Literacy Centers begin at the end of SeptemberYour child will rotate to a new
Literacy Center once each day, Monday-Thursday (no Literacy Centers on Fridays.
"Learning Activity Centers" will take place Monday through Friday, in addition to
"Literacy Centers." During the week's literacy center rotation, your child will visit with
me to focus on developing important reading skills. This includes reviewing alphabet and
letter sounds in contexts of words, tracking words with the "reader finger" (pointer
finger), and identifying and writing words (including high frequency words). Eventually
we will practice reading "fluencey," or pace, as we practice reading orally using writing
activities and the reading books series. Each child has a "writer's notebook" which is a
crucial tool in our reading and writing development. We will write in it daily.
Learning to read is a process. Please remember each child will develop skills on an
individual basis. Just as some children learn to walk faster than others, some will learn to
read faster than others. We want children to read the words, but ultimately
comprehension the written message is key. Some children learn the "rules" of reading
words without learning to comprehend what the words actually communicate. We will
work on skills to help with comprehension- predicting, re-reading, using context, and
asking questions. My goal is to teach children the joy of reading so they will LOVE to
read.
When your child visits with me during the week, he/she will bring a large zip-lock bag
called a "Take Home Bag" with one or two "Take Home" books. (These books are
borrowed from our classroom library collection as well as our reading series. Please
encourage your child to use "library book" rules with these). Read the book(S) to your
child, then together with your child, then give your child a turn to read independently.
Return books to the bag. Your child will also have a sentence envelope. The envelope
will have a sentence written on the outside. Look inside the envelope to find each word
from the sentence. Have your child build the sentence using the envelope as a guide.
Have your child POINT to the words as he/she reads the sentence to you. Then flip the
envelope over so your child does not see the envelope. Have your child put the sentence
back together (space between the word cards) independently. Then have your child
POINT to the words as he/she reads the sentence to you. Get a shoebox to store the
envelopes as your child brings them home (1 per week inside the Take Home" bag).
Envelopes stay at home to practice. You may keep the books for seven days, but can
return any time within the seven day period. Please place "Take Home" books back in the
Take Home ziplock bag before sending back to school.
What you can do at home....
Research proves repeatedly that developing good readers begins by reading to your
children, and reading to them A LOT. This is the most important activity you can do at
home to encourage good reading skills. Track the words as you read, ask questions as you
go and get your child to predict what will happen next. PLEASE READ TOGETHER
DAILY.
High frequency words like "is" and "the" are words that we see in print all the time, but
can be most difficult to learn because often the letter sound "rules" do not apply. The best
way to help your child learn these are to see them in context. After reading together,
choose a page and show him/her, for example, the word "is." Then tell your child to find
it somewhere else on a page. Repeat this for other high frequency words. You can visit a
list of them on our homework page. One of our reading goals will be to learn these words
by the end of the year. We will focus on a couple each week.
When your child comes to an unknown word guide him/her by encouraging:
1-Get mouth ready to say beginning sound of word
2-Say sound then move to next sound
3-If multi-syllable word, “chunk” the word. Cover word up word with hand and reveal
beginning of word only. Produce sound. Continue to move hand further across word,
adding next sounds until all word is shown. NOTE: Your child will be able to apply
word segmentations, letter blends and phonemes the year progresses.