Mr E and Miss K made these for their morning tea. A note of warning for children with nut allergies as this activity uses peanut butter. Although we didn’t try it, I think you could easily substitute the peanut butter with jam or another spread of your choice.

Ingredients:

• Apples
• Peanut Butter
• Mini Marshmallows

Method:

1. Cut an apple into eight slices.
2. Spread peanut butter onto one side of each slice.
3. Place some mini marshmallows on top of the peanut butter.
4. Sandwich it with another apple slice.

So simple, silly and yummy!

We talked about the letter shape for a, and the short vowel sound “a”.

Here’s a free handwriting printable of lower case letters of the alphabet, including the letter a.

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“Mum, my name is a sight word,” says Mr M. My mind is foggy most days (sleep deprivation and multi-tasking does that to you apparently). I had no idea what he was on about – “Huh???”. Then I heard myself in his reply, “If you sound it out it doesn’t make sense”. Term 3 of Kindergarten Reading. Well done, son. Well done.

Sight words, or irregular words, are words that can’t be read by applying the letter-sound correspondence knowledge that kids learn in reading programs. E.g. “was” is irregular because the typical sounds for “a” and “s” do not apply. (By the way, words that are irregular at one point in the year may not be irregular later on in the year because children may be taught to associate other sounds for letters/letter combinations later on in the year).

Sight words are basically words that children need to learn to recognise on sight.

My default method for teaching sight words is to look, cover, write, check, and use the word in a sentence. Practise, practise, practise.

However, for various reasons, there may be times when children aren’t quite up to the task of writing yet. E.g. they are just learning how to write so the task of writing and learning the actual sight word is a double whammy for them.

Here are some other (more creative) ways to learn sight words that don’t involve writing.

Sight Word Alphabet Threading

I have a set of these in my classroom and at home. There are commercial sets with sight word cards, beads and pipe cleaners ready to go. However, I have seen people create their own beads by writing letters on beads.

Sight Word Pebbles

So easy and fun. All you need is a bunch of pebbles, a sharpie, some index cards and something to store it all in. Children have to find the pebble with a given sight word.

Giant Keyboard

I have just created this to use with the Kindergarten classes at my school. To make this giant keyboard, you’ll need a plastic table cloth or plastic shower curtain and a sharpie. Tape the giant keyboard down to your classroom floor and have kids spell a given sight word using their feet.

Need More Sight Word Activities?

Practise, practise, practise is the key with sight words. After more sight word activities? Check out these playful ideas from my blogging buddies.

• Fridge Sight Words via Octavia and Vicky
• Sight Word Sensory Bag via Childhood 101 
• Sight Words through Office Play via My Little Bookcase
• 25+ Multi-sensory Activities for Learning Words via Suzie’s Home Education Ideas
• Word Toss Gross Motor Game for Learning Sight Words via Learn with Play at Home
• Sight Word Pop Sticks  and Sight Word Swat via You Clever Monkey

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Learning to read. I want to share these reading level pointers because I think it might help parents understand the seemingly bizarre world of home reading and levelled readers.

I’ve read a fair share of criticism about Home Reader Books – you know those (loved/loathed) little books children take home from class each day or week to read at home with their parents, as part of their homework. To put these criticisms into context, they are usually Facebook posts from mothers of children who have just started kindergarten, or are still in the infant years of schooling (Kindergarten / Year 1 / Year 2). They usually go along the lines of, “How on earth can you get kids interested in reading, when these books are so boring, etc”.

I’m not here to say these criticisms are unfounded. Even amongst teachers, there’s healthy ongoing debate about how best to help children learn to read. You have those who are passionate about surrounding children with authentic texts, interesting books and letting a child discover the skills of reading. Then you have those who are passionate about direct instruction and explicitly teaching reading skills.

I am of the view that there’s no one method suits all solution to teaching reading. Some kids really do just pick up reading at home, before they start school. Others pick it up quickly during the first few months of starting school. Others still, need direct instruction, possibly for many years before they learn to read.

I stand firmly by these points I shared before on how to encourage reading, however I share these reading level pointers with parents of students in my class, to help them understand what we are working towards during our guided reading groups during class. I also share these reading level pointers with them so they better understand why our home reader books are structured the way they are. To that end, I hope you find these reading level pointers helpful.

(A quick note about book levels. Each publisher / levelled reading book series has their own way of grading their book levels. Some use colours, others use numbers, letters, or a combination of these. The way each system codes their levels, rarely correlates with other systems. However, the numbers, letters, colours don’t really matter. It’s the skills associated with each level, that’s of interest. So, the book levels that I share here may not match the system that your child’s school uses. However, the general progression of skills should roughly correlate).

Book Level 1, 2

• holds book the right way
• talks about the pictures
• knows where to start reading
• reads from left to right, line by line
• points to each word as it is read

Book Levels 3 to 5

• can find known words in the story
• uses the picture and beginning sound to help predict an unknown word
• remembers the pattern of the story
• can find a particular word in the story and say how they know what that word says
• can stop, go back and read again to check

Book Levels 6 to 8

• uses eyes to follow words instead of finger
• uses sounds to work out small words or the beginning part of longer words
• stops and self corrects because: of known words; it doesn’t make sense
• notices word endings as well as beginnings, e.g. s, ing, ed, er
• can find rhyming patterns to work out an unknown word
• starting to read more fluently
• re-read as for levels 3 to 5

Book Levels 9 to 11

• able to answer questions and remember details of the story
• stops and self corrects because of known words, it doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t look right
• can find small words in bigger words, e.g. to/day; h/and
• can break up words into syllables
• re-reading to check

Book Levels 12 to 14

• fluency
• phrasing: reads chunks of words e.g. “in the bath”, “before the game”, “under a table”
• syllabification
• punctuation: voice goes down at a full stop; voice goes up at a question; knows to use expression when ” ” are in the book; emphasis for a !
• re-reading
• reading on – when a word is unknown reads on, then goes back and tries to work out the word.

Book Levels 15 to 20

• continue with phrasing
• punctuation as for levels 12, 13, 14
• using many strategies to work out unknown words
• meaning – what is happening in the story
• noticing letters, all parts of the word
• syllabification
• re-reading
• reading on
• looking at known parts of words
• does the sentence make sense? 

Again, so this post is not misunderstood, these reading level pointers is not the cure-all key to helping kids learn to read. Ideally, kids should not just be reading home readers at home. After sharing these pointers with parents, I follow with these suggestions for reading at home:

What parents can do:

• Read aloud to your child every day in your home language. Encourage your child to be a keen reader.
• Talk about a book before you start reading it. Ask them about what they are reading.
• Buy a bed lamp and encourage reading each night before going to sleep.
• Praise every effort in reading.
• Be seen reading for pleasure yourself and make visits to the library. Talk about books.

Don’t nag about reading. The important thing is “Is my child finding interesting reading material and are conditions at home favourable to reading?”

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The Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 Kids is the tablet that grows with your child. With intuitive Kids Mode, parental settings and a great selection of preloaded apps, it’s the unique tablet for kids that parents will love.

After the best apps for kids? Let me tell you firstly, my household is one that has a strong culture of video games. My husband is a gamer. I knew this while we were dating, I knew this before I got married, I knew this when I said my vows to him at the altar on our wedding day. Four kids later, he is still a gamer. It is who he is, and I love him.

I find gaming a polarising topic; you either love it or hate it. I have known and spoken to parents who have laid down strong boundaries regarding gaming. Eg limiting gaming time to 15 minutes a week, if any at all. I understand the feelings and rationale of people who belong to this side of the fence. (I’ve heard my own father’s laments about this over many, many years).

I, myself don’t play games. I find it way too stressful. I perpetually feel the need to restart the game after any little failure in the game, (a terrible habit from years of piano practicing and my control freak ugliness). However, after watching and hearing my husband and kids game, I have witnessed the rich narratives great games offer; the characters, developments and plots are honestly just utterly engaging.

It’s been awhile since I first watched this TED Talk by Ali Carr-Chellman about gaming to re-engage boys in learning. I find myself agreeing with her on so many points: they (boys) are playing video games and we need to meet them where they are; we need to put ourselves into boy culture and stop demeaning it.

I also agree with Ali’s call to design better games for learning. Most apps for kids are still basically fancy flashcards. I think there’s a place and time for these. What we’re all waiting for, are more apps for kids, that have depth and rich narrative.

What are your favourite apps to re-engage boys in learning?

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