Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Bring Your Family to School Day at Jefferson

It was so great to see many families at Jefferson's "Bring Your Family to School Day"  on February 21.  It was wonderful to help Mrs. Hendricks and Mrs. Galewski in their Kindergarten classrooms as we explored and experienced learning through technology on the computer.

The websites that we shared that day are very engaging to young learners, and we encourage you to try these and other websites and activities using technology at home.  The children enjoy the activities so much, and their enthusiasm about learning is terrific!

These are some of the websites we shared in Kindergarten.
The children can help log into the sites with assistance or independently.

www.abcya.com
www.starfall.com
www.k-5mathteachingresources.com
Interactive songs on YouTube from Harry Kindergarten :
                                            Hip Hop Around the Clock
                                            (telling time to the hour w/Jack Hartmann)
                                            Vowel Bat (kid song by Shari Sloane)
                                            Show Me the Money (children's coin song by Jack Hartman)

Enjoy!  :)

             

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Shared Reading

As children develop their skills as readers and writers,  modeling and sharing the process is important as we teach children to become increasingly independent.  I use Shared Reading during my group kindergarten lessons with children to help them build their skills and confidence in reading.  Children become familiar with the patterns in books, and this helps them to increase their reading fluency and sight word recognition.
Enjoy reading aloud and Shared Reading at home with your child!


See the article below for more information about the benefits of Shared Reading.

 

Why use Shared Reading?

  • It provides struggling readers with necessary support.
  • Shared reading of predictable text can build sight word knowledge and reading fluency
  • Allows students to enjoy materials that they may not be able to read on their own.
  • Ensures that all students feel successful by providing support to the entire group.
How to use Shared Reading
  1. Introduce the story by discussing the title, cover, and author/illustrator. Ask the students to make predictions regarding what they think the story might be about.
  2. Read the story aloud to the students using appropriate inflection and tone. Pause and ask the students to make predictions. Ask brief questions to determine students' comprehension level.
  3. Conclude the reading by reserving time for reactions and comments. Ask questions about the story and relate the story to the students' similar experiences. Ask the children to retell the story in their own words.
  4. Re-read the story and/or allow time for independent reading.
  5. Conduct follow-up activities such as making a craft related to the story.
An example of a children's book to use with this strategy

Weather: Poems for All Seasons
Weather: Poems for All Seasons

Easier to read poems focus on weather and seasons.
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Reading Comprehension

Reading fluently and being able to decode words easily are essential elements to becoming a proficient reader.  Comprehension strategies are very important to practice too!   

Have you ever wondered as a parent how you can help your child improve comprehension skills at home? 
Featured below is a wonderful article from Scholastic which provides ideas to help your child to improve reading comprehension skills.

 

Help your child improve reading comprehension — a crucial reading skill, especially as he gets older & needs to glean information from textbooks.



Here are six tips to improve reading comprehension in your early reader:
  1. Have him read aloud. This forces him to go slower, which gives him more time to process what he reads, which improves reading comprehension. Plus, he's not only seeing the words, he's hearing them, too. You can also take turns reading aloud.
  2. Provide the right kinds of books. Make sure your child gets lots of practice reading books that aren't too hard. She should recognize at least 90 percent of the words without any help. Stopping any more often than that to figure out a word makes it tough for her to focus on the overall meaning of the story.
  3. Reread to build fluency. To gain meaning from text and encourage reading comprehension, your child needs to read quickly and smoothly - a skill known as fluency. By the beginning of 3rd grade, for example, your child should be able to read 90 words a minute. Rereading familiar, simple books gives your child practice at decoding words quickly, so she'll become more fluent in her reading comprehension.
  4. Talk to the teacher. If your child is struggling mightily with reading comprehension, he may need more help with his reading — for example, building his vocabulary or practicing phonics skills.
  5. Supplement class reading. If your child's class is studying a particular theme, look for easy-to-read books or magazines on the topic. Some prior knowledge will help her make her way through tougher classroom texts and promote reading comprehension.
  6. Talk about what he's reading. This "verbal processing" helps him remember and think through the themes of the book. Ask questions before, during, and after a session to encourage reading comprehension. For example:

    Before: "What are you interested in about this book? What doesn't interest you?"

    During: "What's going on in the book? Is it turning out the way you thought it would? What do you think will happen next?"

    After: "Can you summarize the book? What did you like about it? What other books does it remind you of?"
(from  http://www.scholastic.com/resources/article/reading-comprehension)

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Activities at Home



The following ideas can help build a child's phonemic and phonological awareness skills!

Play with letters, words, and sounds! Having fun with language helps your child learn to crack the code of reading.

          *Say silly tongue twisters.



    *Sing songs, read rhyming books, and say silly tongue twisters. These help kids become sensitive to the sounds in words.
          * Play with puppets.
             Play language games with puppets. Have the puppet say something like, "My name is Mark. I like words that rhyme with my name. I am going to say some words and I want you to tell me if they rhyme with Mark. Ready? Does park rhyme with Mark? (Stress the words park and Mark). Does ball rhyme with Mark? Does shark rhyme with Mark?" Wait for your child to answer each question, yes or no. When your child answers yes to the word shark, the puppet could then pretend to be a very energetic shark who, of course, wants to tickle your child.

  • Play sound games.
    Give your child practice blending individual sounds into words. For example, ask, "Can you guess what this word is? m - o - p." Say the sound each letter makes rather than the name of the letter. Hold each sound longer than you normally would. This will help your child recognize the different letter sounds.
  • Use the sounds and letters in your child's name.
    Draw your child's attention to the letters in his or her name. Point out the link between letters and sounds. Say things like, "John, the word jump begins with the same sound as your name does. John, jump. And they both begin with the same letter, J."
  • Trace and say letters.
    One way to help your child learn letter sounds is to have him or her use a finger to trace a letter while saying the letter's sound at the same time. You can do this on paper or in a sandbox or on a plate filled with sugar. Involving touch, sight, and speech in this way has a powerful effect on learning. Another option is for you to draw the outlines of a letter using dots and then have your child connect the dots while also saying the letter sound out loud.
  • Watch my lips.
    This may feel odd at first, but encourage your child to watch your lips and mouth while you make certain sounds. Have your child think about how his or her own lips and tongue move. You can say something like, "Can you feel how your mouth moves the same way at the beginning of the words mouse, mom, and man? Watch my mouth while I say them. Now you say the words and feel your lips make the mmm sound." Remember to make just one m sound that you hold for longer than you normally would.
  • Read it and experience it.
    Help your child make the connection between what he or she reads in books and what happens in life. If you're reading a book about animals, for example, relate it to last month's trip to the zoo.
  • Let your child choose.
    Give your child the chance to pick his or her own books, even if the reading seems too easy. Easier books build confidence and letting children choose their own books nurtures independence and their own interests.


In order to read, young children have to learn that written words are made up of letters that also represent the sounds we speak. Reading experts call this skill "phonological awareness." It's a lot for a five-year-old to figure out.

There are many things parents can do to help kids in this early stage of reading. Try some of the tips listed above to help your child recognize that there are different sounds in the words we speak, that letters on a page represent these different sounds, and that putting the sounds together makes words. This is a vital step on a child's road to reading.
But don't make it too serious. Mix it up, be playful, have fun with language. Remember, not only do we want kids to be able to read, we want them to want to read.