Thursday, August 16, 2012

10 Steps to Teaching Your Child to Read

10 Steps to Teaching Your Child to Read

1. Read to your child
Teaching your child to read is truly a process that begins at infancy. What I am encouraging you to do is to begin reading with your newborn within days of welcoming her home! Not only is this a special bonding time for the two of you, it promotes the interest for books. Enjoyment while reading is one of the single greatest predictors of reading success in school-age children. If children don’t learn from an early age to enjoy reading, it will most likely hinder their ability sometime down the road.

How much you read to your child is completely up to you and your family, but aim to read at least 3-4 books a day, even while your child is very young. As she gets a little older and can sit for longer stretches of time, make it a family goal to read together for at least 20-minutes each day.
Here are a few suggestions for the types of books to read to your child. But by all means, read whatever your child responds to and enjoys!
  • Birth-1 Year: Lullabies, Board Books (with real pictures), Cloth Books (with various textures), Song Books
  • 1 Year-3 Years: Rhyming Books, Song Books, Short-Story Board Books
  • 3 Years-5 Years: Alphabet Books, Song Books, Picture Books, Rhyming Books

2. Ask questions
Asking questions while reading to your child is not only great for encouraging your child to interact with the book, but it is also extremely effective in developing his ability to comprehend what he is reading. You see, if our main objective in “reading” is getting our child to “sound out” words, we have missed the boat entirely. Even children who can decode words and “read” with great fluency still might not be able to comprehend what they are reading. If a child can’t comprehend what he is reading, there really is no point to reading at all!
While your child is a baby, ask him questions such as, “Do you see the cat?” while pointing at the picture of the cat. This will not only develop his vocabulary, it will also encourage him to interact with the book that he is reading. As he gets older, ask him to point to things in the book himself and make the noises of the animals he sees.
Once your child is about 2 or 3-years of age, begin asking questions before, during, and after reading the book. Show your child the cover of the book and ask him what he thinks it is going to be about (predicting). While reading, ask him what he thinks is going to happen or why he thinks a character made a particular choice (inferring). If a character is depicting a strong emotion, identify that emotion and ask your child if he has ever felt that way (connecting). At the end of the book, ask if his prediction(s) came true. Afterwards, ask him to tell you what he remembered happening in the book (summarizing).
Modifying each of these techniques during read-alouds to meet the developmental stage of your child is a great way to promote and increase reading comprehension!

3. Be a good (reading) example
Even if your child is fascinated with books from an early age, her fascination will quickly dwindle if she does not see reading modeled in her home. If you are not an avid reader yourself, make a conscious effort to let your children see you reading for at least a few minutes each day! Read a magazine, a cookbook, a novel, your Bible…it’s up to you! But show your child that reading is something that even adults need to do. If you have a son, share this article with your husband. Sons need to see their fathers read, especially since it is not something that they are naturally prone to doing.
As parents, we can sometimes get wrapped up with what exactly our children should be doing to be successful. But we often forget that children often learn by example. Grab a book and take a load off…for your child’s sake, of course!
4. Identify letters in natural settings

Decorate the kids room using their names on the wall. You can paint and hung large wooden letters spelling their name above the cribs as a decorative accent in their rooms, for instance. In technical terms, this is called “environmental print” and includes all of the print we are surrounded by–fast food signs, labels, traffic signs, clothing, magazines, etc.


Often times, we want to force our children to learn letter names by a certain age. We buy flashcards or DVDs claiming to teach our children their letters. We drill our 2-year old over and over for minutes on end. Don’t buy into this…allow your kid to be a kid and take advantage of the “teachable moments” as they come along! Children’s minds are like sponges and are certainly capable of memorizing the alphabet from drilling, but that’s not the most effective method that will produce the best long-term results. Your child will be curious about the print he sees around him and will ask questions. That’s your chance to jump in with a practical application that actually has real meaning and significance to your child.
Don’t misunderstand me and think that I don’t think learning the alphabet is important. It is certainly important…but the method in which we teach them is even more important! Always keep in mind that our ultimate goal is to foster a lifelong learner who loves to read, not a child who has simply memorized without any significance.

5. Incorporate multiple domains of development

Children learn best when multiple senses or areas of development are included. That’s why hands-on learning produces longer retention and more meaningful application. Once your child has shown an interest in letters and you have already begun to utilize natural settings for identifying those letters, begin implementing activities that incorporate as many senses as possible. Keep in mind that learning letter names isn’t nearly as important as learning their sounds!
There are a plethora of ways to incorporate multiple domains of development in regards to letter recognition and early-reading skills. Alphabet crafts allow your child to learn the shape of a letter along with an association of the sound it makes all the while utilizing fine motor skills in the process of cutting, gluing, and creating! Playing games that involve gross motor skills (like tossing beanbags on the appropriate letter) are also wonderful ways to include movement. Of course, every child loves songs and rhymes! Take an inventory of your child’s strengths and areas of interest and target activities to fit them!

6. Classify the Genre

Once your child is around 5 and can recognize the difference between real and make-believe, I would suggest starting to help your child understand various genres of books during your reading time together. This might seem complicated, but it’s really not. There are around 5 different genres of children’s books that I would encourage you to point out to your little one. Of course you can use the term “type” rather than “genre” if that is easier to remember.
  • Nonfiction (real stories or facts about animals, places, people, etc)
  • Fantasy (make-believe, can’t happen in real life because of magic, talking animals, etc)
  • Realistic Fiction (a made-up story, but it could technically happen in real life because the characters and situations are believable)
  • Alphabet Books
  • Song Books

When children classify a book into a certain genre, they have to first summarize the book in their head and recall details. Then they have to use that information to decide which type of genre that particular books fits into. Finally, your child will be recalling details from other books in the same genre, making connections between the two. This simple activity that might take 5-10 seconds of your time after reading a book but it certainly packs a punch of thought and processing in that young brain!
Also, it’s important to note that not all books will fit into one of these genres, especially books that are considered “phonics readers.” I would suggest that you do this exercise only with high-quality children’s literature, not with books that are attempting to get your child to “sound-out” on their own. Most picture books found in children’s libraries will fit into one of these genres.
Remember, our goal is for our children to learn to comprehend what they’re reading…otherwise reading will honestly do them little good. When we encourage our children to think about and process the book we’ve just read together, we are inadvertently modeling what we hope they’ll one day do independently!

7. Word Families
To put it simply, word families are words that rhyme. Teaching children word families is a phonemic awareness activity that helps children see patterns in reading. This is an important skill because it allows children to begin “reading” by grouping sets of letters within a word.
Once your child recognizes the word “mop”, he’ll then have an advantage to reading all of the other words that have the same rime (top, pop, stop, cop, hop) because only one letter is changing. Plus, recognizing rhyming words is a great language skill in and of itself!
Check out this Word Family Game

8. Phonemic Awareness and Phonics
“Phonemes” are the smallest sounds in the English language (go here for a complete list of phonemes). These sounds are made up of consonants, short vowels, long vowels, and digraphs. ”Phonemic Awareness” consists of learning those sounds and how to manipulate them within a word. Digraphs are unique sounds comprised of individual letters like /th/, /sh/, /ch/, etc.
“Phonics” includes learning how to spell those sounds and the various rules that the English language follows. Phonics is an important components of reading/spelling, but it should never be the main focus. Again, we are looking to balance our literacy “program” with reading comprehension as the end result. Learning the rules of phonics is simply a tool that helps a child learn to decode and spell.

9. Decoding
Decoding is often referred to as “sounding it out.” This is an important element in teaching your child to read, but it certainly isn’t the most important. Once your child knows the sounds each letter makes (which is taught in real, meaningful situations), she is ready to begin putting words together. When looking at a short word, encourage her to say each individual sound /b/, /a/, /t/, and then put them together “bat”.
As children decode words with more frequency, they will become more proficient at automatically identifying that word. Sometimes this task is tedious, though, so it’s important to find creative ways to make it fun. One idea is to use finger puppets to point to the letters as they were decoding.
10. Sight Words
Sight words, also known as high-frequency words, are the most common words in our written language are are often difficult to decode phonetically because they don’t follow the rules of phonics. Because of this, they must be memorized. I am not an advocate of rote memorization for optimal learning because I feel it only utilizes the lowest level of cognitive processes. However, sight words must be memorized in order for your child to become a fluent reader. Don’t get overwhelmed when teaching them. You can do a pre-assessment to find out which words your students are having trouble with and then design your instruction around their needs. Make a chart with them and leave it posted on the wall for reference!…
Activities like Sight Word Bingo can help make memorizing sight words more fun!

As you’ve probably noticed, there is no “magic formula” for teaching your child how to read. After all, every child learns differently! This series is not to be used as a “checklist” and think that once you’ve covered all the strategies your child will be proficiently reading. Rather, this series provides valuable information to you so that you can guide your child while creating a print-rich, learning environment to foster his/her growth as a reader. Don’t rush and don’t stress! While it’s important to take advantage of the prime-learning time, it’s even more important to let your kid be a kid!

In summary, here are some practical suggestions you can implement every day based on the strategies shared with you in this post and previous posts. Obviously, you can’t implement all of these suggestions with children of all ages, so use your judgement about what is best for your child.
  • Read to your child every day!
  • Ask your child questions before, during, and after reading.
  • Let your child see you reading.
  • Look for letters while out and about and in the environment around you.
  • When teaching letters and letter sounds, incorporate as many senses as possible.
  • Read a variety of books and make a game out of guessing the genre.
  • Have fun rhyming!
  • Work on letter sounds and manipulating them within words (phonemic awareness)
  • Encourage your child to sound out short words (consonant, vowel, consonant).
  • Practice memorizing a few sight words each day.
  • Most of all, have fun together!

Did I forget to mention any other important elements in teaching your child to read? What strategies have you found beneficial to your child?

Ideas for your classroom walls and doors

I've been so excited about the beginning of classes here in Pasco, WA! My new 4th grade classroom needs to be decorated and I can't stop looking for ideas to make the classroom look really nice and make the kids feel welcome and comfortable!  Here are some ideas I found online. I also found an example of an alphabet wall that would be perfect for 1st or 2nd grade.

Door ideas:



Walls:
It a good wall to have to highlight students' good character traits. It can also be used as a writing activity during direct writing instruction.
Daily Schedule

Organization baskets for students' personal supplies or books! Notebooks go under the basket.

1st or 2nd grade classroom


Clutter-Free Classroom: Writing Centers - Setting Up the Classroom Series Cork board to hang things in the classroom!!






Sunday, August 12, 2012

Activity Sticks!

Activity Sticks!

When the kids are starting to get distracted during an activity I say "activity time!". I set the timer for one minute and draw an activity. We then do the activity until we finish or the timer goes off. The kids love it! The idea is to give them a break and help them focus better when you go back to the original activity they were doing!
Here is the template for the labels:
1-Macarena- the traditional dance "baila tu cuerpo alegria macarena...."- Teach your students ahead of time so they know how to dance it!
2-Tic-tac-toe- students find a partner to work with and quickly play tic-tac-toe on a small piece of paper or in a section of their notebooks named 'games.'

3-Spin X 3- Students stand up and spin 3 times around themselves or go around the desks/group.

4-Seat switch- find another seat to sit!

5-Open Mic (1 minute)- students start singing a song of their choice, a chant, etc.

6-Would you rather...
  1. Would you rather… You'll need at least three or four people to get the game to last. Although some people prefer two person games, generally, the more people you have the better the game will be. Determine who will go first and who they will ask a question to.
  2. Formulate a question. try to make the choices similar, so that it will be harder to choose. For example, "Would you rather lose your mobile phone or your iPod?" Be bold and creative when asking questions, and don't be afraid to get wacky. The question should include these things:
  3. It should begin with the phrase, "Would you rather...?" You should come up with two or three bizarre and uncomfortable options to say after.Some good examples of options include..."Brad, would you rather shave your head or wear lipstick and eye shadow to school on Friday?" or "Julie, would you rather drink an entire jar of pickle juice or have to burn your laptop?"
  4. Give the person time to choose an answer. Make sure they know that they have to pick an answer. The person answering the question can ask some clarifying questions of their own, such as "What color eye shadow would I have to wear?"
  5. Have the person that just answered then ask someone else a question. The game then continues like that. Try to get everyone to be able to ask and answer a question at least once or twice.

7- 10 Push-ups
Students do 10 push-ups or any other movement you determine!
8- Dance Party- students start dancing as the music starts.

9- High 'Cincos'- students need to 'high five' as many students as they can in 30 seconds.

10-Rainstorm- students make rain noises and movement, moving around the room.

11-Telephone
    One person at a given end of the line will whisper a word or phrase into the ear of the person sitting or standing next to them. (Ex. they say, "banana") The next person will then whisper what they hear to the next person, and so on, until the person at the other end of the line receives the given word or phrase. Keep it going. Now, here's where the fun begins! Say the second person thinks they hear the word "bandana" instead of "banana", so they whisper that to the next person, who may hear "Band Anna" or something similar, and so on.
    Have the last person say the word or phrase out loud. The fun part is when the last person to hear the word says it out loud, and the first person says the original word out loud. Everyone usually gets a good laugh out of it, since most of the time the 2 words that are spoken sound nothing alike.
12- Categories



1-Gather your group together in a circle. Choose someone to pick a category. These can be anything from simple ideas like boys' names, to more challenging ideas such as tropical fruits.

2-Everyone must stand with their legs slightly crouched, with their hands on their knees (similar to a baseball player's ready position).

3-When everyone is ready to go, start slapping your hands against your thighs. This gets energy going and increases everyone's awareness.
4-Then call out the category, for example "tropical fruits." You'll then go around in a circle, one by one rapidly spouting out tropical fruits. For example, person A would say "kiwi" then instantly person B would say "papaya" and so on. Continue at a quick pace until you get back to person A.
5- Without stopping, person B would then call a new category such as, "types of birds." When the birds reach all the way back to person B, person C will begin and so on.
6- The game is over when it is person A's turn to choose the category once gain.

13- Get in order!
Students make a line from the tallest to the shortest, first names from A to Z, last names A-Z, shortest hair to longest, etc...

14- Repeat After Me
Teacher come up with a sentence related to the content (or not!) so kids can repeat and memorize it!

15-Song
Students sing a song or chant you taught them. Good for memorizing content!

16- 20 Jumping Jacks
Students do 20 jumping jacks

17- Rock, Scissors, Paper

The famous rock, scissors and paper game. Students play in pairs!


18-Follow the Leader or Simon Says
Simon says... touch your nose... Simon says... jump twice... (create any movement you want your students to follow. It is a great activity to teach action verbs!)

19- Jump Rope
Have ropes available so kids can jump them in a minute or so.

20-“Be Banana”
Students walk around making funny movements and going bananas around the romm! (for 1 minute or so)

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Writers' Workshop

Welcome to Writers' Workshop!

The idea behind Writer’s Workshop is simple: if we know from experience that a


workshop approach to the teaching of writing works well for aspiring professional
writers, why shouldn’t we use this approach in our classrooms? As in a
professional writer’s workshop, each student in the class is a working author.
The teacher is a writing professional and peer coach, guiding authors as they explore
their craft. Instead of spending the majority of class time on spelling tests, grammar
worksheets, handwriting practice, and other isolated sub-skills of writing, Writers' Workshop
is designed to emphasize the act of writing itself—students spend most of their time
putting pencil to paper, not just learning about it. Over time, students learn to choose
their own topics and to manage their own development as they work through a wide variety
of writing projects in a sustained and self-directed way.
What is Writer’s Workshop?
What is writers' workshop?
Mini-Lesson (5-15 minutes1). A short lesson focused on a single topic
that students need help with. You don’t need to give a mini-lesson each
day; 2-3 times a week is usually just fine.
Status of the Class (2-5 minutes). A quick way of finding out what each
student is working on.
Writing Time (20-45 minutes or more!). They write. You can write and/or
conference with individual students or small groups.
Sharing (5-15 minutes). Writers read what they have written and seek
feedback from their audience. You can share your writing, too.


This chart can be done WITH your students, in front of them while discussing and asking students why writers write. A great idea, commonly used in GLAD, is to pencil in all the info and sketches and then use markers to write in front of them. If you have more than one group, you should do a new one for every class you teach!


from: http://www.ttms.org/PDFs/05%20Writers%20Workshop%20v001%20(Full).pdf

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

For the little ones!!!! Materials and activities for developing fine motor skills

songs for remembering to not waste glue....erin this made me think of you!
 :.) I found this on pinterest and I thought it was great! I NEEDED to share it!



Materials that promote fine motor skills :


preschooler fine motor activities and materials

hands on : as we grow
fine motor materials for kids

Buttons:
Tinkerlab
fine motor materials for preschoolers

Our Country Road
fine motor materials for kids

Clothespins:The Complete Guide
to Imperfect Homemaking
fine motor skills for preschoolers
Chasing Cheerios

fine motor materials for kids
Lessons Learnt Journal
fine motor activities and materials for kids

hands on : as we grow
fine motor activities and materials for kids

Straws:
The Imagination Tree
fine motor activities and materials for kids

Homeschool Creations
fine motor activities for kids

Counting Coconuts
fine motor activities for preschoolers

ABC & 123


fine motor skills for preschoolers
Creative Connections for Kids

fine motor with syringes and basters
preschooler fine motor activities

hands on : as we grow


fine motor activities and materials for kids
Crayon Freckles
fine motor activities and materials for kids
Creativity My Passion


fine motor activities and materials for kids
hands on : as we grow
_________________
Activities that promote fine motor skills:

preschooler fine motor activities and materials

Sewing:
Kitchen Counter Chronicles

fine motor activities and materials for kids

Weaving:
JDaniel4′s Mom
Journey into Unschooling

fine motor activities kids

Beading:
Art for Little Hands

fine motor activities preschool skills
Pink and Green Mama

preschool skills fine motor activities
The Snail’s Trail

fine motor activities and materials for kids
Kingdom First Homeschool

fine motor activities and materials for kids
My Homemade Montessori

fine motor activities and materials for kids
Diapers to Diplomas

fine motor activities and materials for kids
Therapy Fun Zone

fine motor activities and materials for kids
The Princess and the Tot

preschooler fine motor skills
Play Dr Mom

fine motor activities and materials skills
Creative with Kids

fine motor activities and materials for kids
Rockabye Butterfly