We’re fast approaching the first school holidays of the year. About 10 weeks ago, Mr N and M headed off enthusiastically to school, into their Kindergarten class. I also headed back to the world of teaching, and oddly enough – also to a Kindergarten class. So much happens in Kindergarten, but in my mind, reading, and learning to read is a huge part of Kindergarten.

How To Support Your Child’s Reading At Home

Before I delve into some specific activities that you can do at home to complement your child’s reading lessons at school, I want to make it clear that above all, reading with your child at home should be enjoyable. I know first hand how hard it is to juggle everything into the tiny space of time between getting home and children’s bedtimes – and on fading energy levels.

The best thing you can do to support your child’s reading at home is to listen to your child read every day, even for a short time.

I also personally think the 10 ways to encourage reading that I previously shared takes precedence over these possible specific activities you can do with your Kindergarten child at home. Growing a love of reading and of literature is priceless.

Having said all that, I have lately incorporated these short little activities at home with my Twin 5’s as part of our reading time at home. We only do these activities when we have a bit more time and energy up our sleeves.

I think these short reading activities can help consolidate certain reading skills taught in Kindergarten, and hence am glad to be sharing them here with you.

Activity #1: An Unknown Word in the Text

Using the text that the child has just read, choose one unknown word for them to look for, locate and construct.

For example, if the your child didn’t know the word “the”, ask him/her to find “the” on a given page. Have them re-read the sentence, stop at the word “the” and point to it.

We have a tub of magnetic letters at home and some small magnetic whiteboards. Such useful resources and certainly worth investing in. However, if you don’t have these, you can easily make up some small cardboard squares with letters on them and use these instead.

Give your child the letters that make up the unknown word. For e.g. for “the”, give them the letters “t”, “h”, “e”. Don’t give it to them in any particular order or the right way up necessarily. Ask them, using these letters, to make the word “the”. Check that they’ve:

• Placed the letters in the right sequence – e.g. t first, h next, and e last.
• Put the word together in the right direction – from left to right.
• Orientated the letters correctly – e.g. the letters t or h or e aren’t placed upside down.

After they have constructed the unknown word, have them write the word, checking that they’ve:

• Written the letters in the right sequence – e.g. t first, h next, and e last.
• Written the word together in the right direction – from left to right.
• Orientated the letters correctly – e.g. the letters t or h or e aren’t upside down.
• Used the correct letter formations – e.g.  for the letter t, we go down, take our pencils off, then draw a line across from left to right ; we don’t go up, pencils off, then draw a line across right to left.

Activity #2: A Known Word in the Text

Using the text that the child has just read, choose a known word.

For example, with Mr N, our known word was “pig”. I asked him to re-read the sentence and stop at the word “pig”.

I asked him to make the word “pig” using our magnetic letters. We then talked about what we would need to change in “pig” to make the word “big”. We discussed how the beginning sound/letter would need to change. I then asked if he could make the word “big” and place it next to “pig” so it would read “big pig”.

He then wrote the words “big pig” and drew a picture of a big pig. As with the unknown word activity, check that they’ve:

• Written the letters in the right sequence.
• Written the word together in the right direction.
• Orientated the letters correctly.
• Used the correct letter formations.

With this unknown word activity, you’re not necessarily going to get words that go well next to each other like “big pig”. Your two words may be “can” and “fan”. In which case, you would just have one word on the board at any given time. E.g. change the word “can” to “fan”. You can then ask them to draw a fan.

Activity #3: New Letter Combinations

As Mr N could do the above quite confidently, I then challenged him to make the word “small”, so it would be “small pig” instead of “big pig”. He proceeded to make the word “small”, spelling it “smol”, which makes perfect sense phonetically. I praised his attempt, then introduced the new letter combination “all” to him. We talked about some words with the letter combination “all”, like “fall”, “call”, “tall”, “ball” and “small”.

He made the word “small”, using the “all” letter combination, then wrote the words, “small pig”, and finish it off with a picture of a small pig.

Encouraging Children to be Independent and Autonomous Learners

The pace at which children learn is incredible. Even during those times when it seems like they aren’t quite grasping new concepts at a pace you’d expect or like them to, be confident that they will learn how to read – (perhaps to a different time frame to your expectations though).

While the above reading word activities for kindergarten can be helpful, to encourage children to be independent and autonomous learners, ensure that they have plenty of opportunities to read books that they are familiar with. Books that they can read easily, accurately and fluently without support. Give them access to a rich and varied range of reading material. Let them choose. Let them read. Give them time to read regularly during the week.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment; I’d love to hear from you. If you are new here, you might like to receive updates direct to your email. We have many fun ideas to share.

The post Reading: 3 Kindergarten Word Activities by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

Why are boys as a group performing less well than girls in literacy related tasks? Girls achieve higher levels of literacy than males across a range of studies conducted in a range of countries (ACER, 2003). We’ve somehow created a system where large groups of boys, resist and reject literacy.

Perhaps more boys than girls are identified as having learning difficulties because of boys’ aggressive and disruptive classroom behaviours? Perhaps it is because their (boys’) culture is not working within schools (Carr-Chellman, 2010).

I really feel passionately about ways to improve literacy achievements and performances of boys, especially as a mother of three boys. Here are some ways we can support boys to form healthy, constructive attitudes and perceptions of literacy, (Makin & Diaz, 2002):

1. Make sure toddlers, both boys and girls, have access to and engage with literacy experiences. A child’s interest in literacy learning is not determined by their biology. Don’t dismiss as normal (and acceptable), a boys’ disengagement with literacy activities purely because he is a boy.
2. Ensure male parents and other male role models are involved in early literacy activities and learning. Let boys see and hear Dads, Uncles, and Grandpas reading and writing.
3. Challenge the perception that literacy, (reading and writing), is just for girls. Promote men as readers and men as writers; watch, or talk to male authors, reporters, writers.
4. Make literacy relevant to boys by working with a broad range of texts e.g. magazine and film texts of interest to groups of boys. Don’t push just narratives on them, include non-fiction books, and don’t say that a comic book is not a book!
5. Work with new technologies to encourage boys to participate in language activities. If gaming is their culture, find ways to work with it.

As I brace myself for N & M starting school, although it’s still a few months away, I hope the enthusiasm they have about literacy now stays just as bright when they do start school. Actually, I hope that with school, their enthusiasm for literacy and literature will grow even brighter!

Do you have a son or sons? What are their attitudes to literacy?

More Activities for Preschoolers

Three to Five: Playful Preschool is stuffed to the brim with tried, tested and loved playful learning ideas for preschoolers. There are 25+ ideas for preschoolers, ten printable resources and additional links to over 50 more activities. A great resource for parents. Download your copy here.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment; I’d love to hear from you. If you are new here, you might like to receive updates direct to your email. We have many fun ideas to share.

Reference: 
Makin, L & Diaz, C.J. 2002, ‘Literacies in early childhood: changing views, challenging practice’, Elsevier Australia, Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia.

The post Literacy: Five Ways To Help Boys by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

 
There are so many important skills for children to learn. In my mind, knowing how to read is way, way up there. Children learn to read so that they can read to learn.

 
Here are 12 fun helpful ways to nurture your children’s reading skills.

 
Happy playful learning!

Reading: Games, Activities & Resources

 

	← Reading Strategies for Unknown Words by Lessons Learnt Journal → Phonemic Awareness, Mr Tongue's House by Lessons Learnt Journal
	← Sequence for Introducing Letters by Lessons Learnt Journal → How to Encourage Reading by Lessons Learnt Journal
	← Word Family Freight Yard by Play Trains at Train Up A Child → Montessori Inspired Initial Sound Cards by Smiling like Sunshine
	← 10 Simple Ideas for Encouraging Letter Recognition by Full Hands Full Hearts → Initial Sound Matching Activity by Stay at Home Educator
	← Clubhouse ABCs Revisited by Fit Kids Clubhouse → Seashell Letter Match by And Next Comes L
	← Sight Word Practice Box by Boy Mama Teacher Mama → Phonics Flip Book by Kids Activities Blog

 
Have you been featured this week? Please take our Featured at Lessons Learnt Journal badge.

 
Most of these ideas are from our Kids’ Co-Op. If you have a child focused post to share, be sure to come back and visit the Kids’ Co-Op link up here at Lessons Learnt Journal, (published and live here every Wednesday at 10PM CST or Thursday 2PM AEST).

More Activities for Preschoolers

Three to Five: Playful Preschool is stuffed to the brim with tried, tested and loved playful learning ideas for preschoolers. There are 25+ ideas for preschoolers, ten printable resources and additional links to over 50 more activities. A great resource for parents. Download your copy here.

The post Reading: Games, Activities & Resources by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

 
As a teacher, one of the most exciting (and in my case, possibly frantic) tasks, is setting up a classroom. How should the environment be set up to assist learning? What should be constantly available for students? I think visual prompts to assist reading skills certainly belong to a section of the classroom.

Reading: When Children Don’t Know The Word

 
When a child is learning to read, they often come across words they don’t know. Here are some useful questions to help children figure out those new words.

1. Can I sound it out?
2. What is the first sound?
3. Do I know any other sounds?
4. Do I know the sounds of some groups of letters?
5. Can I look for a little word in the bigger word?
6. Re-read the sentence.
7. What word would make sense? Does it match the print? Try it out.
8. Read on to the end of the sentence. Think about a word that would make sense.
9. Look at the pictures.
10. Do I know a word that looks like this one?
11. Can I change some letters to make a word I know?

 
These questions would also be helpful to have readily at home as children practise and integrate their reading skills and strategies.

 
Click here for a free printable of the above reading strategies when children don’t know the word. (In the free printable PDF version, the words “free printable” have been removed).

The post Reading: When Children Don’t Know The Word by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.