Never to late to read

Yesterday was Read Across America Day, this day celebrates children’s literature. Today I wanted to share a story about the wish and will to learn to read. Listen to the story The Oldest Student How Mary Walker Learned to Read by Rita Lorraine Hubbard and watch a news clip from WRBC Chattanooga about Mary Walker.

Why share this story you ask? Children at this age are learning to read. They struggle to sound out words and think that it is just something that all adults do, but it’s not. There was a time when this skill was denied many American’s due to the color of their skin.

There was a time when people believed that some could never read or write because they struggled with learning issues. Were blind or deaf. Or too poor.

When we celebrate reading, we need to celebrate the changes that occurred. These changes view reading as a right. We work to educate all to read. We want to instill the love of reading as well as providing the functionality the this skill affords one’s life.

This story is a talking point. It is an opportunity to talk about the past, the present and the future. It is a chance to talk about hard work, dedication and tenacity that Mary Walker showed. It is a chance to learn.

Books!

Often times I have parents ask me “What are the best books for me to read to my child?” or “What books should my child be reading?”…. Ok I’m going to give an answer that might shock a lot of teachers… Any book your child is interested in reading is worth reading to/with them! Often times teachers poopoo the reading of stories based on tv shows or movies and such. I say… if your child wants to read it… read it!

Also many teachers have children read “just right books”.

While having your child read books that are really hard is often frustrating for children, if your child wants to read the book and is willing to put in the effort because they like the story/topic/whatever… why would you stop them?

Some people do not want children to read books that are too easy. But, this builds fluency. There is a need to increase both oral fluency as well as silent reading fluency and endurance.

I say… let your child pick books they are interested in reading/having read to them. If they like the book/topic they are more engaged and more interested in listening.

That being said…. I do encourage parents to read aloud even after your child learns to read independently. You should be reading books 2-4 levels above your child’s reading ability. I always encourage kindergarten families to start reading chapter books to your child. When they listen to chapter books they learn to envision the story in their mind. They also learn to hold the story between sittings which will help when they begin reading chapter books on their own.

I leave you one last thought on reading….

Too Many Tamales

During the holiday time, many friends and families get together to share food, love and laughter. While this year might look a bit different, the sentiment can still be the same. As adults, we feel the changes from the normal. We feel that things are different and missing. Often times we put these feelings onto our children too. Young children are more flexible in terms of holidays as they do not have the history of this is the way we do it. This year create a new holiday feel. A new holiday tradition and find ways to tweak the tradition to work in the new.

Onto today’s activities: Too Many Tamales by Ed Martinez is a story about family getting together for the holiday. Traditions they share AND a bit of oh no!

This is a great story to discuss problem and solution. What problem did Maria have? What solutions did they try? What finally worked and why? What could Maria have done differently?

Brainstorm with your child things they enjoy doing over the holidays. What do they remember? What do they want to do this year? How can you make this holiday different, but just as special? What special foods will you make? How will you connect with those you can’t see this holiday? Remember this is still a special and exciting time for your family, even if it is different!

Colorful for School

Yesterday we read the book Pete the Cat Too Cool For School by Kimberly and James Dean. In the book, Pete was trying to decide what to wear to school. He asks everyone and then finally decided to wear his favorite things.

Today have your child make a “zine booklet” about getting dressed in clothes of lots of colors. A zine booklet is a book folded out of one sheet of paper. Below I will share with you how to make your own, or you can hop over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store and pick up a copy of the one I have there for free!

If you choose to use mine you can have your child color the pictures before you fold and cut the zine. Or you can fold and cut the booklet and have your child create their own colorful outfit zine booklet. Now have your child point and read the book. Any time your child is stating words while pointing to word we call it reading. Even if he/she is not decoding the words it is the process of reading that is important. When I teach kindergarten I talk about this as reading as a kindergartner.

Now, onto how to make the zine booklet…

zine booklet pages

See image on the left for how to set up the pages. If you are having your child draw the images, you will want to do the folding first and the draw.

• Fold the paper in half “long side to long side”. Open it back up.

• Now Fold the paper in half “short side to short side”. Open it back up.
• Fold the short sides into the middle fold. Open this back up.
• Now fold it in half again short side to short side and cut along the fold (the line between 4/7 and 3/8).
• Then fold it back in half long side to long side.
• Hold onto the edges and push the pages together to create an open “box”.
• Push until you get it into an “x” shape.
• Now you can fold it.

Check out this youtube video for step by step visual instructions.

I’d love to see what you make. Share your child’s work with me mydayinprek@gmail.com I love seeing children learning!

I’m back… well tomorrow I am

Hello friends, I am back to posting daily lessons for you to use with your pre-k/kindergarten child(ren). Each week I will choose an easy reader book and provide lessons to go with the story. Tune in tomorrow for Pete the Cat Too Cool for School!

I encourage you to watch/read the story multiple times during the week. If you have a similar book at home, read that book too or instead. While I know you as a caregiver gets tired of reading the same story over and over, it is actually important to children’s reading development.

Every year I send this poem home with my students… this year I share it with you here. It is written by author Jane Yolen, known for Owl Moon, the How do Dinosaurs series, and so many other books: informational text, stories, poems and so much more.

Read to Me
By Jane Yolen

Read to me riddles and read to me rhymes
Read to me stories of magical times
Read to me tales about castles and kings
Read to me stories of fabulous things
Read to me pirates and read to me knights
Read to me dragons and dragon-book fights
Read to me spaceships and cowboys and then
When you are finished- please read them again.

I encourage you to follow my blog, reply to the posts and email me (mydayinprek@gmail.com) with any questions and/or book suggestions. If you don’t already, please follow me in Instagram @mydayinpre_k

Feel free to share my site with your friends… I am not paid for this blog. I am doing it for my love of children and helping children develop a love of learning!

High Frequency Words Sentence Practice

I have begun working on a few new kits for my Teachers Pay Teachers store (My Day in Pre-K). Today I uploaded two kits that will help your child feel like a reader!

High frequency words are words that are used over and over in stories. These words are a combination of both decodable words and sight words. The more fluent your child becomes in high frequency words, the more fluently they are able to read. The first kit focuses on the words I, like, the, and and the second kit focuses on see, we, a, to.

These kits provide you with two different types of pages.

The first provides your child(ren) the opportunity to read five sentences. The children will use the dots to point as they read the sentences. This helps your child differentiate between the words, develops one-to-one correspondence and recognize the connection between the printed and spoken words. These are written in rebus style allowing your child to use the pictures to finish reading the sentences. It encourages your child to read the sentences three times each which will help work on the fluency.

The second format allows your child to complete and illustrate the sentences. They are again encouraged to read the sentences three times, point while reading and build fluency.

I have shared this kit with a few of my former students. Their families have shared that the child is enjoying this learning activity and feel confident in their reading. One little girl has asked for more pages to be made.

I hope you enjoy this learning activity with your child. I will be adding more kits with additional words in the next few weeks. I also have a beginning sounds sort kit that is in the works!

Word Work Wednesday- Environmental Print

When children begin to see the connection between the printed and spoken word, they are learning to read! Often times people do not associate this early reading as reading, but just see it as memorization or visual clues.

When your child wants to hear his/her favorite book over and over and can eventually “read” it on their own, they may not be reading the words, but trust me they see themselves as a reader. Often times we discredit this feeling in children and tell them they aren’t reading… they are reading… like a 4/5 year old. And, this is a good thing!

Here is a way to help your child practice reading actual sentences, work on learning/practicing sight words, AND utilize the environmental print they already can read.

First… environmental print is the print we see in our every day life. This does not mean you need to go around and label the door, cabinet, floor and couch in your house… nope it means looking for the words are already exist in your space. I bet your child can read more words than you realize when you think about it in these terms.

Second… sight words are words that you have to memorize how to read and write. The fluency of reading sight words increases the fluency of reading… the faster you can read the sight words, the faster you can read. Now, do you need to drill and kill sight words with your preK kiddo… NOOOOO! I do think introducing some simple ones helps your child in the reading and writing process. Words like: I, a, the, my, see, like, can. These words make writing sentences easier and are used in a lot of easy reader books.

So, lets combine these two skills. Write out sentence starter strips “I like”, “I see”, “I like the”, “I see the”. You could also add “I see a” “I like my” or other simple sentence. Now have your child find words around the house that he/she can read. Trust me… go to your pantry they can read lots of food words!

When your child reads, point to the words as they are said. Once he/she gets better at recognizing the sight words, have him/her point and read at the same time.

I like the Crayola markers.

I see the Smartfood

I like Goldfish

I see the Oreo cookies.

I like the Cheerios