Tips for Kindergarten Parents
New Ways to Help Your Child Become a GREAT independent reader!!!
Your child is becoming a skilled independent reader! And the guided reading book that your reader will bring home are designed to help them in this process. As part of our daily reading time, your child will participate in small groups and will receive individualized instruction to develop fluency, oral language, vocabulary, phonics, comprehension, and writing skills. In addition, your child will bring home enjoyable, level-appropriate stories and selections that will help him/her ensure success as an independent reader. Here are some suggestions for helping your child before, during, and after reading:
Before
- Look at the book cover with your chiild. Together, review the illustrations or photographs in the book. Ask your child to predict what the story or selection will be about.
-Discuss what you and your child might already know about the topic of the boook you are about to read.
-If your child is a beginning reader, echo-read the story or selection with your child by reading a line first and having your child read it after you. If your child is a more skilled reader, periodically stop and ask questions as they read to you.
During:
-If your child does not recognize a word right away, help him/her to focus on the familiar letters, spelling patterns, or secret stories in the word. Guide your child to think about other words that look like the unfamiliar word.
-Encourgage your child to use phonics and decoding skills to sound out any new, unfamiliar words. If necessary, provide the word if your child struggles.
-Encourage your child to read with expression and to enjoy reading! Model how to change your voice to match the text while reading.
After:
-Encourage your child to reread the story or selection to develop confidence. If the book is long, reread a few favorite sections or chapters. Perhaps your child could read the story or selection to other family members or friends.
-Discuss the story or selection with your child. Ask questions such as: What were your favorite parts? Who was your favorite character? Why? Where and when did the story take place? What interesting fact did you learn? Has anything like this ever happened to you? What does this story make you think about? Why do you think the author wrote the story?
-Have your child keep a journal of favorite stories and selections and interesting words in those books. Your child might also like to write about the stories read in their journals.
Most of all, HAVE FUN!!!!!!!! If you make reading a fun experience, then your child will be sure to have fun, too!
More Ideas
Although you may not have considered it, you are your child's first and most important teacher. Children begin to develop as readers and writers long before they ever come to school. You help your child learn to use print in all of its forms whenever you do the following:
- make a grocery list
- read a newspaper
- read the mail
- look at a magazine
- look up a number in the phone book
- write a letter
- write a check
- make a "to do" list
- read a menu in a restaurant
■Talk to your child.
Ask your child to talk about his day at school.
Encourage him to explain something they did,
or a game he played during recess.
■Say silly tongue twisters.
Sing songs, read rhyming books, and say silly
tongue twisters. These help kids become sensitive
to the sounds in words.
■Read it and experience it.
Connect what your child reads with what
happens in life. If reading a book about animals,
relate it to your last trip to the zoo.
■Use your child’s name.
Point out the link between letters and sounds.
Say, “John, the word jump begins with the same
sound as your name. John, jump. And they both
begin with the same letter, J.”
■Play with puppets.
Play language games with puppets. Have the
puppet say, “My name is Mark. I like words that
rhyme with my name. Does park rhyme with
Mark? Does ball rhyme with Mark?”
■Trace and say letters.
Have your child use a finger to trace a letter
while saying the letter's sound. Do this on paper,
in sand, or on a plate of sugar.
■Write it down.
Have paper and pencils available for your
child to use for writing. Working together, write
a sentence or two about something special.
Encourage your child to use the letters and
sounds he or she is learning about in school.
■Play sound games.
Practice blending sounds into words. Ask
“Can you guess what this word is? m - o - p.”
Hold each sound longer than normal.
■Read it again and again.
Go ahead and read your child’s favorite book
for the 100th time! As you read, pause and ask
your child about what is going on in the book.
■Talk about letters and sounds.
Help your child learn the names of the letters
and the sounds the letters make. Turn it into a
game! “I’m thinking of a letter and it makes the
sound mmmmmm.”