Reading

Little Books For Your Little Ones To Read

If you haven’t read “When Can I Start Using Little Books?” go go go and read about that first! 🙂

For those of you who have read it, let’s get on the ball…

You probably noticed that there are soo many books that it is hard to know where to start.

If this is the FIRST time your child will be “reading” books, then you need to start with the most basic book you can find. Your child needs to know all their letters and have mastered a lot of the reading skills to be ready for this, but if not, you can always read the little books (that I refer to in this post) TO your children. So either way, let that be your activity today!

This is how I teach children to read little books:

1) I pick a book on their level (see how I “level” books below); then I internally observe all the things about the book I want to teach: content, words, and beginning sounds.

2) I introduce the book by telling kids the title. Then I ask them to make guesses (or “predictions” – if you wanna be fancy) about what the book will be about based on the title and front cover picture.

3) I ask the kids to go on a “picture walk” with me to look at all the pictures and just TALK about them….not reading the words this time through.

4) Then we close the book and I teach them the sight words in the book. (I call these “heart words” that I want them to put in their heart so they will know it by heart everytime they see it. )

5) I ask them to open their books and find the heart words and put their finger on it.

6) Then we go over all the sounds that the other words start with so if the word “ball” is in the book then I would ask them what sound the letter “b” makes and get them to brainstorm words that start with that sound.

7) Finally, I have the kids read the book to me, with me there to help (don’t tell them the words they are stuck on, ask them questions to get them thinking about what the word is).

8) Last, they read the book to themselves and then draw a page and write their own variation of that page. So, if the book is about animals they would draw their own favorite animal and tell me about it so that I can help them write the words for their page.

*There are variations to this sequence but this is a great place to start.

This is how I decide the difficulty of beginner books:

Level 1 won’t have ANY sight words. There will probably only be ONE word on the page and that will be the word that describes the picture “dog” for a picture of a dog, or “brown” for the picture of a brown dog. Example found Here.

Level 2 will incorporate ONE or TWO EASY basic words like “a” or “the.” One example is found Here and another here.

Level 3 will incorporate a full sentence made up of just 3 words (2 sight words and one word that tells about the picture. Examples: “I can” and “I see” books.

Level 4 will incorporate about THREE basic sight words that your child has already learned from levels 2 and 3.

And so on and so on. I think now you get the picture. Other books can be found at

OR, you can always make your own!

There is alot more levels and a lot more information on this. I am just easing you into it IF you want to help your little one with this! 🙂

If you have ANY questions about this (it is A LOT of info) please:

March 4, 2011 by Jessica | 1 Comment

When Can I Start To Use little Books With My Child?

I was watching home videos the other day, re-living so many great memories; but now, as a teacher, I observed one clip in a new light. It was me, five years old, reading a mini decodable book: “Jack can read, see him read, read well Jack!” At that time, I was so proud of myself, hogging the spotlight and angry when my three year old little sister chimed in.

Looking at that clip through a new lens there is nothing more enjoyable than sharing in a five year olds excitement that he/she can read! And even more so, wishing I would have shared that WITH my three year old little sister because, three year olds can learn to read. GRANTED, there is a process. Everyone wants to adopt the quick “My Baby Can Read” fix. And that is understandable, but I want to introduce some important guidelines to introducing little decodable books:

Here are pictures of my little book bin at home, filled with little Ziploc baggies of printed books and the words that I introduce before teaching little ones to read them.

You can start teaching print concepts as early as you can. These are concepts about the structure of books such as books tell a story, pictures tell about the story, words tell about the pictures, how to properly hold the book, how to turn pages the right way (one at a time), how to follow the text of a books one word at a time from left to right and then return back to the left time to read the next line. There are others but these are the book basics. That is why reading with children every day is important because you expose them to the functions of a book. This is their reading foundation.
In the meantime, while your child is learning these print concepts, you should practice letter naming and phonemic awareness. These three skills: 1) print concepts, 2) letter naming, and 3) phonemic awareness, are parallel to each other. They are go hand-in-hand and can be learned alongside each other. Phonemic awareness is the main skill that follows a sequence.
IF, your child has gotten to the point where he/she can isolate sounds in words (hearing the /b/ sound at the beginning of “bear”) THEN he/she is ready to start reading little decodable books.

The three sites I use most to get my decodable books are:
1) Hubbard’s Cupboard
2) JMeacham
3) DLTK

But there is an absolute ART to teaching children in sequence how to read these little books, and I will share some tips for the trade in my next post 
As for Today, if your child is at the point in their development where they are READY for this step, I want you to look through the different books and make a few observations: You are LEARNING today:
~How many words are in the pages of the books (some have 2 words per page, others 10 words per page)?
~Is the book repetitive (the same words repeating on every page with the exception of a new picture/word in one’s place that describes the picture)?
~Is the book of interest to your child (Is the book about a topic your child cares about)?
~What words would your child have to learn before being able to read the book?

Don’t try teaching your child to read the books YET. Just learn about the books and PRINT a few of the SIMPLE books – 2 or 3 words per page.
This is a great start! You are a great parent to want to invest in your child in this way!

March 3, 2011 by Jessica | 2 Comments

One Activity Can Go A Long Way

I know some of you are ready for more easy ABC activities that you can do with your little ones to really reinforce their knowledge of letter names and letter-sounds.

Well, today’s activity IS going to be a great game for practicing those skills, but it is also going to be a great game to practice lots of other skills to!

Take a mini chalkboard, mini whiteboard, or even a paper and pencil with a great eraser. You basically just want any materials that you can use to wipe off what you have written/drawn. A white board would probably be the easiest to clean.

Today’s game is all about writing or drawing a letter or picture and using different prompts to get your child to erase the letter or picture you are referring to. You can play this game focusing on a lot of the skills that we have talked about in previous reading posts. Here are some examples of different ways to play, depending on what “step” your child is on.

I got my whiteboard at WalMart 🙂

Practice rhyming:

Draw simple pictures on a whiteboard, and ask your child to wipe off a picture that rhymes with _______. Example: “I drew a fish, a cat, and a rose. Erase the picture that rhymes with NOSE ” (rose).

Practice listening for segmented words:

Draw simple pictures on a whiteboard, and ask your child to wipe off a picture that has these sounds /_/-_____. Example:“I drew a fish, a cat, and a rose. Erase the picture that has all the sounds /r/ – ose” by saying just the first sound and the rest of the word.

Or, if this skill comes easily, have your child “Erase the picture that has the sounds /r/-/ō/ /s/” by saying all the sounds in the word.

Practice letter recognition:

Write random letters on a whiteboard, and ask your child to wipe off a letter that you name. Example: “I am going to write some letters on the board, can you erase the letter ‘P’?” You can even put it to a tune like “The Farmer and the Dell” and sing “Erase the letter ‘P’ Erase the letter ‘P’ Which letter do you know to be the letter ‘P’?”

Practice Letter-sound relationships:

Write random letters on a whiteboard, and ask your child to wipe off a letter starts with a certain sound like /p/. Example: “I am going to write letters on the board, can you erase the letter that makes the sound /p/?”

Or to erase the picture that starts with the same sound as /r/abbit (rose).

Practice upper-lower case matching:

Write letter sets (upper and lower) on a whiteboard, and ask your child to wipe off the pairs of matching letters that you name. Example:”I am writing mommy and baby letters on the board, can you erase the “Bb” family?” –Remember that “baby “b” fits inside of momma “B’’s belly.

February 28, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments

Phonics Fun!

Games, books, and songs that connect letters to their sounds are all GREAT ways to introduce phonics (the relationships between letters, letter patterns, and their sounds) and are GREAT for memory recall. Okay, that’s the facts, here’s the fun:

One of my favorite songs for teaching this is Dr. Jean’s “Sing and Sign”

It is to the tune “Where is Thumbkin?”

The lyrics are

“Where is A? (repeat) – With your hands behind your back

Here I am. (repeat) – Show the sign language for the letter

What do you say A? (repeat) Hands up asking a question

/a/ /a/ /a/(repeat) – Show the sign language again

I am NOT a photographer so forgive me for the quality of this picture (Oh, and all my pictures for that matter). Aside from that, this is a great song to teach children using movement, visual clues, and listening skills.

Another way to introduce and sing this song is to buy a Sign Language chart from your local school supply store (Ours is called School Aids) or purchase one online and use the chart on display OR buy sign language cards put them in order, punch holes at the top, and use binder rings to hold it together. It will make a great little flip book so that they can look at it in the car when they need some independent silent reading time.

*Because I know that you are more likely to do this activity if you have the materials on hand, I went ahead and made an Alphabet Sign Chart and Alphabet Sign Cards….You’re welcome 🙂

February 18, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments

Read A Songbook!

I love to sing. More than that, I love to sing to kids. Whether I am singing “This is the way we pick up our toys…”

Or “This is the day the Lord has made…”

Kids seem to be mesmerized by music, and shame on me, but they are so pleasant when they are in a trance.

Today, I want to help you mesmerize your little one for academic purposes, and maybe even for a quiet car ride on an errand run.

The cheap-o that I am will warn you that you may want to invest in a binder and sheet protectors for today’s activity, but you can technically do without it.

This is a songbook that I made for my sweet little friend Carsyn. I wanted it to be meaningful because I was filling it with a lot of educational songs too. So I simply uploaded a picture of her into a word document and picked a fun font (Kristin ITC).

Then I simply picked the songs that I targeted with the skills I wanted to teach her at the time. The FREE printables for these songs can be found at Kelly’s Kindergarten, Kid’s Count under School Is Cool Big Books , New Jack Hartmann Big Books, and Dr. Jean Big Books, as well as Dr. Jean.org.

Print them and put them together in sheet protectors back to back.

The book will be unique depending on the songs you pick.

If you are an over-achiever like me, you can download the songs you picked to print and make a CD that goes with the book. Or find a friend who has a lot of children’s songs on their computer and borrow.

**Sing-along books are great for SO many reasons**

Sing-along books:

Make it easy to follow along with the pictures and words.
Engage and maintain a child’s interest.
Help children follow along with print, one word at a time (one-to-one correspondence).
Teach children to read independently and with purpose.
Teach skills through rote memory (just from hearing a “Days of the Week” song over and over a child will memorize and learn the days of the week).
Help kids connect stories with pictures.

“Carsyn loves her songbook! She reads it all the time. She loves to sing along and read it to her little sister.” ~Kasey of Baton Rouge, La

The Starter songbook I made for Carsyn were the following picks:

Alphardy –sing to learn Album by dr jean (Letter Naming and Sounds Awareness)
Down by the bay – raffi singable songs (Rhyming)
Color farm –sing to learn (Colors and Color Word Recognition)
The Shape Song – Shape-A-Loo song fromTotally Math by dr jean (Shape Identification)
Five Fish – Sing Silly Songs Album by dr jean (Adding On)
Chant and write – totally math Album by dr jean (Number Identification and Formation)
Today is Sunday –dr jean and friends Album (Days of the Week)
The twelve days of school –keep on singing and dancing Album by dr Jean (Ordinal Numbers)