Kindergarten:
The Kindergarten year has focused on learning to identify each of the letters of the alphabet in two ways: one by recognizing each letter, both capital and lower case, by its name, and secondly by identifying each letter by the sound that it produces. Only the short sound of a vowel was introduced in Kindergarten. It will be important that your child retain what they have learned about each letter. As suggested in previous newsletters, you may wish to play games such as Bingo, which could focus on either naming the letters or on finding a letter by its sound. Concentration is also another game that can be used to practice letter names and sounds. After a match is made, ask your child to identify the letter by both its name and its sound.
Another idea to try as a way to practice letters and sight words is called: Hopscotch. You will need chalk and beanbags. Start by drawing a hopscotch board and write either letters of the alphabet or sight words on each hopscotch square. Next, invite your child to toss the beanbag onto a square and hop from square to square and say each letter or word as they hop on it. Repeat as many times as you like, you may change the letters and words printed on the squares. Your child may also enjoy writing letters and or sight words with chalk on the sidewalk.
Another idea is called Cover All. You will need to have cubes, index cards, counters; such as, coins, beans, pasta, and a permanent marker. Make letter dice by using a permanent marker to write a letter of the alphabet on each side of a one inch cube. Choose several of the sight words, supplied at the end of the article, and write them on separate index cards. Invite your child to pick a card, and then roll the letter dice. If the dice shows a letter found on their card, have your child place a counter on the letter(s). Continue to roll until all the letters are covered. Choose another word to continue to practice. You can play this game with your child as well as invite brothers and sisters to play along.
The Kindergarten program followed a phonic program called Fundations which taught the children to tap out each sound and then blend each of the sounds to read words in which each letter sound is easily heard such as cat, man, web, set, win, sit, got, pot, sun, bug. You can continue to support this skill by supplying a picture of a word with easy to hear sounds and having your child write the sounds in the correct sequence, and then reading the word.
During the course of the year your child also learned many sight words. You can keep these words sharp by continuing to practice reading them by playing Bingo, or Concentration. You can even create flashcards. You may also consider writing sentences for your child to read that include the sight words and words that they can easily figure by tapping. Your child can also be the one to write sentences using their sight words and writing unknown words by saying the word slowly and writing the letter needed for each sound that they hear in a word. You will need supply letters that are silent such as; the i in the word rain, or the sh in a word like ship. You may also consider having your child do some sorting activities with letters such sorting by capital or lowercase, by letters that are in their name versus letters that are not in their name. You could also use names of family, friends, or pets. Magnetic letters work well for the sorting activities, or you can write a word on paper and then cut the word into individual letters.
Reading to your child each day is a wonderful way to help them learn to hear how words are read in meaningful phrases to make reading sound like how we talk to each other. Talking with your child about the book is a wonderful way to help them understand the connection between your words and the print on the page. Talking about a favorite or confusing part will help your child to understand that reading is about thinking and understanding the author's purpose for writing. Reading to your child also helps them to learn how to lift their voices for a question mark or an exclamation mark. As you are reading along, invite your child to read the words that they know. Your child may have brought home booklets from the Houghton Mifflin reading series, rereading them with your child, then inviting your child to read them back to you will help to maintain their sight word recognition.
The sight words that your child was asked to learn in Kindergarten are: my, like, play, are, to, go, look, we, can, the, said, up, is, here, he, on, it, for, this, you, and, have, was, me, see, am, I, at, a, come, for, will.
The 95% Percent Group Inc., have created activities to help children work on understanding how words work. The activity: Initial and Remainder Cheer was created to help children hear and separate the initial sound from the last part of a word, which is known as onset/rime. Head, Waist, and Toes practices the skill of dividing a word into its beginning, middle and ending sounds. Knit a Word practices the skill of leaving off the first sound and listening for the word that is left. Change that Sound practices the skill of changing the first sound of a word to create a new word. You can go the website for more ideas: www.95percentgroup.com
Initial and Remainder Cheer:
Have your child stand hold their arms straight out in front of their body with hands in fists.
One hand is opened and turned over palm up when the initial (first) spoken.
Then while saying the first vowel and everything that comes after it, the second fist is turned over and opened with palm up.
For example, for cat:
/c/ left fist opened and hand turned palm up
/at/ right fist opened and hand turned palm up
Head, Waist, and Toes:
You will lead children as you say the sounds in a 3-phoneme word such as: cat, net, sip, mop, sun.
Your child will touch their head while saying the first sound, waist while saying the middle sound, and toes while saying the last sound.
You will now ask questions to have your child show where a targeted sound should be associated with: head, waist or toes.
For example:
"Where is the /t/ in the word cat?" (toes)
"Where is the /r/ in the word rat?" (head)
Knit a Word
Throw a ball of yarn to your child and ask your child to drop a sound from a word.
Your child says the new word and throws the yarn ball back to you.
You will throw the ball to someone else or back to your child and continue with a similar question.
For example:
What word is star without the /s/? (tar)
Change that Sound
Ask your child to say a word.
Then ask them to change a sound in the word and say a new word.
For example:
Say cat. Now change the first sound to /r/. (rat)
Say hit. Now change the last sound to /p/. (hip)
Say big. Now change the middle sound to /a/. (bag)
Say put. Now change the middle sound to a/. (pat)
First, Second, and Third Grades:
Important skills for first, second, and third grade that need to be maintained over summer are fluency, and comprehension. A fluent reader is able to read along at a quick pace and put words together in meaningful phrases that make their reading sound as if they are talking. Fluency also includes rhythm of language and the raising of the voice for questions marks and exclamation marks and letting the voice fall when coming to a period. Maintaining or increasing their fluency level over the summer can be done by making reading 15-30 minutes a day a part of the daily routine. The books that your child selects must be at their just right level, which means they know most of the words and only need to problem solve less than 10 words within 100 words.
Engaging in a book talk with your child after finishing a book is a perfect way to find out how well they understood what they read. You could invite your child to give a retelling of the book. If it is a chapter book, do a retell of one chapter at a time. Say to your child: "Starting at the beginning, tell me what happened in this story, or chapter." It will be important that your child include the names of characters, and name the action in the story in correct sequence. They will need to describe how a problem was solved, and tell how the story ended. You could then ask them to tell what they thought was the most important part of the story and why, or ask them to tell about their favorite part of the story and why. You may also ask your child questions such as: "Was there anything in the story that troubled you?" (Block, 2005) "Why do you think that the character did that?" (Block, 2005) "Did reading the book create an image or a memory for you?" (Block, 2005) "Were you disappointed or surprised by something in the book?" (Block, 2005).
If your child read a non-fiction book, have them retell what they learned, naming specific information from the book. While reading a non-fiction book, it is important that your child reads the headings in order to make predictions as to what the author will give information about. It is a good time for them to pause and think about what they might already know about the topic. Making connections between what we know and what is in a book helps to strengthen comprehension. Creating a special bookmark using favorite colors, and/or stickers with the reminder: "Stop and check your understanding." written on it could be used to help your child monitor their understanding of a text being read. Perhaps putting the bookmark at the end of a page or 2-3 pages would be a way to encourage your child to continually monitor their understanding of the book being read. If at the end of a page or certain number of pages, they are unable to retell, then they will need to reread.
The volume of reading 'just right' books is the most important key to producing fluent, confident readers. Reading aloud to your child is also a powerful way to help hear what fluent reading sounds like. Your child will also need to continue to practice their writing vocabulary over the summer. Journaling each day is one idea to keep them writing. Each day they could add to a story to get the idea of how a story is created. They could also record the events of a family outing to the fair, or a vacation trip. Writing letters to friends, and family is a real life application for writing. Perhaps creating a scrapbook of summer fun could be started and pictures labeled as a way to practice writing skills.
Reading and writing are skills that only grow stronger with practice.
You may want to visit the Book's Landing used bookstore in town. The owner carries many of the series listed above. The books rang in price from $.50 to one dollar. You can swap books and receive 50% of your purchase. The hours are: Wednesday to Friday 10:00 to 4:00 and Saturday 10:00 to 3:00.
A great family outing might be to attend some of the used book sales in our local area. Below are a few places and dates of book sales. You may want to use the web site: booksalefinder.com to search for more.
Enhancing Comprehension Through Sensory Images: Creating a Motion Picture in a Child's Mind
Here is an idea from the book: 7 Keys to Comprehension How to Help Your Kids Read it and Get it! by Susan Zimmerman and Chryse Hutchins, to help your child use their senses to make reading come to life. The ultimate goal of reading is to understand and enjoy the text. One of the strategies to do this, is to focus on creating mental images through pictures, smells, sounds and feelings.
Think about how you use your senses as you read. Sights, sounds, and smells may come to mind depending upon what you are reading and what life experiences you bring to the text. This is not a natural thing for some children to do. It must be taught and you can help your child develop mental images by talking aloud about your own mental images as you read to your child.
"Children need to be taught that the words they read, and the words we read to them, have the power to create a movie in their minds." (p.30)
Adults need to pause during reading to 'think aloud' about the sensory images going on in their mind as they read. Tell your child about the sensory image(s) that you are experiencing as you are reading, perhaps the book evokes the smell of a beach, the sound of the waves, the feel of hot sand on your feet and a sensation that you have about the water, or a prediction that you can make about what will happen next. Elaborate and be creative! You will need to model this many times as you read many different texts.
Now it's time for you to find out if your child is creating sensory images. Ask your child to close their eyes as you read, and after you have read a paragraph or a few pages ask your child to describe to you everything that they saw while you were reading and any other senses that were awakened as they listened.
Using sensory images while reading can begin with preschool children while they listen to you read picture books. The use of wordless books such as Four Hungry Kittens by Emily Arnold provide a wonderful opportunity for you and your child to create your own story based on what your child sees happening in the illustrations. Readers of all ages will deepen their understanding of what they read and remember more when they are creating a 'movie' as they read. Your child is also more likely to remember facts from their science books, etc when they are creating mental images.
"If books could have more, give more, be more, show more, they would still need readers, who bring to them sound and smell and light and all the rest that can't be in books. The book needs you." Gary Paulsen
The following poems could be read with your child as a way to practice creating mental images while reading.
I Love
I love candy!
Yum, yum, yum.
I love candy in my tum.
Invite your child to share the foods that they like to eat and change the poem to reflect their ideas. Read the poem a second time and when you come to the food item, invite your child to clap the number of syllables in the word. The poem is an excerpt from Phonic Lessons by Fountas and Pinnell
Every Bird Loves a Tree
Every bird loves a nest.
Every lock loves a key.
Every flower loves a bee.
And I love you!
This poem presents an opportunity for you to discuss with your child of what each line means. Together think of other pairs that go together and include them into the poem.
Below are directions for Sight Word Rummy and Checkers
**NEW: Ways to help when words are tricky... Scroll to the bottom of this page and open attachment "November Parent Meeting..."