Hannah and the Seven Dresses by Marthe Jocelyn: A little girl wears a different dress each day of the week until her birthday comes and she can't decide which of the 7 to choose.
Cookie's Week by Cindy Ward and Tomie de Paola: A mischievious cat gets into trouble each day of the week.
Big Week for Little Mouse by Eugenie and Kim Fernandes: A little mouse spends a week getting ready for a special event.
Today is Monday by Eric Carle: Different animals eat their way through the days of the week.If your child has difficulty sequencing syllables and recognizing sound units within words, try this ...
Write your child’s first and last name on a piece of paper. Use a red marker to write the vowels. Glue a pom-pom under each syllable. Have your child say their name, and touch the pompom as they say each syllable.
If your child has difficulty using vowels and consonants to make words, try this ...
If your child has difficulty hearing vowel sounds, try this ...
On a table, line up a set of index cards with these vowel teams on them: oi, oy, ou, ow, oo. On a different set of index cards write words that contain these vowel sounds, i.e. boil, toy, couch, low. Have your child determine which of the vowel teams each word should be placed under. Try and have 2 -3 words per vowel team. Note that /oo/ can have 2 sounds, such as moon and book. Make sure you keep the words consistent with the sound.
If your child has difficulty understanding the meaning of what they read, try this ...
Write the text of a story on paper, leaving room for illustrations. Ask your child to draw new picture for the book. Or have your child write stories or short sentences and then illustrate them. Staple them together and turn them into mini-books. Have he or she read them back to you.
In the 60s, when my parents learned to read, they used the “Dick and Jane” basal readers. These focused less on teaching the individual sounds in a word, and more on teaching sight words to be memorized. Just like fashion, this method of teaching reading went out of style, and Phonics has made a comeback.
Vs.
Phonics is making the connection between the letters on a page, and the sounds that are heard. Even though there are 26 letters in the alphabet, there are 44 sounds! This is because each letter may make more than one sound.
A Time Line of Alphabet Recognition
Preschool:
Kindergarten
Grade 1
I Know My ABCs
Have a look at some activities you can do with your child, to help them practice their ABCs.
Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
Alphabet Soup by Kate Banks
2. Make play-dough letters
3. Play some games
Alphabet Hide and Go Seek: Hide letters from the alphabet around the room and have your child find them one at a time and tell you what letter it is.
Climb the stairs: Put a letter on each step. The child says each letter as they climb the stairs (can lay on floor if there are no stairs).
You: “I'm thinking of a word that rhymes with cat and begins with b”
Child: bat!
Here are some activities to try that help your child practice writing their own name.
1. Sing Name Songs:
Bingo Name Song:
Willobee-wallobee
Willobee-wallobee wee, an elephant sat on me.
2. Tracing
Print your child’s first name, showing them slowly how to make each letter. Have them trace over your printed example.
3. Try out this Name Puzzle:
I Can Count to 10
Here are some activities to try at home to help your child practice counting to 10.
1. Play Simon Says
You: “Simon says take 2 steps forward”
Child: moves forward 2 steps.
2.Count with books
Try a completion prompt:
You: “Oh wow! There are lots of polar bears on this page. Let’s see, 1, 2, 3, 4, ____”
Child: 5!
3. Practice around the house
Have your child dial a telephone number for you when you need to use the phone. Point to the numbers and read them aloud for your child.
4. Practice out and about
When you are walking or driving, “How many signs on the side of the road are there from here to grandmas (or school)?
5. Songs and poems are great too
One, two, buckle my shoe,
Three, four, shut the door,
Five, six, pick-up sticks,
Seven, eight, lay them straight,
Nine, ten, start over again.
I Know My Shapes
Try some of these activities to help your child practice naming shapes.
1. Make a Shape Book
Take a few sheets of construction paper and fold them in half, and put together like a book. Have your child search in old magazines and newspapers for shapes. (triangles, circles, squares, rectangles). Cut them out and paste one shape on each page of your book.
Cut out a circle, square and triangle from a large piece of cardboard. Give your child a large sheet of paper on which to make a picture or design by tracing the shapes .
When you’re cutting your child’s sandwich, ask them if they want it in squares.
Put toothpicks on the table and instruct them to make various shapes (ask them to make a circle and see how many actually try!)
Try some of these activities to help your child practice reciting the colours of the rainbow.
1. Sing the Rainbow Song
2. Play “I Spy” with colours
You: “I spy with my little eye, something that is blue”
3. Read books about colours
Some great ones are: Red is Best by Kathy Stinson, Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh and Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert .
Use colours in daily conversations. For example, tell your child the colour of their snack before eating it, or their clothes before they put them on.
Play with colourful toys like building blocks and balls
2. Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic Awareness is being able to hear the individual sounds in the words we say. Children need this skill for learning to read (by blending the sounds of a word together) and when learning to spell (by breaking the word down into its individual letters).
Here are some to try:
Each Peach Pear Plum by J. and A. Ahlberg
A Giraffe and a half by S. Silverstein
If your child has mastered the rhyming tasks, then try phoneme counting activities. Most children have mastered phoneme counting by the end of the 1st grade.
Here are some to try:
Hi, my name is Ms. Brown and this is my first time blogging :)
I have had the pleasure of working with Jenna for almost 3 weeks now. As part of my Bachelor's of Education, I am taking an "alternative" placement in a setting outside of the typical classroom. Using all of the wonderful resources, advice and knowledge from Jenna and the Early Literacy team, I've put together some information that I have found to be useful and relevant to promoting language and literacy at home. Stay tuned for more!
2 of the best predictors of your child’s success in reading are letter knowledge and phonemic awareness. Here are some ways to help improve your child's letter knowledge.
1. Recognizing the Alphabet
Knowing how to identify letters is an important stepping stone for learning how to read. Further, if your child can name all the letters, he or she will be better able to understand the alphabetic principle – knowing that each letter stands for a specific sound.
The “Elemeno” Problem:
The Alphabet song is usually our first introduction to this alphabetic principal. However, about half way through the song, most children tend to combine the l, m, n, and o, to make "elemeno.” It can be difficult for your child to understand that each letter makes its own sound, when these 4 letters are made into one big nonsense word.
To make sure your child has a solid alphabetic foundation, try some of these suggestions:
- Listen to several versions of the alphabet song.
- On tongue depressors, or popsicle sticks, make a set of alphabet sticks. Have your child arrange them in order.
- Provide many forms of the alphabet – sandpaper letters, for instance, are great tactile forms of the alphabet (see below). Or something they’re sure to love – eewy gooey letters! Place some clear hair gel in a bag, and add some food colouring. Make sure the bag is zipped tight! Have your child form letters with their finger on the outside of the bag.
- Read lots of Alphabet Books. Alphabet Books are Great Because They ...
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
Alphabeasts by Wallace Edwards
Using literature to connect with a math lesson is a wonderful way to involve students in both literacy and mathematical thinking (Whitin & Wilde, 1992, 1995).
When teachers link children’s literature with mathematics, children are better at explaining their reasoning and strategies, enjoy mathematics more, show greater overall persistence on difficult tasks, think more about what they learn, and experience a level of success (Clarke, 2002).
When children’s literature and numeracy are connected in an interactive and meaningful way, students will understand the mathematics concepts readily and will sustain the knowledge (Raymond, 1995).
Many experts have stated that combining mathematics and literacy development will lead to a child's improvement in both.
“How children experience math has a profound effect on what they are able to learn. If we want our children to be successful in math, it is important that we create a learning environment that supports the development of understanding, positive attitudes and habits of mind that cause children to be interested, curious and eager to learn new mathematical ideas” (Kathy Richardson, Math Time).
At first glance, the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears may seem like any other story, but if you look at it using a mathematics lens, something should immediately come to mind - the number 3! Not only is the number 3 part of the title, but the entire story is based around collections of 3 (bears, bowls, chairs, beds). Also, the number is continually reinforced.
Not just numbers...
Also, the story exposes children to ordering (small, medium, large and cold, warm, hot), correspondences between ordered sets (smallest bed for smallest bear, next for the next larger bear), patterning (repeated phrases – too little, too big, just right). WOW! What a great math book!
Books provide a great starting point for rich, authentic mathematical thinking and mathematics lessons. Children’s literature also motivates children to explore concepts in greater depth, and encourages them to make connections among and between mathematics topics. Books also help to stimulate interest and provide real-world contexts for problem solving. Children are very quick to relate to fictional characters and situations.
A word of advice...
Before you talk about the math content in a story with children, make sure that they are very familiar with the story. You can't expand on anything without a solid foundation. Once a child has built up a good schema, you can begin drawing attention to the math in the stories you share.
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