Thursday, January 31, 2013

Reading At Home With Your Child

Reading Activities at Home


  You can support your child’s learning while you do daily chores. You can invite your child to help you, or you can provide an activity for your child to do close to you. That way, you can talk and listen to your child while you work.

 

Preschooler/Kindergartner


Super Shadows. Place a large sheet over a table so that it hangs down around the table. Show your child how to use a flashlight safely. Invite him to go into his cave under the table to make shadows. Use words like dark, light, bright, night, shine, and shadow. Notice words that rhyme like light, night, and bright. Add small toys and encourage him to make shadow shapes in his cave. Notice words that start with the same sound like shine, shape, and shadow.
Making Boats. Your child can use recycled materials to make boats. Collect items like foam meat trays, small pieces of cloth, toothpicks, craft sticks, tape, bottle caps, paper, and crayons. You will also need scissors. Help your child think about how he can use these materials to make a boat. “What will you use for the bottom of the boat?” “Will you make a sail?” Then, help him to make the boat. Later, he can use it in the bathtub. “Do you think it will float?”
Reading Corner. Make a small reading corner for your child. Put pillows and a soft blanket in a corner of the room where you are working. Add some of your child’s favorite books, or some new books, for him to look at. Ask him to choose a book, look at the pictures, and tell you the story in his own words. Give him lots of encouragement for looking at books independently.
Pretend Party. Children love to play pretend. Invite your child to have a pretend birthday party. Provide paper and markers or crayons so she can make the invitations. “Who will you invite?” Write down the names of the friends she wants to invite. She can copy these names onto the invitations. Then decide on the menu. Explain that the menu means what food she will have at the party, just like the menu at a restaurant. “What will you wear to the party?” If possible, let her dress up. Then have a special snack and a party for two!

First-Grader/Reader-Writer

Scrubbing bubbles. Older children love to help with washing dishes. Provide a stool for your child at the sink. Give him the dish soap and read the label together. For example, one phrase may be “Avoid contact with eyes.” Explain what that means. Then, tell him and show him the steps for washing a dish (remove fragile items). For example: 1) Put water in the sink; 2) Add dish soap; 3) Scrub the dish; 4) Rinse the soap off; and 5) Place the dish in the drainer. Later, during a family conversation, encourage him to explain the steps for washing dishes.
Sorting Socks. While you fold laundry, put your child in charge of matching the socks. “Now you can match the socks in pairs.” Invite him to make a plan to do it. “How do you think we should start?” Tell him and show him how to separate different colors and sort them into piles. Next, tell him and show him how to put socks together that look the same. Remind him to compare the size and the design of each sock as he puts them together.
Make a Book. Give your child some paper and markers or crayons. Invite her to write a story about a favorite activity, for example, playing at the park. First, talk with her about what she did. “First you played baseball with your friends. Then we looked at trees and collected leaves.” Then help her put each activity into the story. Use words like begin and end. “How will you begin the story?” When she is finished encourage her to number the pages and decorate the cover. Help her to write her name on the cover using the words author and illustrator.

(from: http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/reading-language/reading-activities/reading-activities-at-home/)



 

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Welcome Kindergarten Students!




We want to extend a warm welcome to our Kindergarten Star Students!



Nicole
Anthony                                                     
Dajuana
Jaelyn
Landen
Vicky
Joel
Dillon
Sarai
Aiden

We will be focusing our learning on phonological and phonemic awareness. Lessons will include the following components:

*Rhyming
*Identifying the number of syllables in a word
*Matching initial sounds in words
*Counting phonemes in words
*Comparing word lengths
*Writing words

We will be reading poems, stories, and even writing our very own books to share at home and in the classroom!

The Kindergarten students are all very excited to read, write and share!

It was so nice to see many parents at conferences on Wednesday evening.  Thank you so much for all of your wonderful support for your child's learning!



Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Nurturing Writing Potential

Young children are already writers by the time they reach preschool and kindergarten

They are filled with stories to tell and ideas, and they want to show the world what they see and know. 

A wonderful way to support your child's writing and to refine their thinking about writing is through activities and strategies such as:
Read aloud stories
Writing with your child and "sharing the pen".
Listening to your child share their writing with you.

Early writing can be illustrations, a string of doodles and letters, or complete words and sentences.
All should be encouraged as your child moves from stage to stage in development.

Journal writing can be done at home as well as at school.  You can begin with words which are found in the child's world, such as words on food labels and names of family members.  Illustrations can be added to the story as well.
Children can compose their own stories inspired by their favorite books and use creativity.

Within the structure of a reading lesson, writing is a key component and is connected to the text.

One of the most valuable and enjoyable activities for the children is rereading written stories.  This activity builds fluency and confidence.


 
Have fun sharing writing time together!

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year wishes go out to all parents and families! 

We hope that you were able to spend quality time with your children reading great books together!

Congratulations go out to those students who returned the little "Winter Journal" writing book and shared their entries with us!  It was fun to hear about the different activities that children did over Winter Break!  This was also great writing practice for the students.


Another fun writing activity to share with children could be to write "New Year Resolutions" together.  These may include keeping a writing journal over the year to express special ideas and events through writing.  Or another activity could be to discover a new tradition, like a family reading or literacy game evening.
Visiting the library more frequently could be one too.  There are so many great events going on at the library this Winter!

Some events going on at the West Allis Public Library include:

January 2 - February 27  Bucks Reading Challenge

January 8  Preschool Evening Story Time for ages 3, 4, and 5 years old

January 9  Toddler Story Times for 2 year olds with a caretaker

January 12  Friends of the West Allis Public Library Book Sale



Enjoy!