Transcript Ready to Read Activity Cards

Activity Cards
Lauren Fallin
How to use
Ready to Read Activity Cards
• Three activities are presented for each
of the five reading skills areas.
• The activities for each area are tiered:
– A turquoise background indicates an easy
activity.
– A light purple background indicates a
moderately challenging activity.
– A green background indicates a challenging
activity.
PHONEMIC AWARENESS
Listen Carefully!
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Introduction: The ability to listen closely and distinguish between sounds is
critical to the development of phonemic awareness.
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Here’s How: During bath time or while waiting in line at the grocery store,
instruct your child to close his or her eyes and listen for the three sounds you
make.
– Ex: Parent claps hands, snaps fingers, and stomps feet. Child opens his or
her eyes. Parent says, "First you heard ______. In the middle you
heard_____. And last you heard ______.“ Ask your child to fill in the
blanks.
•
As your child becomes more confident in his or her ability to correctly fill in the blank, continue
playing the game replacing claps, snaps, and stomps with animal sounds, color words, and letters
of the alphabet.
•
Let’s Learn how to pay attention to a sequence of sounds.
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Caution: Pay careful attention to your child’s progress. Provide additional
opportunities for practice if your child demonstrates difficulty.
Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down!
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Introduction: Recognizing rhyming patterns in language is a critical skill
for emergent readers.
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Here’s How: Start the game by saying. “If the words I say rhyme, give
me a thumbs up. If they don’t rhyme, give me a thumbs down.”
Examples should be very obvious for younger children.
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Let’s Learn: Awareness of rhyming words
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Caution: Make sure to avoid words that begin with the same letter
(bat-bring) or belong in the same category (dog-cat). It is important
that the child focuses in on the rhyme.
You’re Out of Here!
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Introduction: Children who can think about and manipulate phonemes (individual
letter sounds) become better readers and spellers.
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Here’s How: While in the car, ask your child what a word sounds like when a
phoneme is deleted.
– Example:
• Parent: “What is "cat" without the /k/?”
• Child: “at”
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Let’s Learn: Phoneme deletion
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Caution: Begin this activity with CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words before
moving on to more difficult words. Examples of CVC words include: cap, pet, hen,
big, tan. If students demonstrate difficulty deleting phonemes in words, begin
by asking them to delete syllables in compound words.
ALPHABETIC PRINCIPLE
Disappearing Letters
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Introduction: A child’s knowledge of letter names is one of the strongest predictors of
their success in learning to read.
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Materials: plate, coffee filters, markers, eyedropper, water
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Here’s How: Start by writing letters on the coffee filter using the markers. Instruct your
child to find a particular letter. When they have successfully identified the letter, allow
them to use the eyedropper to place a drop of water on the letter. Your child will be
amazed at what happens!
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Write both upper and lower-case letters on the coffee filter. Specify which letter you want your child to identify.
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Let’s Learn: Letter recognition
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Caution: Make sure to place the coffee filter on a plate before dropping water on the filter.
Spaghetti Night
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Introduction: A solid understanding of letter-sound relationships provides the
foundation for reading and writing words.
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Here’s How: While preparing dinner one night, give your child a handful of
cooked and cooled spaghetti noodles (Play-doh is another option.). Ask that your
child form letters, both upper and lower-case, with the noodles or dough.
Discuss the sound(s) each letter makes and words that begin with that letter.
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Let’s Learn: Letter-sound associations
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Caution: Make sure noodles are cooled completely before giving them to your
child!
The Grocery List
•
Introduction: It is important for children to understand that there are
systematic and predictable relationships between letters and sounds.
•
Here’s How: As you are making your grocery list, give your child paper and a
pencil. Tell the child the grocery item needed and have them write it on their
own paper. Begin with words that have phonetic spellings (can be easily sounded
out).
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Let’s learn that words are composed of letters that represent sounds.
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Caution: While this activity can be easily modified based on the child’s ability,
be careful not to give your child words that are too difficult and cause them to
become discouraged!
READING FLUENCY
Become a Model!
• Introduction: By reading effortlessly and with expression,
you are modeling for your students how a fluent reader
sounds during reading.
• Here’s How: Choose a book your child will enjoy. Before
bedtime or whenever you have a few free minutes, read to
your child, paying close attention to accuracy and
expression.
• Let’s learn how a reader’s voice helps written
words/phrases make sense.
• Caution: Make sure you are excited about reading! If you
demonstrate a negative attitude towards reading, your
child will sense that.
Tic-Tac-Toe
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Introduction: The most effective
strategy for developing reading fluency is
to provide your child with many
opportunities to read the same passage
aloud several times.
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Here’s How: At bedtime, use the tic-tactoe board to read a page (or 2!) from your
child’s library book. Tell your child they
may choose any spaces they wish, but
they must get three in a row! If your
child tires of reading quickly, alternate
turns with him or her (repeated reading).
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Let’s learn how to read with
appropriate fluency and accuracy to
support comprehension.
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Caution: Don’t choose pages from a book
that are exceptionally long. This is meant
to be a fun activity…not an activity that
your child doesn’t enjoy!
Reader’s Theater
• Introduction: Reader’s theater helps promote fluency, helps
children learn to read aloud with expression, and helps to build
confidence.
• Here’s How: Choose an appropriate script from the following
link: http://www.thebestclass.org/rtscripts.html. Host a family
night where each family member is assigned a part of the play to
read and act out. Help your child prepare for this event by
giving them their script ahead of time so that they have time to
practice.
• Let’s learn how to read a text accurately with appropriate
expression.
• Caution: Make sure to begin with scripts that are easy and
short to ensure your child isn’t overwhelmed.
VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT
Word Collection
• Introduction: Reading comprehension improves when word
meanings are understood. Comprehension is the ultimate goal of
reading; therefore vocabulary development is critical.
• Here’s How: Encourage each family member to be on the
lookout for interesting words heard during the day. At dinner or
bedtime, have each family member share their words and what
they think each word means. Challenge family members to use
the words discussed in conversation!
• Let’s learn the meanings of unfamiliar words and use these
words in conversation.
• Caution: If the child shares an incorrect meaning, be sure to
guide him/her to the correct meaning of the word.
Hot Potato!
• Introduction: Knowledge of vocabulary provides a solid
foundation for decoding and comprehending text.
• Here’s How: Play Hot Potato! with categories. Choose a
word, and then your child has to think of a word that
belongs in the same category. Continue the game until
someone is stumped!
When your child is ready, play Hot Potato! With
synonyms! Choose a word, and then your child
come up with a synonym for that word!
must
• Let’s Learn how to develop word knowledge.
• Caution: Be sure you child has a solid understanding of the
words they are producing.
Vocabulary Ball
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Introduction: Vocabulary development is a vital part of all content area learning.
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Here’s How: Write your child’s current vocabulary words for ANY subject area
on an inflatable beach ball. After dinner, have the family toss the ball around.
The person who catches the ball must act out the word (NO TALKING!) while
others guess the word being portrayed.
•
Let’s learn the meaning of words I must know in order to succeed in a
particular content area (math, science, social studies, etc.).
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Caution: Make sure to use a dry-erase marker to write words so that your ball
can be used again!
READING COMPREHENSION
An Alternate Ending
• Introduction: Making predictions will keep your child
actively engaged in the reading process.
• Here’s How: As you are reading a book to your child, stop
halfway through and ask your child to predict how the
story will end.
• Let’s learn how to call on prior knowledge to make
inferences.
• Caution: Encourage and guide your child to make
reasonable predictions!
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Introduction: Comprehension
is the reason we read. If
readers cannot connect to
what they are reading,they
are not really reading.
•
Here’s How: Before reading a
book with your child at
bedtime, have them spin the
arrow. Dictate the question
to our child. Ask them to
answer the question after
reading. Make sure to
encourage your child to
answer in complete sentences!
•
Let’s learn how to listen for
specific information when we
read and how to make textto-self connections.
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Caution: Reiterate the
importance of knowing what
information to look for before
reading.
Spinner
Cut out the arrow and attach it to the center of
the spinner with a brad.
What’s Cooking?
•
Introduction: Developing strong
reading comprehension skills is
essential for a rich academic,
professional, and personal life.
•
Here’s How: While preparing dinner,
provide your child with a kid-friendly
recipe and the required ingredients.
Instruct your child to lead preparation
of the food item by reading the recipe
instructions.
•
Let’s Learn: Literal and Applied
Comprehension
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Caution: Make sure to supervise your
child closely during this activity as
many recipes call for the use of a
stove/oven. Also be available to
answer any questions your child may
have about measuring or mixing
ingredients.