ask some excellent questions because my husband had already taught him about the American Revolution and the Boston Tea Party. Tim enjoyed throwing the tea overboard too!

Family picture aboard the Boston Tea Party Ship

The following books are several books that we have read aloud to Tim as a follow up to our visit to the Boston Tea Party ships.

Books related to the American Revolution

Here are some ideas to support background knowledge and reading development through experiences:

• Have fun spending time traveling with your child and learning about new places. You can enjoy learning along with your child or you can teach your child if the place is a place you have a lot of knowledge about. Make sure the experience is something you are interested in too, as if you are excited about the experience, your child most likely will be too!• Support your child in asking questions about the new experience. If you are at a museum or other location with available staff, be sure to engage them in discussion or ask them questions. They are often very knowledgeable and happy to answer questions that you have.

• Discuss the new experience before going and after going to talk about what your child learned, his or her favorite part, something your child would like to learn more about. It might be helpful for you to read up on the place you are going beforehand so that you can teach your child some information about it in advance.

• If you didn’t get to experience everything, plan a follow up trip or see what other activities or programs are offered.

• Experiences can be free! A walk outside talking about the flowers, insects, wildlife and other things you see on your walk is free, fun and supports reading development!

• Follow up by checking out a variety of books on your experience. For example, if you visited an aquarium, check out books about sea life that you saw or read stories about visits to the aquarium.

• Some suggestions of experiences include: historical monuments, national parks, museums, farms, beach trips, camping etc. Possibilities are endles

Continue ReadingSupport reading development through experiences

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!

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

Welcome to Learning to Read Together: providing ideas to help your child with reading!

Welcome to my reading blog! My goal in creating this blog for parents is to share tips and provide ideas for you to help your child with reading.

I am a reading specialist and a parent of a soon to be first grader named Tim. I plan on sharing how I help Tim with reading as he prepares for first grade as well as blogging about activities that you can do at home to help your child with reading.

I strongly believe that reading should be a fun experience for children which leads me to my first tip.  Tip 1: As parents you can help foster a love of reading by: reading aloud regularly, sharing your own experiences reading books as a child, and engaging in extension activities or experiences that go along with a book you are reading with your child.  

Reading aloud is beneficial in that it supports vocabulary development, listening comprehension and allows you to model fluent reading.  When you share your own experiences with reading, your child is able to view you as someone who enjoys reading and is likely  to develop a positive association with reading.  

Extension activities or experiences can be a fun way to connect with a book and bring it to life. For example, if you read Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey, you could go blueberry picking with your child, make blueberry jam or blueberry pie and perhaps try to can blueberries as Sal and her mother did in the story. 

Keeping reading fun will be a key theme as I share ideas throughout my blog to help your child with reading.  Stay tuned for the next post that will discuss finding out your child’s reading level and using this information to select “just right” books for your child.  

Now, as part of my first blog posting, I thought I would share more information about what inspired me to create my blog. 

This past year, I experienced school for the first time from the parent perspective. Kindergarten was a huge milestone for Tim . . . and for me.

Reflecting back on Tim’s first day of school last September, I couldn’t believe that I was the parent of a Kindergartner! I still remember dropping Tim off at school on the first day. He was so excited! At drop off, he hopped out of the car and he rushed down the sidewalk. When he was about halfway there, he flashed his wide smile at my husband and me and he proudly strode into the front entrance of his new school. Just like that, he was off on his own adventure!

With Tim starting school for the first time, I began to think of my role and how best to support Tim at home. Having been a reading specialist, I was familiar with the Kindergarten Curriculum, the grade level benchmarks, and I knew where to find books and resources to support Tim with his reading. I had some ideas on how to make reading fun for Tim and where to find beginner books for him to read. Kindergarten was the beginning of a new adventure for us–our learning to read adventure was one that we would experience together.

As I thought about Tim and his reading, I realized that I could support other parents in helping their child with reading. This realization led me to create this blog with the goal of offering tips and suggestions that you can use to help your child with reading outside of school. 

My hope is that the information in my blog helps you and your child as you journey through school together. I plan on blogging at least once a week or a bit more often if time permits (we are a busy household!)I hope that you enjoy following our journey learning to read together! 

Continue ReadingWelcome to Learning to Read Together: providing ideas to help your child with reading!