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Helping
young children get ready to read
Read
to your child every day. Take time to cuddle up
together with a good book. Turn from page to page, and point
out interesting pictures to get your child's attention. Explain
that there are spaces between words that separate them from
each other. As you read, point to each word. When ready, your
child can begin pointing to the words as you read them. Ask
questions and talk about the story and characters to help
build your child's comprehension skills. Stop to answer questions
or to discuss the meaning of an unfamiliar word with your
child.
Have
fun together with nursery rhymes and songs. Sing
rhyming songs, have fun with tongue twisters, and read poems
together. These can help your child pay attention to the sounds
in words.
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Learning
letter names
Sand
writer! Take
your child to a favorite sandbox, and encourage your child
to draw the letters of the alphabet in the sand.
Young
sculptor! Give
your child some clay and work together to form the letters
of the alphabet. Then have your child say the names of those
letters.
Fun
with food! Give
your child crackers, pretzels, cereals, or fruit snacks that
have the form of the letters of the alphabet. Ask your child
to hold up the letters and say the letter names, or you can
hold the letters up and ask your child the names. If it's
snack time, your child could eat the letters that are said
correctly!
Open
sesame! Put alphabet magnets on your refrigerator
and encourage your child to practice saying a few letter names
each time the refrigerator door is opened.
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Learning
letter sounds
Take
a pretend shopping trip!
Tell your child that you're going on a pretend shopping trip.
Make a list of items that you would like to buy. Start the
list yourself with an item that begins with the letter a,
like apple, and then have your child continue listing
items that begin with the letters b, c, and
so on through the rest of the alphabet. With each new letter
sound, show your child the yellow flashcard from our program
with the letter that makes that sound. This can help reinforce
the relationship between the letters and their sounds.
Book
of sounds! Make a book with one page dedicated
to each letter sound. Have your child write the letters, one
per page. Then ask your child to cut out or draw pictures
of things that begin with the sound of that letter. Don't
forget to have your young creator sign this book!
Picture
this! Cut out pictures of several objects from
a magazine, or draw them on paper. Choose familiar objects
like a ball, a cat, a horse, and a bat. Ask your child to
say the name of each object, and pick the objects that begin
with the same sound. In this case, ball and bat.
Add new pictures each time you play.
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Combining
sounds to read words
You can try
these activities with your child no matter which level of
the program you're using. Choose sounds and words that are
appropriate to your child's reading ability.
Reading,
reading everywhere! Help your child notice and
read familiar words at home on cereal boxes, on toys, and
in children's magazines. Also, label objects around the house
or in your child's bedroom. Point to the letters and say the
sounds slowly to help your child read the labels before using
the objects. When riding in the car, point out and read words
on billboards, storefronts, and street signs together. Watch
the excitement grow as your child starts to read words everywhere
you go!
Rhyme
time! Take a word your child knows, like cat.
Ask your child to tell you all the words that rhyme with cat.
Encourage your child to add imaginary words to the list. Write
down all of these words, or have your child write them. Then
sort them into real and imaginary words. To help your child
understand what makes a word real instead of imaginary, explain
that real words have meaning in our language and imaginary
words do not.
Word
builder! Say a sound combination or part of a word
that's familiar to your child, like ch. Ask your child
to say four words using it, like chin, chat,
rich, and much. If your child is already writing,
ask your child to write down these words. To be sure that
your child understands the meaning of the words, ask your
child to use them in sentences too.
Word
scramble! Write three to five words that are challenging
for your child in clear, large print. Space the letters so
that they are easy to cut out. Then cut them into word parts
that are familiar to your child. For example, write flag,
garden, Sunday, plant. Then cut these
into word parts such as fl, ag, gar,
den, Sun, day, pl, ant,
and mix up all of the parts. Then ask your child to put the
words back together correctly and read them to you.
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Reading and understanding
sentences
You can try
these activities with your child at any level of the program.
The key is to do these activities at the level where your
child is reading.
Storyteller!
Ask your child to tell you a story. Write it down in clear,
large print. Have your child illustrate the story, then read
it together. Read it to other family members and friends.
Give the author a big pat on the back for a job well done.
Sentence
scramble! Ask your child to say a sentence to you.
Write it down clearly, and then cut it up into word pieces.
Ask your child to put the sentence back together by arranging
the words in their correct order. Then have your child try
to read the sentence to you. You can do this activity with
whole sentences that make up a story too.
Write
away! Have your child write short sentences or
stories about favorite characters, pets, family members, or
friends. Ask your child to read them to you.
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© 1998 Gateway Learning Corporation. All rights reserved. |
