Read to me



Read To Me

Read to me riddles and read to me rhymes

Read to me stories of magical times

Read to me tales about castles and kings

Read to me stories of fabulous things

Read to me pirates and read to me knights

Read to me dragons and dragon-book fights

Read to me spaceships and coyboys/girls and then

When you are finished- please read them again.

By Jane Yolen

How did you celebrate Literacy Day?

We decided to go to a local school today and have Sophie participate in the schools Literacy Day activites.  They had crafts, games, writing centres and a read aloud.  They listened to the story "Sneezy The Snowman" by Maureen Wright and Stephen Gilpin.
I picked up a lot of tips as the teachers were on hand to give us information packages as well as discussions about developing literacy skills.
Here are some things i have learned...

• Read and Re -read your childrens favorite stories.  Although you want to introduce a variety of books and genres to your children, re-reading stories is the best way to promote language development.  Just like they say, practice makes perfect- repitition allows the child to really get a grasp of the words that they are hearing often.
• Talk abou the story while reading.  Look at the pictures and predict what will happen on each page before you read it.  Talk about what you think will happen on the next page before you turn the page.
• Read shopping lists, street signs, print ads in magazine and newspapers (look at the pictures first and have them tell you what you think they are trying to sell, then look at the words and read them the ad).
• Dress-up and role palying is one of the best tools for language development.  Have them come up with a role playing scenario and have them take the lead in pretend play. Puppet plays and using  building blocks where they can create castles, forts or anything also enhance vocabulary.  The language that children come up with during imaginative play is fascinating.
• Provide writing tools within hands reach in different areas around the house.  They should have easy access to pencils, papers and  crayons to draw, write or doodle. 
• scribbling is early writing- encourage it!  Don't think that if it is not actual practice of writing letters it is not important.  Scribbling actually develops their fine motor skills necessary for writing.  Use this time to teach them how to hold a pencil, but don't focus on the mechanics of writing...let them just write/scribble/doodle to their hearts content. 
• The most important tip is to let your child see you reading.  As simple as Monkey see, Monkey do. 

I have to create a list of our favorite book lists by genre.  Here is a recomendation for poerty and for counting books.

Poetry:
There are so many popular nursery rhymes.  Go on the internet and print off a few of your favorites to have on hand to share with your children.  We like to read poems in the book Jelly Belly written by  Dennis Lee.  This is an exerpt from the book, and one of the first poems from the book that my daughter learned.

Mrs Magee

Climbed up a tree

And she only came down to go shopping

A branch was her bed

With a leaf on her head

And whenever it rained she got sopping.

Counting books:
 Best way to learn numbers is to read counting books.  There are so many fun counting books.  "One Hungry Monster" by Susan Heyboer O'Keefe is a fun one we like to read.
I recently came across a great find at a bookstore.  The book is called "How Many" and it is a counting book that can be used from K-Highschool.  Teachers can easily place this book on a table for when students complete their work early.  Individually or in groups, i think it would be a fun challenge to see who can correctly answer the questions in this book
We love looking at this book and counting the different pop up shapes. Pictured are some sample pages.

The Triangle page:  some questions include-How many triangles can you see through?  which colour has the most triangles?  How many triangles are at the border? 

Circle Page:  How many circles are hollow? How many are solid?How many have coloured borders?How many circles are there within the spirales?

Star Page: How many stars have 4,5,6,7,8,9,10 points? How many stars contain just two colours?

Seriously, so many more pages and questions that stimulate the brains of kids and teachers alike.  So glad i scored this book at an amazing price at a neat little book shop in Toronto.

Stay tuned for some posts about our playroom dress-up area and our little place to create our own masterpieces of art.