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Promoting Early Writing Development At Home

            Most parents know that reading to children is important, but often times, writing is overlooked. In fact, reading and writing go hand in hand. Like reading, writing is developmental and your child will want to have fun with the writing tools he or she sees others using. Allowing your child to play with writing, using crayons or pencils, reinforces awareness of print, develops the muscles necessary for writing, and helps him or her see the relationship between spoken and written words. When your child sees others writing for various reasons, he or she will be more motivated to practice their own writing.
What your child writes may not appear to be “writing” to you. Don’t worry! When children write squiggles, lines, or random strings of letters, you can tell that they understand that printed words have meaning. To them, this is “writing.” Your child is taking the beginning steps toward becoming a writer.
Every early writer experiments with scribbles and strings of letters. This early writing is something to be celebrated. Even if you can’t read it, be sure to show your child that you value what is written. By encouraging your child to write, you are paving the way for him or her to become a reader and a writer.
Below are two activities you can do with your child as he or she learns to write (Adapted from Comprehensive Literacy Resource for Grades 1-2 Teachers, M. Trehearne).

            Make a Grocery List

1. Have your child join you in printing items on a grocery list.
2. As you print each word, talk to your child: I am writing the word milk. It starts here with an m; the next letter is i; then l; the last letters is k. Let your child share in the printing.
3. Ask your child to point to the first letter, the next letter, the next letter, and the last letter. Ask your child to name the letters if he or she can.
4. Point to the word milk. Ask, Is this really milk? Have your child explain the difference between a word (representation) and the object.

            Dictate a Story/Create a Book

1. Have your child make up a short story, which you print. As you write the story, talk about what you are writing—that is, “think aloud.” Have your child print the parts he or she is able to do (e.g., a beginning letter of a word).
2. Reread the story together.
3. Make this dictated story into a book, and have your child illustrate it. It can become a story you read together over and over.

            Helping your child with writing at an early age will help him or her begin the journey to become a lifelong reader and writer. In order to develop as writers, children must walk a fine line between working independently and asking for support. Remember, it is fine to offer assistance, and always great to encourage. However, always keep in mind that it is best to children lead you to where they are ready to be led. As literacy researcher Anne Hass Dyson says, “We want to guide but not smother the emerging voices of our children.”

-Submitted by the Willow Road Reading Team
Elena Bagge, Mairead Dorry, and Ilona Goldstein

The Home School Connection

    Early Literacy Games for Sight Words

Sight words, or high frequency words, are those words that students encounter frequently in reading and writing.  They are encountered so often that only ten words account
for 25% of all words used.  In addition, 100 words account for 60% of all words used in
our reading and writing.  What makes these words more difficult for students to master is that many of them do not follow the typical phonetic rules nor do they have easy spelling patterns.  However, they appear so frequently in all kinds of text, that students need to have automatic recognition of them in order to become independent, fluent readers. In order to help students instantly recognize common sight words, we have provided some fun, multi-sensory activities.  This will give children the opportunity to retain a difficult sight word by experiencing and manipulating it.  Below is a list of some motivational games through which you can assist your child in practicing these important words.  You can access a list of sight words on www.learningbooks.net and click on free
flash cards for Dolch sight words.  It’s a good idea to concentrate on two words per week when doing these activities.

*Read a story and see how many times you can see your words.

*Print your words with your fingers five or more times in flour, salt or sugar.

*Use your favorite snack to shape your words and then eat them.

*Tape record yourself saying and spelling your words.

*Use colored chalk to write your words on the sidewalk.

*Spread peanut butter on bread and add raisins to form your words.

*Paint your words using water colors or finger paint.

*Write your words in shaving cream.

*Find the letters of your words in a newspaper. Cut out the letters and spell your words.

*Use beans, pasta or rice to form your words.  Glue them to construction paper or tag board.

*Read a letter from the mail and look for your words and list them.

*Write three or more words that rhyme with each of your words.

                We hope you enjoy these “exsighting” activities with your children!

Promoting Nonfiction Reading and Writing at Home
Written by Annemarie Gunn, Claudia Santucci, and Eileen Wallace

Passion is contagious.  If parents, relatives, and friends share their hobbies and interests with children, they will want to explore them as well.  With a little time and enthusiasm on the part of a parent, a child can develop a natural interest in reading and writing nonfiction.  There are many fun learning activities which families can participate in, to improve children’s reading and writing skills, as well as strengthen familial relationships and create lifelong memories.  The best part is that many types of learning activities already take place in our households.  It’s just about being aware of these learning opportunities as they arise.
How To’s

• Children can partake in reading and creating recipes from cookbooks and then selecting their favorites to add to their own authored cookbook.     
• Reading directions to a fun board game or computer game is a part of a child’s daily literacy these days.  Why not ask children to write directions for these games or have them create games of their own?
• Children can create directions for anything from “how to draw,” to “how to make friends,” or “how to care for a pet.”
• Before a long family trip or even a trip to a local store, children can create a map with directions on how to get to their destination.

Record family memories

• Families can create special scrapbooks for various holidays or family traditions.
• Children can interview their grandparents or other family members to capture what life is/was like for them.
• Parents and children can write to each other with daily journal writing.  This can be done each night before bedtime or before children return home from school.
• Children can create a pet care journal to keep track of how they care for their family’s pet(s).
• Plan a family trip to a museum, historical location, aquarium, or any safe, unfamiliar surrounding, and ask children to take pictures or sketch what they see and write about it.
• Creating personal time-lines is another fun way to share thoughts and memories with family members.

“Surf the Web” together

• http://pbskids.org/parents
• http://rif.org/parents/resources/online activities.mspx
• http://www.kd-connection.org (online pen pals from around the world)
• http://www.americaslibrary.gov (social studies curriculum—The Library of Congress)

Using Technology to Support Your Child’s Reading
By The Howell Road Reading Team

As we all know, parents and teachers are partners in supporting their child’s reading and education. As reading specialists,  we have done many workshops throughout the years and these are some questions that consistently come up:

“How can I choose a ‘just-right’ book?”
“How can I motivate my child to read?”
“How do I know that my child understands what he/she is reading?”

There are some valuable websites that can help you answer these questions and enhance your child’s reading as they progress through their school career. One such website that we would recommend is Tumble Books. It is wonderful for those busy times when you are unable to sit down and read with your child. On this website your child will be able to choose a book, have it read to him/her and then choose one of the fun activities related to the book.  This can be reached through our district website www.valleystream13.com. After accessing the website, you must click on the Our Schools tab and the link Online Resources. On the lower right-hand side of the Valley Stream webpage, you will find Online Subscriptions, scroll down to Tumble Books and click. This will bring you to the website www.tumblebooks.com.  Once you have arrived, you can enter the name of a book or click on any of the available links!

Another great website that you can access is www.rif.org. Once you reach this website, click on the purple parent link. This will direct you to the portion of the website that offers many great articles such as, “Motivating Kids to Read”.

Please remember we are always available for any questions!

Remember:

                     Reading is Thinking!