Reading Resources

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!

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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!

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Reading tips for travel with kids

Who is ready for a road trip?

In the next couple of blog posts I will be providing reading tips for travel with kids. These tips will consist of reading activities to do in the car or plane and travel book recommendations. I will also be sharing reading activities and books that are in our carry-on bag.

Grand Canyon, Arizona

Our family loves to travel! We have driven cross country with Tim, traveled out of the country, and taken many plane trips to visit friends and family. Traveling has gotten easier as Tim has gotten older but the theme when you travel with kids remains the same- be sure to have endless entertainment! Long hours in the car, waiting at the airport and being trapped on an airplane can be a parent’s nightmare if you are not prepared. Thankfully, there are lots of reading activities to pass the time and support reading development at the same time.

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Reading on the Road: 10 reading tips for travel with kids in the car.

1. Before your trip, visit your local library and have books at your child’s reading level to read in the car. You may also have books about the place that you are traveling to.

2. Play the alphabet game with signs on the highway. Beginning at A, have everyone find a sign that has a word each letter in the alphabet in it. Once one person uses a sign for his or her word, that sign is off limits. The first person to get to Z wins! I used to play this game as a child on long road trip and it was a lot of fun!

3. Play I spy… You can say “I spy something that begins with the letter______. I spy something that begins with the sound_________. I spy something that ends with the sound__________. I spy something that rhymes with__________. You could also play 20 questions. We often play 20 questions at a restaurant while waiting for our food to arrive. Tim loves it!

4. Make a travel diary or scrapbook with pictures from your trip and captions or sentences to go with them. Your child could take pictures of sites along the way or draw pictures and then write captions under the pictures and/or a brief sentence as to why this place was special to them. Barnes & Nobles had an awesome travel journal. You could also make your own!

5. Write a postcard to a friend or family member from each place that you stop or visit. You can mail them at your hotel that you stop at for the night.

6. Bring a cookie sheet with magnetic letters and have your child see how many words he or she can make in each word family i.e. “at” family words-cat, sat, hat, bat etc. Your child may just want to play and make words on the cookie sheet as well.

7. Books on cd are also a great way to pass the time for long car rides! Oftentimes children’s books on cd come with a copy of the book as well so your child can follow along. Children’s cd and songs work as well as they often promote rhyming!

8. Bring along a children’s atlas or book about the place or state in which you are going. You could have your child follow your route, read facts about the places that go through or are going to. Your child could also draw pictures of different scenery or landscapes that he or she sees along the way. We bought a children’s atlas and read a few facts about each state we went through during our drive cross country. Tim loved learning about each new place!

9. Collect brochures, handouts, or information sheets about sites that you visit along the way or about your destination. You and your child could create your own travel brochure for that place or you could read more information about your travel site to your child.

10. You or your child could jot down a list or questions that your child has about the place in which you are travelling. You could check out some books at the library when you get back or research the answers online to answer your child’s questions. Tim loved visiting the Grand Canyon in Arizona and we were able to find some books at the local library to read to him because he was interested in learning more about it.

Johnny Cash Museum in Nashville, Tennesee

Hope these reading travel tips help make your experience fun when you travel with kids!

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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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