New routine :)

Begining tomorrow, the kids will be bringing home a "book bag". These MUST come to school each day as soon their leveled readers will be kept in there and we will need them for groups. Inside the bag are books that the kids have been making....cut, colored and sometimes stapled by your little darlings. Please have your child read a few (or all if they are motivated to do so!) books to you each night. These are books THEY can read and that makes them happy! Please reinforce what good readers do with the help of these tips.....


*have your child, "sit like a reader"... These are the words I use with the kids at my small group table to cue them to sit up, put their book flat on the table and to use their pointer finger. I expect them to read by pointing to and looking at each word. When they are sitting like readers I can see that they are doing just that :)


*If they get stuck on a word, tell them to look at the picture for some clues.


*Let's say they call a duck in the book a parrot... Say," ok let's take a look at the word....if it were Parrot, what letter would you expect to see at the beginning of that word?" They most likely will say P... Then, point to the D at the beginning of duck and ask,"could that be parrot." Prompt them to think of a different word that's a type of bird that begins with the d sound....




*No freebies :) make them work for the word.... Give them as many clues as you can think of....clues such as something in the picture, a word that rhymes with it, or a conversation about the word like the one above, but they have to work hard to be a reader!!


*After reading, see if they can remember details from the story. This could be questions about the story or even about details in pictures such as what color was the girls shirt in the story.


*Compare and contrast. Look at two pictures in the book or in two different books and ask your child, " what is something that is the same/different about these two pictures?". You will be surprised with the things they come up with, things you may never have thought of. This is a higher level thinking activity and is GREAT for your child's thinking and problem solving skills:)


Enjoy this awesome journey with your little one.... Give them lots of praise and celebrate their reading successes because, it's hard work!


Feel free to contact me with any questions at  hcandelora@cornerstonecharter.com