Phonemic Awareness: Playing with Beginning Sounds

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Learning to identify letters and their sounds is another step toward reading readiness.  Starting in preschool, children start to learn about letters and words.  As children begin to recognize the different letters of the alphabet, the next step is to teach your child the sound or sounds the each letter makes.

You don't have to think of teaching your child letter sounds as a job...it's more of an extended experience with books, pictures in books and other items in your home.

Here are some things you can do to help your child learn the sounds for each letter:

1.  Read ABC books together and talk about the pictures that begin with the same beginning sound.  Don't try to talk in detail about all 26 letters in one day.  Pick a few each time you read the story.  Remember it's a good thing to reread the same books to your child.  Talking about the pictures will also help build your child's vocabulary at the same time.

2.  Beginning Sound Game:  Talk to your child about things you see at the grocery store, while driving, or at a park.  After identifying an object, talk about the letter the item begins with and then say the beginning sound slowly with the rest of the word so you child can hear you isolate the sound for them.

For example: wagon....."w sound" then "agon", then put it together...wagon.

Ask what sound wagon begin with...after a while your child will try to imitate the sound.  If they don't know it, tell them and ask the child to say the sound.  Praise the child for the great job he or she is doing.  Make it a game and soon your child will ask you what sound does... begin with?

3.  Collect a basket or bowl of every day items around your home.  Play the beginning sound game with these items.  Then add to the bowl or basket more items that begin with the same sound so the child can match objects that begin with the same sound.  For example: a pen and a pencil, or a lollipop and a lemon

4.  I love the song from the dvd: Letter Factory by Leap Frog...
Children quickly learn the song and it helps them to remember the sounds of the letters.  Just remember the l doesn't say "ull" it says "l" and the r doesn't say "er" it say "r".  It also teaches the short vowel sounds, so later, once your child knows these sounds well, you can add the long vowel sounds.

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Environmental Print...Beginning Stages of Reading

Has your child ever the seen the golden arches with the word McDonalds and said "McDonalds" or maybe the Walmart sign and said Walmart?  

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Children learn to recognize and "read" signs they see everyday in their environment, called environmental print.  This is one of the beginning stages of reading.  Children begin to learn that the string of letters make up a word and the word they see they know from their life experience.

Encourage your child to read words that they know from day to day life.  Even cut these words out and put them on the refrigerator for them to practice reading.

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When young children begin to see themselves as readers, they want to learn more about the black squiggly lines called letters and how when they are grouped together make words that adults read.

Children will become more observant about print they say and may begin asking you what the word says.  These are all great discussion to have about letters and how letters make up words.

Things to do with environmental print:
1.  Collect the words your child knows: cereal names, store names, candy bar names, etc.
2.  Place the words in a bag for your child to practice reading.
3.  Collect two of each word to match together or play memory with them where you glue the words on cards and turn them over and your child tries to flip two over at a time to see if they match.
4.  Have your child read environmental print when you are out running errands.  This will give them educational busy time during the drive.
5.  Write simple sentences using the enviromental print.  Ex.  I like __word__ . (Glue the environmental print on a card in the sentence.  Then help your child to read the simple sentences.  Point to each word as you read the sentence to help you child learn the concept of a word and how you say one word each time your move your finger.  This is called voice to print matching.

The Best New Years Resolution...Reading to your Child

Happy New Year!  This is the time of year we make resolutions for the new year.  The best resolution you can have is to read to your child 15-20 minutes a day.  This includes your elementary aged children as well.  Just because your child can read does not mean you should stop reading to them.

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Children should independently read books they enjoy at their reading level.  Here is a website with leveled reading lists:  http://home.comcast.net/~ngiansante/

You should read aloud books to your child that are higher than their reading level.  You can choose any books that interests your child or pick from from higher grade levels on the leveled reading list.  It is best to read books that are only two or three levels above your child's reading level to ensure your child is comprehending or understanding the story or text.

This does two things.  First, you are building your child's listening comprehension, this is their ability to listen and understand what they are hearing.  When your child's listening comprehension increases, so does the level of the books they can read on their own.  Reading to your child higher level books also builds your child's vocabulary and interests as well.

Strategies to Improve Elementary Listening Comprehension can be found at:
http://education.uncc.edu/lujordan/Listening%20Comprehension%20Handout.htm

Book Review: Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett

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****Here is a link to the author drawing the Gingerbread Baby and reading the story too!****
http://www.janbrettvideos.com/gingerbread_baby_low_bandwidth.htm

The Gingerbread Baby is a great story to read to young children.  Jan Brett does a wonderful job with the illustrations in her stories.  Her stories show the main illustration to match the text, but she also uses the borders of the stories to predict what will happen next in the story.

Having children predict what will happen next helps children increase their comprehension, or understanding of the story.

So, make sure you discuss with your children what is going on in the borders of the pages before turning the pages to continue reading the story.  

Extension Activities:

1.  Bake Gingerbread cookies or make them out of construction paper and have the children decorate them.  Printable gingerbread babies

2.  Retell the story using paper puppets as props.

3.  Watch the video of Jan Brett drawing and reading the story.
4.  Make Gingerbread Baby houses using graham crackers.

There are many other great books by Jan Brett to include:

The Mitten

The Hat

The Three Snow Bears

Gingerbread Friends

Town Mouse Country Mouse

The Three Little Dassies

Learning Letters: Alphabet Books

http://www.amazon.com/

Reading ABC books to your child is one of the best ways to your child learn the letters of the alphabet.  As you read each page, talk about the items on the page that begin with the letter.  Point to the letters and ask your child to say the letter and later add "a is for __(item on the page)__", b is for _____".  Your child will be say words that begin with the letter after reading favorite ABC books over and over again and talking about things that begin with the letter.

Your child will often become interested in letters and things that begin with that letter.  They may ask you, "What does dog begin with?"  A great response is "dog begins with d and the d says d (d sound) like in dog."

Other good ABC books include:

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Phonemic Awareness: Nursery Rhymes

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Nursery Rhymes are still a wonderful way to introduce your child to rhythm and rhyme in a playful way.  Reading and rereading classic nursery rhymes helps your child to learn the rhymes so they can recite them on their own.  You then use them as a teaching tool to help your child learn phonemic awareness, which is the ability to hear sounds in words.

Nursery Rhyme: Jack and Jill

Jack and Jill 

went up the hill

to fetch a pail of water

Jack fell down and broke his crown

and Jill came tumbling after.

1.  You can draw attention to words that begin with the same sound.
Jack and Jill have the same beginning sound.

2.  You can talk about how Jill and hill sound alike and are called rhyming words.  You can then ask the child if other words also sound like Jill and hill...(for example: Bill, fill, cat)
Bill sounds like Jill and hill.
Fill sounds like Jill and hill and Bill.
Cat does not sound like Jill and hill and Bill.

3.  You can also build vocabulary by talking about the words: fetch, crown and tumbling.

Find more Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes at: http://www.zelo.com/family/nursery/index.asp

Book Review & Activities: Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See

http://www.education.wisc.edu

Bill Martin, the author of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?", is one of my favorite children's authors because he does a great job with rhythm and rhyme.  The story is also predictable, where children learn what to expect on the next page.  They will often want to peek at the next page to see what is coming next.  Predictable books also encourage the child to participate in the reading of the story.

Your child may even try to read the book to you or read it on their own by memorizing the text they heard from reading the story over and over.  This is one of beginning stages of reading and should be encouraged.  Later, the child will begin to realize that the same word in one book is the same letters/word in another book.

Below is a link to a website with papers you can print at home to make puppets or flannel story pieces.  Encourage your child to use the puppets to retell the story in their own words.  This helps them build comprehension and show how well they understand the story.  After many readings, your child will do a great job using the puppets to act out the story.  Also, encourage them to use the book if they get stuck. The goal here is to have fun and play with language!

Link:  http://www.dltk-teach.com/books/brownbear/index.htm



There are many stories in this series which include:

Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?

Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear?

Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?