Fantastic Fives of Literacy at Home PreK- Grade 2

Literacy ideas to enjoy at home with your child

Use the Five Finger Rule to select books:

Open the book to any page with lots of words. Begin to read the page aloud, or whisper read. Put up one finger for every word you don t know. 0 Fingers 1 Finger TOO EASY, try something harder TOO EASY if there aren t many words on the page, JUST RIGHT if there are lots of words on the page 2 3 Fingers 4 5 Fingers 5+ Fingers JUST RIGHT TOO HARD for right now, try something else WAY TOO HARD, pick something different

Ask questions

use the 5 W s:

Who? What? Where? When? Why?

Ask these types of questions after each chapter, or every few pages. Let your child tell you the answers. Write them down to remember use sticky notes, white boards, or special notebooks. Ask about characters, favorite parts and settings. Have your child predict what will happen next. How will the story end? Why?

5 tips for successful reading time with your child:

1. C ho os e a q ui e t ti me Set aside a quiet time with no distractions. Ten to fifteen minutes is usually long enough. 2. Ma ke rea di ng e nj oya bl e Make reading an enjoyable experience. Sit with your child. Try not to add pressure if he or she is reluctant. If your child loses interest then do something else. 3. R egu l a r p ra c ti c e Try to read with your child on most school days. 'Little and often' is best. 4. Ta l k a b o u t th e b o oks There is more to being a good reader than just being able to read the words accurately. Just as important is being able to understand what has been read. Always talk to your child about the book; about the pictures, the characters, how they think the story will end, and their favourite part. You will then be able to see how well they have understood and you will help them to develop good comprehension skills. 5. Va ri e ty i s i mp o rta n t Remember children need to experience a variety of reading materials eg. picture books, hard backs, comics, magazines, poems, and information books.

5 tips for Writing

1. Make writing an everyday event. Write notes, shopping lists, or directions for chores. Have a silent time where all communication needs to be done via writing. 2. Use a variety of media. Write in sand, paint, shaving cream, water or chalk. Write on each other s backs. 3. Have a supply of fun writing materials. Colored paper, notebooks, notepads, as well as fun pencils and pens, highlighters show off good writing will motivate children to have fun writing. 4. Write in a variety of genres. Write stories, directions, recipes, articles, letters and reports. Create books, publish on the computer and share the writing with members of the family. Talk about the 6 Traits of Writing: Ideas, Organization, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Voice and Conventions. Focus on one trait at a time. 5. Have fun and let the creativity out! Children will use inventive spellings and are working on correct grammar. Don t correct EVERY piece of writing let some stay at the draft stage students will enjoy looking back at the way they used to write as they become more proficient writers.

5 Websites to promote Literacy at home

join in with your child and enjoy the sites together!

1. pbskids.org

- a great interactive website with lots of literacy activities

The reading games section - http://pbskids.org/games/reading.html is full of choices. Try SuperWhy Story Book Creator to enjoy reading and creating stories

http://pbskids.org/superwhy/#game/storybookcreator 2. hunted web.com http://www.huntedweb.com/home3 - from letter

games to sentence reconstruction this webpage has links to a variety of literacy games and activities for children.

3. funbrain.com http://www.funbrain.com/ -

contains a reading section, a games arcade as well as books and comics to enjoy online. Suitable for the whole family! good for younger children, especially good when done together with an adult or older sibling for interaction.

4. Funwithsopt.com http://www.funwithspot.com/ 5. Starfall.com http://www.starfall.com/

- an old favorite with letter and sound practice as well as reading with speech enabled text where needed.

Of course you can always use your computer to create PowerPoints or Prezis, whip up a word document or make a picture collage with captions. As always, activities done together allow parents and children to enjoy literacy as a family creating fun and motivation for more literacy activities.