Helping Children Learn about Letters and Words Guest Post by Renee Abramovitz

To a young child, letters are just funny symbols on a page. Some are tall and straight, others are looping with big curves. With a little guidance, you can help even a young child develop strong letter and word awareness skills so that he or she can begin to understand the important role letters and words play in our environment.

Fun games and engaging letter worksheets are simple ways to help your child.

Try this at home:

1) Read simple picture books to your child; those having just a few words or a single sentence on each page are best for this. Point to each word as you read it and encourage your child to point along with you or to point to the word after you read it aloud.

2) Label some key places in your house with the word printed in uppercase letters on a piece of paper or a note card. Some suggestions would be to label the door, window, wall, shelf, bed and drawer in your child’s bedroom.

3) Let your child dictate a thank-you note or birthday card, for example, to a relative or friend. Write each word in uppercase letters as he says it to you. Keep the message short. Read it back to your child when you are finished printing. Give your child a chance to “read” his card from memory back to you or another family member.

4) Point out words in the environment, such as STOP on the street corner or DONUTS on his favorite snack restaurant. Ask your child to point out signs he recognizes.

5) Point out words in your child’s environment, such as names on cereal or toy boxes.

6) Write your child’s name on his belongings and point it out to him when he is getting dressed or using a labeled item (such as a backpack or pencil box).

7) When reading short, simple picture books, go back to some pages and say: “Let’s count the number of words in that sentence.” And then point to each word as you count, instead of read, the word.

8) Play the “Mailman Game.” Write a short message to your child on a card and deliver it to him as if you are a mailman. Read him the message when you give it to him or when he takes it out of the envelope. “I love you.” or “Grandma is coming soon.” are some examples.

9) Let your child add to your grocery list. Write the item on the list as he watches you. When he wants you to buy something, that word will be very important to him!

10) Complete colorful alphabet letter worksheets. Pick letter coloring pages that focus on introducing one letter at a time for younger children or pick aletter awareness worksheet that focuses on many letters at a time for older children.

Renee Abramovitz is a retired preschool and kindergarten teacher and proud grandma to four beautiful little boys. Visit Renee atwww.schoolsparks.com to find a free kindergarten readiness test parents can take to see if their kids are ready to start preschool or kindergarten and hundreds of free kindergarten worksheets to help children develop critical school readiness skills.

Learning at Home: Popsicle Sticks as Learning Partners by Lyssa Turner

Oooh! Crafty mommies get excited when they read those words! Teacher mommies do, too! This classic and inexpensive manipulative can magically become math and language tools. Remember, learning bursts should be short and sweet. A general rule is to match the number of minutes to the age of your child plus one minute. Now here is how to use them!

• Introduce the tool and call it just that! When pulling out any new tool, remember to allow time for exploration in the beginning. 2-3 minutes of free play is a must! The transition into learning play will be much easier!
• Tell your learner ahead of time, “We are going to explore with these _____ for 3 minutes. When I ring the doorbell (or whatever you choose) we are going to try something new.” Then do just that! Here are some things to try:

1. Make letters with the sticks. Start with a letter they know or choose one from a book and go from there! Once the letter is made, trace it with your fingers and say the sound. (Have older siblings put the letters in alphabetical order or make whole words!) You are learning and reinforcing letters and their sounds!  Next time, glue the letters down. Use the popsicle stick letter as the beginning of a word, or even better, the beginning of your child’s name!
2. Make shapes with the sticks! (Have older siblings make the shape you describe, “It has three sides.” “It looks like a stop sign.” “What would I have if I put a triangle on top of a square? Make it!” ) You are teaching shapes and working on fine motor kills while you are at it! Next time, glue the shape down and turn it into a picture by adding details with crayons or markers!
3. Grab and toss! Give your child a predetermined number of popsicle sticks (3 for beginners.) Have them toss them in the air away from their body. Have your child describe where they landed. “One is by the chair.” “These are by the door.” (Have older siblings practice addition and subtraction with the sticks. Toss and describe using math terms. “2 by the door and 6 by the chair makes 8 sticks in all.” You are building language skills and locking in them with the movement! Next time, use the popsicle sticks to measure from one place to another by lining them up from end to end. “Wow! It takes 6 popsicles to get from the door to the chair.”
4. Sort colored popsicle sticks by color, identifying the color as you go. (Have older siblings rename the popsicle stick colors using adjectives. Then write the new names on the sticks. For example,instead of "red," try "raspberry red"!). Next time, mix all kinds of popsicle sticks (fat, colored, short, etc) into a pile and have your child sort them however they want! This open sort allows your child to use their inductive thinking skills. When done, sort them again, another way!

To learn more about the benefits of sorting with toddlers and more ideas, visit Bright Hub.

Teaching Kids News by Joyce Grant

Last year, I partnered with my son’s grade-three teacher to talk to the kids in his class about “the news.” Because I’m a journalist, it’s something I know a bit about and I thought the kids might be interested in finding out more about their world.

It turns out we vastly underestimated their interest!

Each week I brought in a stack of newspaper clippings and talked about them with the class. We followed a couple of major breaking stories (the G20 summit, the oil spill) and we also talked about interesting or funny stories that would crop up during the week. It might be anything from the discovery of a new species to a space shuttle launch.

The kids actively participated in the weekly sessions, wanting to share their own knowledge about the news stories and also wanting to know more. Pretty soon, kids’ parents were coming up to us saying, “My son just explained to me what’s happening at the G20!”

That weekly media lesson sparked an idea for a website. What if we brought kids the news in kid-friendly and –appropriate language? It would encourage kids to read, because they desperately want to know what’s going on in the world. It would also encourage parents to read with their children.

My son’s teacher, Jonathan Ophek, added the final, brilliant piece of the puzzle: what if we added “curriculum connections” to each article, so teachers could use each day’s article right in the classroom? Teachers would be covering the curriculum using current news events pulled from today’s headlines.

So Teaching Kids News was born.

The site began in September 2010 and was relaunched in its current form in January 2011. We haven’t done much marketing of the site yet, but already more than 1,000 teachers and parents use the site every day. Some days, particularly when big news is breaking, we get more than twice or three times that number. (Our biggest day has been over 6,000 individual users.)

Our goal is to get kids reading, and we think that by bringing them news that is not only easy for them to read but put into “context” for them, we’re able to do that. At the same time, Teaching Kids News provides instant lesson plans for teachers and parents who are home-schooling their kids.

And as one CBC reporter said, TKN’s politics section is a great place to brush up on what’s happening in the world—for anyone, kid or adult!

Joyce Grant is a journalist and owner of Teaching Kids News, http://www.teachkidsnews.com/. She also blogs at Getting Kids Reading, http://www.gkreading.com/.

Musical Books: Guest Post by Marcia Maynard

Young children who like music and books, will enjoy these sing-along-books with cds.

The Journey Home From Grandpa's, by Jemima Lumley, Sophie Fatus and sung by Fred Penner.
A family drives down a bouncy, bumpy road as they travel home from Grandpa's house. They pass a variety of vehicles such as train, a tractor and even a barge along their fun journey.

Whole World, by Christopher Corr and Fred Penner, is a book with vibrant illustrations and a cd of cheerful music. Facts about different creatures and environments are in the back of the book, as well as the musical notes to this well known song.

Animal Boogie is and award winning book by Debbie Harter. Come stomp with an elephant and flap with a bird, as jungle animals boogie, woogie, oogie. Children, teachers and parents will have fun dancing and singing along with the story. Animal Boogie has catchy song and is easy to learn.


All the books come in paperback with cd and can be seen at Barefoot Books.


Marcia Maynard is a former kindergarten teacher and reading specialist. She currently blogs about preschool activities at www.readandrise.com.

If you would like to write a guest post, please contact me!

P is for Popsicle by Marcia Maynard

Remember having fun making Popsicles when you were a kid? Share the joy of making ice pops with your child.


Items needed:

1. ice cube tray or small paper cups

2. toothpicks or Popsicles sticks

3. aluminum foil

4. juice or lemonade

5. Small pitcher


First, put juice into a small pitcher.

Next, help your child pour the juice into the ice cube tray or cups.

Then, cover the tray or cups with foil.

Then, poke toothpicks through the foil (once ice pops are frozen, the toothpicks will become the ice pop stick).

Next, put the tray or cups into the freezer.

Wait about 2 hours.

Finally, take the foil off, choose an ice pop and enjoy.
 
Marcia Maynard is a certified reading specialist and early childhood educator. She is the mother of two boys and blogs about preschool activities at http://www.readandraise.com./

 

If you would like to write a guest post, please contact me!

It's the PROCESS, not the "Product" by Marcia Maynard

A wonderful quality about preschoolers is their love to just DO something. When making art projects, they're happy just squirting glue or cutting paper. They don't need a fancy final product.

If your child can use scissors by himself, supply him with different types of paper. Magazine pages, junk mail, a finished coloring book, empty tea boxes (thick cardboard, such as cereal boxes can be hard to cut, look for thinner boxes). Place a paper bag on the floor next to the table where he's cutting. He can put the cut pieces into the bag for recycling.

If your child is just learning how to cut, sit with him and hold the paper while he cuts. He may need to hold the scissors in both hands in order to cut.

Have a no project art project morning and enjoy.

Marcia Maynard is a certified reading specialist and early childhood educator. She is the mother of two boys and blogs about preschool activities at http://www.readandraise.com.

If you would like to write a guest post, please contact me!

* Image of magic markers: from Photos8.com