Aloha

My husband and I are off to a vacation in Hawaii, so I will be MIA for a little over a week.  I did want to leave you with a WONDERFUL book I came across while visiting the VMFA last night in Richmond.  This book is beyond amazing.  It gives children (and you) interesting and unknown facts about common animals.  But, it does it in an extremely creative and interactive way.  There are flaps that cover most of each animal.  You can see enough to make a prediction as to which animal is hidden.  The facts are too advanced for the very young, but perfect for 4-10 year olds.  Children will enjoy guessing the animals and turning the flaps.  You can even create your own version by having your child draw a picture of an animal, glue or tap a flap over it and write the animal's name on the inside of the flap.  




Here is a quote from Amazon about this book, which I think basically sums it up...


K-Gr 2-This book is a visual treat for budding zoologists. The oversize, boldly graphic volume showcases a wide range of animals and interesting facts about them, all hidden beneath flaps of black-and-white animal silhouettes and paw prints, cutouts, and, in one really attractive spread, richly painted patterns of animal hides. It has pop-up figures beneath, truly making it the apex of the book. One pair of pages has the animals tucked under black tabs punched with eye holes through which the critters peek. The facts are short, simple statements, and their randomness contributes to the hide-and-seek spirit of the volume. One can't be sure what creature or tidbit of information is waiting beneath the next flap. A stunning departure from the typical introductory volume about animals, this must-have will inspire a second look. And a third and a fourth.-Alyson Low, Fayetteville Public Library

For the younger learners, I found this one to be perfect, and paralleling the ideas in "Out of Sight."  Instead of sliding a flap and learning facts, you learn words.  
Take a trip to the VMFA if you happen to live in Richmond, or find these books!  They are definitely going to be staples in my library... I suggest you do the same.  Have a great week while I'm gone!!

Max Cleans Up

A funny story about a kids way of cleaning!  Max, the bunny, solves his mess problem by stuffing everything in his pocket.  Maybe this will even encourage your child to pick up a few things?

Activities:

LISTENING :  Have your child act out what Max does throughout the story.  Once the book is done, find different objects around the house (that aren’t breakable) and drop them while your child’s back is turned.  Can he/she figure out what was dropped?

RHYMING : Max has many rhyming words.  Since bubbles are used in the story, blow some.  For every bubble your child pops, he/she has to give a rhyming word to go along with Max.  You can try Ruby also.

WORDS/SENTENCES : Use popsicle sticks for this activity, since they are mentioned in the story.  Choose a favorite sentence in the book and write one word on each popsicle stick.  Model putting the words in the correct order after your child has read them through several times.  Then, scramble them up and have your child put them back together.

SYLLABLES :  Have your child clap his/her pocket for each syllable heard in these words: POCKET, RUBY, MX, SOMETHING, STICKY, MIRACLE, BUBBLES, ANT, SQUEEZED.  Even Write these words on popsicle sticks and have your child sort them into ONE SYLLABLE, TWO SYLLABLES or THREE SYLLABLES.

INITIAL/FINAL SOUNDS : Create a pocket using paper (fold it in half and staple the sides).  Allow your child to decorate it with the letter M for Max.  have your child fill it with pictures from magazines or newspapers (or hand-drawn) that begin or end with the letter M.

PHONEMES : Using another hand-made pocket, have your child put an object inside it for every sound he/she hears in the following words: MAX (m-a-x), RUBY (r-u-b-y), EGG (e-gg), DUCK (d-u-ck).

LETTERS/SPELLING :  Have your child point out his/her favorite item that went into Max’s pocket.  Help your child write that on shaving cream, a markerboard or paper several times.  Then, have him/her find the word in the story.  Or, search newspapers, magazines or other books for the word.  Another activity?  Use the word CLEAN to make others.  Have your child write it on a markerboard, then erase a letter to make LEAN and follow this sequence CLEAN- LEAN- BEAN- BEAM- SEAM- STEAM- CREAM- SCREAM- READ- BEAD

Books to Hook Your Young Reader to Reading!

Sorry I've been MIA this past week.  It's been a busy one!  Had a friend ask yesterday which books would get her daughter more into reading.  While it depends on the child, I found these great book lists from Scholastic's website .  Also, interactive books are always a good bet.  These include flip book or books with texture.  For beginning readers (Ages 3-8) Bookflix is a great program to checkout.  However, you need to buy a subscription.  Check out the free trial though!

For ages 0-2

Good Night Gorilla

by Peggy Rathmann

In this almost wordless book, Gorilla opens the cages in the zoo and the animals follow the zoo keeper to his house and into his bed.

Goodnight Moon

by Margaret Wise Brown

In this classic of children's literature, beloved by generations of readers and listeners, the quiet poetry of the words and the gentle, lulling illustrations combine to make a perfect book for the...

Kitten's First Full Moon

by Kevin Henkes

From one of the most celebrated and beloved picture book creators working in the field today comes a memorable new character and a suspenseful adventure just right for the very youngest. It is Kitten's...

Lasso The Moon

When April Hunter moves to St. Simon Island, Georgia, to live with her father, a recovering alcoholic, she becomes involved with an illegal alien from El Salvador and learns about his life and country.

No More Yawning!

by Paeony Lewis

Florence must be tired — her yawns are getting bigger by the minute. But neither little girl nor toy monkey can possibly go to bed. Good thing Mom knows the secret to falling asleep. With a story...

Oliver Who Would Not Sleep

by Mara Bergman

For all parents with an Oliver (or Olivia) in their lives, and every child seeking a little fun before shut-eye, "Oliver Who Would Not Sleep!" is an ideal bedtime adventure. Full color.

Polar Bear Night

by Lauren Thompson

A little polar bear cub wakes up on a still, Arctic night and walks out to explore her snowy world. Suddenly, the stars stir in the sky and begin to fall like snowflakes. Soothing words and luminous pictures...

Sleepy Bears

by Mem Fox

Mother Bear is ready to go to bed for the winter with her children. She promises each of them a rhyme if they will get into bed without any kind of fuss. Mother Bear's many rhymes help to send her young...

Sleepy Bunny

by Dorothy Kunhardt

Song of Night

by Katherine Riley Nakamura

Beautiful illustrations show the bedtime routines of rabbits, ducks, mice, and more.

Sweet Dreams

by Kimiko Kajikawa

With very simple language and beautiful pictures of sleeping animals, learn how koalas, bears, flamingos, and hippos sleep. The book even shares which animal sleeps with its eyes wide open!

Sweet Dreams, Sam

by Yves Got

It's bedtime for little Sam, but which plush animal friend should he take to bed with him? With charming, colorful illustrations and a variety of textures for little hands to explore, "Sweet Dreams,...

Time for Bed

by Mem Fox

As darkness falls, parents everywhere try to get their children ready for sleep.

For ages 3-5

Amanda Pig, First Grader

by Jean Van Leeuwen

Amanda is excited about starting first grade, but she becomes worried when she isn't able to read on the first day. In first grade, Amanda does learn how to read and many other lessons as well.

PUFFIN EASY-TO-READ — 2 SERIES

Get Ready for Second Grade, Amber Brown!

by Paula Danziger

Amber Brown and her classmates are worried about the new teacher. The students' concerns are soon put to rest as Ms. Light meets them at the door wearing cool earrings and revealing an upbeat attitude.

Amelia Bedelia, Bookworm

by Herman Parish

When she returns her books to the library, Amelia Bedelia gets caught up in helping children with bookmarks and reports.

AMELIA BEDELIA SERIES

On the Dog

by J. C. Greenburg

When Andrew's latest invention, the Atom Sucker, goes haywire, Andrew and Judy are shrunk down to microscopic level! They find themselves lost on their neighbor's dog, where they encounter everything...

Arthur's Eyes

by Marc Brown

His friends tease Arthur when he gets glasses, but he soon learns to wear them with pride.

AN ARTHUR ADVENTURE SERIES

The All New Captain Underpants Extra-Crunchy Book O'Fun #2

by Dav Pilkey

CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS SERIES

Eloise in Moscow

by Kay Thompson

Six-year-old Eloise travels to Moscow as only Eloise can in the fourth book of the series. Hilary Knight's pictures are the perfect complement to Eloise's adventures.

ELOISE SERIES

Fly Guy Meets Fly Girl

by Tedd Arnold

Fly Guy has met his match, and her name is Fly Girl.  Fly Guy can do fancy flying.  Fly Girl can do fancier flying.  Fly Guy can eat gross stuff.  Fly Girl can eat grosser stuff.

FLY GUY SERIES: BOOK 8

Henry and Mudge and the Great Grandpas

by Cynthia Rylant

When Henry and his dog Mudge go with Henry's parents to visit Great-grandpa Bill in the home with lots of other grandpas and learn how much fun all grandpas can be. Full color.

HENRY AND MUDGE SERIES: BOOK 26

Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk...

What a great story to model expressive reading!  If you haven’t heard of Mr. Chatterbox, you can certainly relate to it.  Everyone knows that one person that just talks incessantly!  When you get to Mr. Chatterbox’s speaking parts, try to say the whole paragraph in one breath.  This will emphasize how talkative the creature is and add a little more humor to the story!   While you are reading, pause right after Mr. Bowler gives him the magic hat.  Have your child predict what the hat will do.  Predictions are a great way to keep your child engaged in books.  It sets a purpose for their reading.  When you are done reading, as your child why the hat was given to Mr. Chatterbox to make sure he/sure understands the big picture!

ACTIVITIES BY LEVEL:

LISTENING :  Have your child listen for the word Chatterbox.  Every time you say it, have your child model talking with his/her mouth or hand showing an actual chatterbox.

RHYMING :  Give your child a sheet of construction paper and ask him/her to draw a big Mr. Chatterbox.  Inside the drawing, you list words your child comes up with that rhyme with TALK or CHAT.  Go back afterwards and point to each word as you say it.  See how many your child can remember!

WORDS/SENTENCES :  Give your child a pointer (clean fly swatter, spoon, straw, etc.) and have them GENTLY point to the word Chatterbox whenever it appears on a page.  This teaches children to look for isolated words in context.

SYLLABLES :  Have your child draw miniature Mr. Chatterboxes and cut them out.  Model pushing a little creature forward each time you hear a syllable in a word.  Try these words from the story:  CHATTERBOX, MISTER, TALKING, HAT, GREW.  Even try names of people you know!

INITIAL/FINAL SOUNDS :  On a sheet of construction paper, draw CH in bubble letters.  See if your child can draw pictures inside the CH that make the same sound (church, chocolate, chip, chain, chin, etc.)

PHONEMES : Play the Back and Forth Phoneme Game.  You say a word aloud and you and your child alternate turns saying one of the phonemes.  For example, Player 1 says “HAT.”  Player 1 then says the sound of H, Player 2 says the sound of A and Player 1 says the sound of T.  Try these words: CHATTER, TALK, BOX, MAGIC.

LETTERS/SPELLING :  Grab a marker board, shaving cream or anything erasable.  My nephew has one of those mats where if you write on it with the water markers, it appears for a few seconds.  That would be great on this activity!  Have your child manipulate letters to move from one word to another.  Have his/her write TALK, then change one letter to make WALK, etc.  Move in this sequence: WALK-TALK-BACK-SACK-STACK-STOCK-ROCK-RICK-SICK-STICK

Have questions or think I can help your child?  Contact me :)  Stay tuned for a CONTEST!

Road to Reading...

 This is a MUST for all K-2 teachers, and even parents!  Like the last resource , it is more geared towards teachers, but can easily be adapted for parents’ use in the homes.  It basically breaks down the steps toward learning the alphabetic principle into 6 levels, which are color coded.  Each level has 4-5 steps: Sound-Symbol Correspondences, Teach/Review New Decoding Skills, Review Phonetically Regular Words, Read Orally in Context and Dictation.  It is not a complete reading program, but rather one to help students strengthen their letter/sound correspondence skills.  

All you need to do is grab a markerboard, a marker and get going!  As a teacher, I love giving my students opportunities to change words by only substituting a few different letters.  For example, the other day we did this sequence: hard- card- cord- bird- third- thorn.  Do you see how forcing children to keep some of the letters in place and erase/change the ones that don’t belong allow them to see relationships between words?  I am certainly glad I have it, and I certainly recommend it for other K-2 teachers out there.

Thought I’d share some sequence strands for you to try with your child.  Use a markerboard or letter tiles.  Do not let your child erase every letter, but rather the few that he/she doesn’t hear in the next word.  Remember, these are probably geared more towards our K-2 learners.

Kindergarten:

AT- PAT- CAB- DAD- SAD- TAP-LAP-CAP-ZAP-WAG-BAG

MOM-TOM-TOP-MOP-MOB-BOB-COB-COT-LOT-NOT-POT

1^ST GRADE:

THAT- THIN- THUD- THIS- THEM

BATH-PATH-MATH- BETH- SETH

CHIP-CHAT-CHOP-CHIN-CHUG

SHIP-SHOP-SHED-SHUT

RUSH-DASH-WISH-HUSH-CASH-FISH-MASH-GUSH

DUCK-DECK- DOCK- DOT- POT- PACK- QUACK

QUIZ- QUIT- QUICK- THICK- THIN- CHIN- SHIN

DAMP-LAMP-LUMP-JUMP-STUMP-STAMP-CAMP-CRAMP

2^ND GRADE:

SHINE-SHIN-BIN-BIT-BITE-QUIT-QUITE-QUOTE

TILE-TALE-STALE-STOLE-MOLE-MILE-SMILE

OIL-SOIL-COIL-COIN-JOIN-JOINT-POINT

CREW-SCREW-SCREAM-STREAM-STREET-STEW-THREW

HEAD-BREAD-SPREAD-SPRAIN-RAIN-READ

NEW-NOW-PLOW-COW-CLOWN-COIN

I plan on using this resource this summer whenever I tutor rising K, 1 and 2 students.  And, by the way, if you have one of those, CONTACT ME !

Back to good read-alouds tomorrow!  Enjoy your weekend :)

Ladders to Literacy

Another resource I received from Brookes Publishing (thank you!) is called "Ladders to Literacy."  This book is jammed packed with activities; however, it is not as ready to go as Road to the Code .  (Don't forget, my readers get a 20% discount by using this code on their website:  KA1102 until August 15^{th).  But, because it doesn’t have all the printables in the appendix, there’s more room for activities.  I wouldn’t recommend this for parents, because it is definitely geared towards teachers.  Yet, I found some activities that you can do right at home:}

Call attention to words on books that indicate the title, author and illustrator.  Isn't that a good title?  It's the first one I could find with an author and illustrator, I promise!

Have your child flip the book around to begin reading.  Then have him/her turn the pages to learn concept of print.

Write your child a note on a larger sheet of construction paper.  This teaches your child that print is a tool to communicate.  Point to the words as you read them.  Can your child identify any letters, sounds or words?

Have your child keep a journal.  Now, don’t fret about spelling words correctly, or even making letters at all depending on your child’s stage of development.  Imaginative letters and inventive spelling is a great stepping stool towards literacy.  Do make sure that the “imaginative letters” or “inventive spellings” go in the right direction.  And hold your child accountable for letters or words you have discussed.  Also, have them illustrate writing to make it easier for you to help identify what is being said!  Make sure you get a fun, but small journal.  Large ones can be daunting!

Use meal time as a learning opportunity.  On index cards, write what your child is eating.  After your child finishes, have him/her illustrate the food on the index card.  Keep the cards around so that your child is repeatedly exposed to these words.  Maybe he/she will even be able to identify items on menus after some practice!

Use nursery rhymes to help your child become more aware of the sounds in words.  Have your child memorize one of his/her favorite rhymes.  Then, have him/her draw pictures on index cards of the rhyming words.  Make him/her scramble the picture cards and place them in order as he/she recites it.  If that’s too easy, write the rhyming words on the back of the index cards and see if your child can arrange those!

Teach your child to listen for words through songs.   Your child must mimic the actions of the words said in the song.  This book suggests using some songs by Red Grammer- “Can You Sound Just Like Me,” “Finger Play” and “Ready Set.”  You can easily use simple songs such as “The Hokey Pokey” or “If You’re Happy and You Know It.”

Have any musical instruments in your home?  Play them for your child.  Can your child discriminate between high and low sounds?  Loud and soft?

Practice syllables through art.  Have your child draw pictures of multisyllabic words (candy, elephant, etc.).  Then, have him/her cut the pictures into however many syllable are in the word.  For example, PENCIL would be cut into 2 sections and CALENDAR into 3.  As you say the words aloud, model putting the pieces back together, making sure to enunciate the syllables.  When all the pieces are put back in place, it completes the puzzle, just like when all the syllables are put into place, it completes the word!

I could keep going on… and on… and on!  I’ll stop there to note that the book does include a Parent/Family Guide to Early Literacy Activities.  This section is perfect for the busy parent!  Here are a few examples:

When you have no hands free- sing nursery rhymes, ask for rhyming words or break a word into phonemes and have your child say it back fast (example: MAR… long pause… KER, and your child says MARKER)

When you’re sitting down- write messages to each other, or describe objects using adjectives

When your child’s friends are around- use magnetic letters in play, measure food for a recipe, scribble together or write secret messages

On rainy days- make books, read books in silly voices, act out books

At the store- have your child go on a letter hunt, searching for letters printed, or even words printed on signs, labels or tags

Bedtime- read aloud and model what fluent reading sounds like

PHEW.  Great resource for teachers and parents who are willing to take a little more time to plan for activities and apply group activities to individuals (which is very easily done)!