Activity: Spelling mixed up words

Mixing up letters in a word that you just spelled together is a great way to work on letter sounds and help children understand that the letters have to be put in a certain order to communicate the intended message.

The other day while Isadora and I were eating breakfast I spelled out her name with marker while she helped me sound it out and then I suggested that we cut out each letter and then paste them on a piece of construction paper that she chose. She thought it was a great idea. Now I probably should have let her cut out some, but as you can probably note from the picture, I cut them all out quickly so that I could speed things up. As I cut them out, they dropped to the table in a mixed up mess and I presented the problem to Isadora - "How do we get the letters back in the right order?" Isadora initially thought that it didn't matter what order that they were in - DRAASIO was just as right as ISADORA. So I told her that actually, no, the letters have to be in the right order. So here's a little how it went:

"What makes the /i/ sound?"
"I!"
"Okay - after the /i/ sound what do you hear? s-s-s..."
"S"

We continued like this until we had spelled out her name. The only tricky part was the OR in her name, where I explained that the /or/sound was made by the letters O and R together. Normally I would let her by with invented spelling, but I think the name is important to spell correctly.

Next time I'll explain the bunny story that you can also see in the picture. :)

Don't do this at home! Cutesy shaped books

Creating a cute little shape book with Isadora proved to not be as motivating as I had hoped.

Ugh! What a slacker I have been. I graduated with my PhD almost a month ago and I have done nothing with this blog. To get myself back in the swing of things, I am going to try to limit myself to no more than ten minute updates. We'll see how that goes.

Over the course of the last 8 months I have talked about all the literacy activities that have met with success when I did them with Isadora. Well, here is a supreme dud. Why tell you about a lame literacy activity to do with a preschooler? To save you from the same mistake!

So here is my first mistake: I went for cute. I was thumbing through an old teaching guide that showed you how to make these adorable little shaped books (books shaped like rockets, books shaped like owls, etc.) and I thought one of them would be inspiring for Isadora. Surely a cute little penguin book would inspire her to make up a fabulous story that I could write down. So I sat down with her and she picked out this cute little book that looked like a pond with a little duck floating in the middle. Okay - I'll stop with the buildup. Here's what happened: I cut out all the little pieces for about ten minutes while Isadora colored and played with her little brother. Once I proudly displayed MY creation to Isadora, she was no longer interested. Sadly, I was now so invested in this lame project that I basically made up the story myself and wrote it down, prodding her every step of the way. It was about three short sentences long. Shameful.

So after all that work, Isadora did not like it and it really did not inspire the kind of creativity and excitement that I had hoped. I realized that I had done all the creating for this project, taking all ownership away from her. No wonder she wasn't interested. I get much better stories out of her when she makes a scribble and we label it "fog." Well, you can't win them all.

Mission: Nonfiction for Preschool

Books like Life-Size Zoo get preschoolers energized about reading non-fiction texts.

*Sidenote - I graduated!! Yes, I now officially have my PhD. This announcement, while gratifying to make, is mainly to excuse my lengthy absence from updating my blog. Whew - glad that is all done. It has been a long six years of work.

"Can you read me the big zoo book again? From the beginning." I would be exhausted from reading Isadora's new most favorite book Life-Size Zoo except that I am so thrilled that she is so energized about reading non-fiction. What is so great about it, you might ask? Let's start with the huge pictures that show details like an elephants pores or the whiskers underneath an armadillo's armor. Then you add in the side text that introduces your child to the animals name, sex, and age as well as important facts about the animal. I didn't think the name was that big of a deal until Isadora insisted on me reading out each name and its age, almost as if she were getting a formal introduction. Then there are the bubbles at the side of the animal that point out some of the small details in the picture that your child would most likely miss if not directed to it. Where, for example, would you find the scent gland on an elephant's face?? I didn't know. Thank goodness the book pointed it out.

Food for Thought: Reading Nonfiction

Encouraging your child to read nonfiction now can have a big payoff later in their childhood.

Reading nonfiction is a big deal. Think about what most of us, as adults, read now. I read (and write) almost exclusively nonfiction. And I'm not talking just books - it's magazines, reports, the newspaper, etc., etc. Unfortunately the majority of reading material that our kids get is fiction. Girls, in particular, usually excel at reading in the early elementary years when most children are reading fiction, but then begin to lag behind boys as the learning focus shifts to content areas like science, math, and history. That statistic describes my experience exactly; I did well in reading at the elementary level but then had a horrible time in science and history when I needed to read something that didn't have a story line. Though you might argue that history does have a story line, the way it is presented in history textbooks is not similar to what most of your children will be reading for pleasure in junior high.

The point of this post is to encourage all of you to get nonfiction books and texts for your young children. I subscribe to Your Big Backyard for Isadora and celebrate its arrival when it comes in the mail. I also try to check out nonfiction books when I can. Gail Gibbons is an excellent author for nonfiction that appeals to preschoolers (It is her book on Monarch Butterflies that I have in the upper corner of this post). But I have to admit that the pickings are slim, and about 80% of what Isadora has on her bookshelves in fiction...even knowing what I know.

The spring and summer is a great opportunity to dive into nonfiction as your child becomes fascinated with bugs and bicycles and sandboxes and trips to the beach. I am going to challenge myself to try to actively seek out nonfiction books/magazines/websites for Isadora that I think she might be interested in and I'll share them with all of you. If you are reading this (if anyone reads this at all - besides my husband of course - I force him) please share any non-fiction materials that you find to be successful with your preschooler!

Alphabet Bingo

Alphabet Bingo is a fun game that can reinforce letter names.

Aak! I've been working on my dissertation day and night, leaving little time to update and add new stuff. I'm doing well now and feeling good about where I'm at - only a few more weeks until I'm all done!!

But back to the interesting stuff - we were at a friends house for a birthday party the other day and we found a game of alphabet bingo stuffed among all the other toys. Isadora and I played a couple games and she seemed to really enjoy it (of course I'm sure it had nothing to do with me saying, "Wow Isadora, isn't this alphabet bingo a FUN game!? This is so much FUN!")

We got home and I looked up the game on Amazon, but it was fairly expensive for just a bunch of printouts. I decided that there must be something on the internet, and indeed there was! Here is the link to the webpage where I got it. I printed out two copies of the boards, cutting up one and then pasting the whole boards down to some construction paper. This is more work than I usually do for a literacy activity, but I figured that it's a game that we will be returning to often, so it's worth the 15 minutes I spent cutting and pasting. Then I just turned the letter cards over, call out the letter name, and we put coins over the letters that we each got. Isadora actually prefers to use poker chips, so we are using those now. There are supposed to be rules to filling in four in a row, or two at each side in order to win, but right now we are just filling up the boards.

*It also has uppercase and lowercase, something that I think is great. Once Isadora has mastered her uppercase, we will move to the lowercase.

Food for Thought: Invented spelling

Using invented spelling can strengthen your child's spelling and reading ability, while opening up fun ways to write letters and stories.
Lately Isadora has enjoyed writing notes to her friends. I think this stemmed from the activity we did with the Valentine's letters, because she now will list friends from preschool that she wants to write letters to - although I know it is just a ploy to break out the glitter and go crazy with the glue! In any case, we don't write a lot on them at all - just the names of her friends in fact. Instead of me writing the name for her though, I'm having her help me sound out the words using invented spelling. Invented spelling is where Isadora can sound out her friends name Koen, and write "KON" on her paper. When we wrote her friends name Eloise the other day, it looked like LOES. Before students can make sense of conventional spelling, they can use the sounds that they do know to construct words. This also helps them strengthen their ability to sound out words using phonics. Here is a great video clip that helps illustrate the strategy a little more. Although it is a video clip with first graders, you can easily see 1) how you can use invented spelling with your own preschooler, and 2) how you can gradually transition your child into conventional spelling as they become better able to sound out words.

Favorite Author: Rosemary Wells

Rosemary Wells writes a funny series of books that focus on the characters Max and his big sister Ruby.
Isadora has recently been reading the Max and Ruby series by Rosemary Wells. Max, the main character, is always getting into trouble of one kind or another, and his big sister Ruby is always there to try to patch up his mess (although Max usually ends up figuring out things for himself). While the stories are very appealing to Isadora, I also enjoy reading them because the situations are quite funny and memorable. For example, one of our favorites is Bunny Mail where Max tries to write a letter to Santa to tell him he wants a red sandspitter motorcycle. Max can't write yet, so he tries his best to communicate to Santa through a letter what he wants (by putting a tire track, sand, and red paint on the letter). Through many missteps, Max finally gets his beloved motorcycle. This short description really doesn't do it any justice, but I think it conveys the general gist of the plot. Here are our favorites: Bunny Mail, Bunny Cakes, Ruby's Beauty Shop, Max's Dragon Shirt, Bunny Money, and Max Cleans Up. Click here to get to an Amazon list of her books.

Recommended books: Yo! Yes? and Move!

Yo! Yes? and Move! are two fun books that you should check out from the library or purchase for your child's library.
Isadora and I recently saw the book Yo! Yes? on Between the Lions where they had actors reading the text. While using only a few words, the authors creating a fun dialogue between two main characters. What is so great about it is that Isadora proudly announced after I had read it to her a few nights in a row that she could read it on her own. Weeeellll, she could guess at a few words, and she even got some of them right, but that's exactly what you want. Yo! Yes? will be a book that we will return to for the bedtime reading.

A book that you should NOT read right before bedtime is Move!, a fun book that gets Isadora jumping around like a kangaroo and slithering like a snake. It is one of those fun movement books that is really enjoyable and gets Isadora to act out some great words like slither, waddle, etc. And it's only $6.40 for a hardbound book at Amazon right now. Money well spent.

*Sidenote: I haven't been doing many posts lately because I'm working my tail off every evening trying to finish my dissertation (Graduation in June!). I promise there will be more - I have a backlog of ideas and stuff I need to get out. Just so little time to do it all!!!

Activity: Shaped Notebooks

Make special shaped notebooks to inspire writing and drawing.
Do you remember when you were a kid and you would get the cool new notepad with the brightly illustrated cover? Mine had rainbows and unicorns on it, but yours may have been different. I was so inspired to write and draw in it! Taking that source of writing inspiration, I have been making special notebooks for Isadora to "write" and draw in. Here is one I did in the shape of a butterfly that we created after re-reading the Fancy Nancy book Bonjour Butterfly. Isadora noticed that one of the main characters has a very fancy notebook in the shape of a butterfly. So with a little bit of typing paper and a neon pink cover, voila! Butterfly notebook. (Notice how I label her drawings underneath. Picture of the left: Fog. Picture to the right: Lincoln is sick.)

TV Show: Between the Lions

Between the Lions is an engaging literacy show that has been positively linked with literacy growth in young children.

I'm not a huge advocate of television, but there are extremes to everything. Watching TV all day will not produce highly literate children, but not watching ANY television at all seems a little silly - especially when there are wonderful shows like Between the Lions out there.
Between the Lions is a 30 minute show on PBS that begins each episode with a family of lion puppets who work in a library. The main story line stems from their interactions and the story that they read at the very beginning, but it is packed full of other fun songs and activities throughout the show. It is Isadora's favorite show to watch and she requests it every time I ask her what she wants to watch.
The impressive thing about Between the Lions is that they have done some studies on it that have actually shown that children who watched the show had higher word recognition and standardized reading test scores than students who didn't watch the show. In addition, teachers have written about how they use the show to promote literacy in their kindergarten classrooms. I call that a win-win situation. My daughter loves it and I love it. :) To find out more, click here for the shows website.

Activity: Valentine's Day Cards

Valentine's Day cards can introduce writing as a means for communication and a trip to the mailbox.
A few days ago Isadora and I put together some Valentine's cards to give out to her good friends. She just sent out a few, but it was fun to see that she is starting to see some of her little preschool buddies as "friends."
I have a box of blank notecards with matching envelopes that I got at Target a while back, and she scribbled crayon and oil pastel over the fronts. Before she gave each card a big sweep of glue and glitter, I asked her what she wanted to write on each card. She told me very solemnly that I should write, "I love you." I obediently did this, sounding out each letter as I wrote down the three words (something that she was mildly interested in, although not that much). The next day when they were dry, I showed her how I was finding addresses for her friends and then wrote those on the envelopes while I gave her a rather confusing explanation of why we have to write addresses on envelopes. She stuck the stamps on and then we took a trip to the mailbox where she pushed them into the slot.
The only caveat in this entire experience was that, while writing down her message of "I love you" to all her friends, I forgot to also write Happy Valentine's Day. I can only hope that her little friends realize that her card is for Valentine's Day and not a proclamation of undying love. Although there is something kind of sweet about it. :)

Activity: Playdoh Letters

Use playdoh to make words and letters.

I just made an amazing batch of playdoh out of the book First Art. It is gooshy and soft and so much better than the commercial playdoh I don't think I'll ever go back. It has inspired Isadora to make all kinds of wonderful towers, people, and tea party treats with it. But when we aren't making all those fun and creative items, I (of course) slip in a few letters.
Making letters with playdoh is fun! And it is actually a great activity for kids to do. It gets them to really see the structure of the letter before those clumsy little hands can handle the likes of a teeny little pencil. I don't know the research behind it, but I know that almost every kindergarten class that I have ever visited had their students doing playdoh letters.
I keep it pretty low key. I just ask Isadora if she want to spell her name, and can she help me make playdoh snakes for the letters. On this particular day she did not want to spell her name, but wanted to spell "pink" in the dough. Go figure.

Activity: Labeled Drawings

Label your child's drawings to demonstrate sounding out words and to show that writing communicates a message.

Isadora has recently really been into drawing - it's a new thing. While they were little scribbles before, there are now heads emerging and occasionally a leg or hand. In any case, I will ask them what they are and she has a quick answer. "Lincoln with crazy hair" or "Fog" or "Wonderland."

(A parental side note: Fog and Wonderland look almost exactly the same by the way...just a lot of crazy circling. I think Fog was probably the most appropriate title.)

I have been taking a pen and writing her titles underneath, sounding the words out methodically as I go along. Occasionally I will stop and ask her for a letter if I think she knows it. Most of the time I just let her watch me as I sound it out.

Almost all kindergarten or first grade classrooms do this exact exercise - the children will draw a picture and the teacher comes around, asks them what the drawing is about, and then writes it down for them or writes it on a post-it note for them to transcribe onto their paper. Since Isadora doesn't have the fine motor control for that, I am just writing them for her.

Website review: Starfall

Very quickly - Isadora is hooked on this great website called starfall.com. It has multiple levels, but at Isadora's level it is just the alphabet. You click on the letters and it makes the sound of the letter. But more than that it has songs and activities and little animations associated with the sounds.

**HINT - click on the sparkly letters!! I am embarrassed to say that it took me a few tries to figure out that there were way more games, songs and activities associated with the individual letters because I didn't know that I needed to click the letters that sparkled. I thought they were just decorative. Yeah, I know. But my mom came over and did the exact same thing, so I'm thinking that there are other people out there that might not figure it out as well. :)

Making the most of reading aloud 2

Becoming aware of your own reading process can help your child notice details in a book that they might not otherwise.
Today Isadora and I were reading a book together. I don't even remember the name of the book, except that it was about a cat and it was illustrated by Steven Kellog, one of my favorite illustrators. But this is what Isadora did that made me so surprised. As we opened the book, I asked her one of my favorite questions, "What do you think this story is going to be about?" And she responded, while stabbing at the photo on the front, "About the cat!" So this actually wasn't the surprising part - I'm getting to it. The surprising part came as I flipped to the the title page where the illustration showed a girl and an orange tabby cat walking among orange and red leaves that were falling across the page. There was no text other than the title. But I paused because I realized that as a reader I was already starting to gather quite a bit of information about the story just from the cover and the title page. I believe at some point I remarked on the leaves, but I asked Isadora, "Well, what time of year do you think this story takes place?" I really didn't expect much of an answer, because she only just turned three, but without missing a beat she said, "Fall! Because the leaves are falling!"
Now I really couldn't believe it!! And maybe this is something that only a geeky mother like myself would love, but here's what she was doing: she was using the pictures to gather information about the story just as I was! So I shared this long and drawn out story for two reasons. First, as you read aloud to your child become aware of the process that you engage in as a reader. Because picture books have such little text, the pictures contain lots of details that enrich the story, and you may notice (as I did) that you gather information from other sources besides just the print at the bottom of the page.
Two, once you become aware of your own reading process, talk about the book as you go through and explore some of these things with your child. In this way, you are making your own process explicit. Some of the questions I ask Isadora are about the characters emotions ("How do you think the cat feels about that?") because they rarely go into this in picture books. And of course my famous, "What do you think this story is going to be about?" I'll also ask her, "What do you think will happen next?" Occasionally, if she makes a prediction, I'll ask her why she thinks that. That last question hasn't produced any results yet - she usually gives me a blank stare and says, "I don't know," as she impatiently waits for me to turn the page of the book. All in good time.

Why phonics?

What do you think has the biggest impact on your child's ability to read? Take a look at the list and see if you can find the top two...

• The ability to tell you the sounds in words (like sun begins with an 's')
• Knowledge of letter names
• Kindergarten teachers' prediction of reading success in first grade
• Performance on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (a measure of oral English Vocabulary)
• Parents' occupational status
• Library membership
• Number of books the child owns
• Amount that parent reads to their child
• Gender

All you Freakonomics readers probably guessed the amount that parents read to their children, or the number of books the child owns, but they're both wrong. Give up? They're already in order! A study by Share, Jorm, Maclean, & Matthews back in 1984 found that the top two factors that have the biggest impact on your childs ability to read is their PHONEME SEGMENTATION ABILITY (or their ability to tell you the first sound in the word sun) and their knowledge of letter names.
What does this mean for you and your child? PHONICS, PHONICS, PHONICS!! And while reading aloud to your child is wonderful, it is not enough to teach them to read.