Welcome to Reading Ideas
Reading to Your Child
Just another little thought about the power of reading to your child! It's a simple act, but makes a difference in SO many ways! Happy Reading!
Welcome to Reading Ideas
Building a Bond With Your Child
Hi Parents! This is another connecting reading and writing activity. It begins with a Journal/Composition Notebook. You and your child think of a name for this journal, write it on the first page and illustrate the page together. This is how the journal works. You will write first. Just write something to your child, anything you would like to tell him/her. You can draw a little picture too if you want. Then, you set the journal on your child’s bed. He/she writes something back to you with a picture and the child puts the journal on your bed. It goes back and forth. You can do this with all ages. It’s pretty powerful. Sometimes a child will say something personally in a journal, but not face to face. The journaling back and forth can develop a special bond. This journaling can be 1 child to 1 parent or I child to both parents. It can be done with more children. Just have a separate journal for each child. It also makes a wonderful memory, maybe, a treasure! Whatever, make it fun! DO NOT WORRY ABOUT SPELLING OR PUNCTUATION. This is about sharing thoughts and building a bond with your child. Don’t you wonder what your child might write to you?? Have fun!
Welcome to Reading Ideas
Read, Read, Read To Your Child!
Couldn't say this better myself! I love the very, very bottom sentence! Happy Reading!
Welcome to Reading Ideas
Read, Read, Read To Your Child!
Wow! If you could do this every day, that would be amazing! Your child would develop an amazing literacy background which is so important for when they begin to learn to read! It makes learning to read so much easier! The other great thing is that it builds a great bond with you and your child! Reading, snuggling, talking, sharing, laughing builds wonderful memories.
Reading is a fun thing to do!
Welcome to Reading Ideas
Reading Is A Fun Thing To Do!
This is the oringinal picture I wanted to use with Reading Is A Fun Thing To Do! I couldn't find it, but recently, I did. I love how cozy it looks to read in. I wonder if anyone has created a cozy place to read, and yes, adults, you need a cozy place to read, too. I have seen people put pillows and a blanket into the tub or they read with bubbles in the tub. Whatever you do, have fun, be creative, and enjoy reading!
ps Ladies, I have found an amazing author, Colleen Hoover! You might give her a go!
Welcome to Reading Ideas
Reading Is A Fun Thing To Do!
Reading is so important! It’s a skill we need in every part of our life for all of our life. As a first grade teacher, teaching children to read was one of my biggest responsibilities! But, teaching children that reading was a fun thing to do was important, also. I wanted them to LOVE to read, because the more you love something, the more you want to do it. The more you do it, the better you get, the easier it becomes, and besides, reading is a fun thing to do! One way that can make reading fun is to have fun places to read. In my classroom, there were always fun places to read. One spring, I brought in a kiddie pool and had a pillow and quilt in it. I had tents, even, a cardboard box with windows and a door to read in. Maybe, this picture will inspire you to make a fun reading place in your home or classroom! Happy Reading!
Welcome to Reading Ideas
Learning Sight Words or Spelling Words
- This is a fun activity to learn sight words or to learn to spell words.
- Cut an index card in half.
- On the top half, write the word to learn or the word to learn to spell.
- On the bottom half, write the word again leaving space between the letters.
- Cut the letters apart.
- Mix up the letters. Have child put the letters back in order.
- Then have them say the word, spell the word, and say the word again.
- Continue mixing up, putting in order, saying, spelling, saying until it’s easy :)
- Repeat for any other word/words.
This can also be done with sentences to help with reading. Write a sentence, cut the words apart, mix the words up, put sentence back together and read the sentence. Do it over and over until it’s easy to read.
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Connecting Reading and Writing
I love sharing ideas! I love sharing ideas about literacy. As a first grade teacher, reading was my top priority. I loved to make my teaching fun, but meaningful and connecting reading and writing was that — fun and meaningful!
A child would create his/her story. Then we would conference about it. I never wrote with any color ink on any child’s writing. I still remember the “Red Pen”. After writing a story, I would turned it in. When it was returned, it would be covered in red marks. I felt awful. It made me feel like I could not write. Yet, today, I love writing. I have even published a few books. But, I vowed that I would never make a child feel that way. I wanted them to believe they were the best writer in the world. I have also learned that after you write a story you have to “play” with it. You read it out loud to hear how it sounds and make changes until it’s just right. When a child came up to conference, they would bring a friend, we would read and chat about the story. I would be taking notes on a piece of paper with the changes that needed to be made. Later, I would type the story. Sometimes, parent volunteers would help me with the typing. Parents are great! The story would be made into a book or typed and put into their Storybook Binder. Always, leaving room for illustrating. The book or the Storybook Binder was great for practicing known material over and over. They know and love their writing!
I know that there are children who struggle with reading. Reading is not easy to learn! Sometimes, finding material at their level is difficult, especially if they are older. Connecting reading and writing could be a great tool to help and they are improving reading and writing at the same time! Two for One!
Let the child write about anything they want — ownership is very powerful. Help them “play” with their story. Have them read it out loud, over and over. Hearing it out loud is so different than hearing in your mind. Make notes on what needs to be changed and type it. Leave room for illustrating and remind them that the picture has to match the words. Sometimes it’s fun for them to illustrate first and write a story matching their picture. This is now their reading material—appropriate for them. They wrote it. They know it. Put these in a binder. Have them read it to anyone and everyone. Let them take it home. Read it to their family, their pet! Maybe every story could be a different chapter and create a chapter book, fiction or non-fiction. Using their ideas/writing as their reading materials can be very powerful.
PARENTS: This is great for you to do at home with your child. Maybe even create a family story and illustrate together. What a great family activity. Everyone could work on their own story or create a group story. A group story is where one person starts the story with a sentence. Then each person adds another sentence to the story. You never know where you story might go! Maybe a surprise with lots of giggles. So much more fun than TV or electronics. So sorry, once I start sharing about reading and writing, I just can’t stop. Hope you find some of this helpful!
Happy Reading and Writing!
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How To Be A Better Reader
Reading is just like anything else. If you want to get better at it, you have to practice. You really see the importance of practice in sports, but you have to practice reading, too. You practice by reading. I saw this poster and I thought it made a great point! Just let your child read, read, read, anything they want. If it's too hard, read it to them! Practicing is a fun thing to do!
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A Reading Tip
Hi! I have another reading tip -- have the child read known material over and over. You might be wondering, why? Reading known material over and over helps the child in a number of ways.
1. It helps build their sight vocabulary. Every time the child rereads, the brain sees the words, takes a picture of them and soon they become a known word. If the child is a beginning reader, reading a pattern book, a book with one sentence per page, have the child touch each word as they read. The brain focuses on each word as the child reads. They can use their finger or make a cute pointer with a pencil that has a pointed eraser glued on the end of the pencil.
2. It helps develop fluency. The more they reread, the faster and smoother they read. The goal is to read smooth, as smooth as butter, as my teammate Jeanne would say!
3. Rereading helps with comprehension. The point of reading is to understand what the author is saying. The first time a child reads, the focus is on the words. But, as the child rereads the focus changes to what do those words mean.
As you can see, the reading over and over is important to the child's reading development. This can be helpful to a struggling reader too!
TEACHERS: To help me with this in my classroom, I used parent volunteers. They would come into my morning reading time. The child would sit next to the parent and read a known material a couple of times. Then they would go back to their place and continue to reread. Hope this is helpful! Happy Reading!
ps If you have a beginning reader, you can buy these pattern books on Amazon.
Reading Ideas
Welcome to Reading Ideas
I taught first grade for over 20 years. Teaching reading and writing was/is the BEST! My goal is to share some of my wisdom (ha ha ha). This information can be used by parents and/or teachers. Hope my thoughts are helpful. Here we go: Reading is the most important skill to learn. You need to be able to read to learn just about anything. As a teacher, parents were super concerned about their child's reading. Well, I have learned a secret to help your child be a great reader -- READ TO YOUR CHILD! Read to them from the minute they are born (actually, some parents-to-be read out loud to them in utero). Are you wondering how does this help? It builds their literacy skills. Parents, you are perfect to model what readers do when you read aloud to your child. You are building their literacy skills. It improves their thinking skills. They develop the ability to think and understand oral language which they will be able to apply to the written language -- books. Background knowledge will be developed through their experiences with the books you choose to read to them. Background knowledge is an important reading strategy. Reading aloud develops vocabulary and stimulates brain activity. Their concentration will increase as they focus on the books being read. Reading aloud will widen your child's imagination. Children learn how a book works and a special bond will be created with your child -- snuggling, listening, sharing, laughing -- priceless! The love of a book and reading also happens. Put all these skills together and you have developed a strong foundation of oral language which your child will easily transfer to the written language -- reading! As I said, simple but so, so powerful. You can't read too much to your child and the local library is an amazing source that costs nothing! TEACHERS: reading to your children every day is powerful too. My favorite teacher, Mrs Hummel, read to us every day. I have never forgotten that and to this day, I love The Boxcar Children! I was in fifth grade and loved it. Teachers, it does build a bond with students too! Happy Reading!
