3 Reading New Year's Resolutions

Hello Again Readers,

Even though the New Year is only hours away, it's not too late to talk to your little reader about a New Year's Resolution, or to make one for yourself to help your little reader grow! The trick with New Year's Resolutions, however, isn't just to light a tiny motivational match that will burn out within a week or two, but to think of a way to build a routine that will help you to ignite a long lasting fire within yourself and your little reader. As I'm sure many of you can attest to, the gyms and fitness centers are certainly at their busiest in January, but rarely do people attack their weight loss regimes with the same zest come February 28th. My goal for this post is to not only give you some ideas for some awesome reading resolutions, but also to give you some routines to help you and your little reader achieve your goals! So, without further ado...

The 3 Reading Resolutions

1. In 2016 I want to read (insert number)  of new books.

The wording in this resolution is PERFECT for our readers from as early as Kindergarten, and reaching through college (not to mention yourself ;-) ). The best part about this resolution, is you can help your reader set the total number, and then divide them up by month. So for example, a Kindergarten student might want to read 48 new books (a reasonable number when thinking of picture books) and this would mean 4 a month for them. Look below for other reasonable numbers to suggest:

• 1st: 48 books
• 2nd: 42 books
• 3rd: 36 books
• 4th+: 24 books

As you notice, the number of books decreases as our readers get older, this is because the length of books (from picture to chapter) and the complexity of the text increases. It's important to help them make good choices with their books too. Let them know it's not just the number of books, but the quality of books to accomplish. For example, a 5th grader reading a Clifford book to "get in" their book for the month, has missed the point of the resolution, and you might want to help him to find a book he would enjoy, and talk to him about how we want to feel completely good about ourselves when we reach the goal.

How do we make this happen again?

• Sticker Charts: For our younger readers, sticker charts are very motivational. You can make one with enough spots to hold all of their books for the year, and then give them a sticker to put on their chart once they've achieved them.
• Calendars with Stickers: To expand on the idea, you could give them stickers to put on their calendar to break down their reading by month. This makes the goal more manageable for our little ones, and as a bonus, it helps you to see how often your child is finishing a book!
• Frequent conversations about reading: For both our younger and older students, ask them how their reading is coming, make visits to the library a family outing, and read along with them as well. This will not only help them to develop those strong reading habits and help them achieve their goal, but also it will give you some special one-on-one time with them, which will give them positive feelings toward reading!

2. In 2016, I want to read a new genre every month.

For our purposes, genres of books are basically different types of books, and many times, our readers find one genre and cling to it, without trying others. For boys, it's typically nonfiction or graphic novels, and for girls it's fiction or fantasy. Although it's by no means "the end of the world" if our student prefers one genre over all others, it can stunt their growth in genre knowledge, which is important for them to develop as they get older and are required to read different genres in class. By making a resolution to explore many genres over the course of the year, not only will our readers gain different genre knowledge, but they will also be able to compare the genres, and perhaps find a new favorite! There are many lists on genres abound, but I've included 12 below perfect for this resolution:

• Fantasy: talking animals, magic, completely unrealistic events
• Mystery
• Realistic Fiction: A text about something that COULD happen, but either the events or characters are not real
• Historical Fiction: A text about a historic event that did happen, but includes fictional characters (the I Survived series)
• Science Fiction: A text about fictional events in space or time, usually includes aliens, technology, etc.
• Poetry
• Nonfiction: A text about a topic that is real
• Biography: A text about a person's life who really lived
• Autobiography: A text written by someone about their own life
• Graphic Novel: A text written to include pictures alongside of text (commonly known as comics, but has completely morphed into it's own genre such as Big Nate books)
• Plays
• Traditional Literature: Folktales/Fairytales that typically teach a lesson at the end of the story

By taking a year to sample all of these genres, your reader will truly grow by leaps and bounds!

How do we make this happen again?

• Theme the months: Let your reader choose which genre they want to read on a given month, and write it on their personal calendar. At the beginning of each month, take a special trip to the library, and find books to fit into that genre! Make sure to keep it fun, and encourage your reader to finish at least one book for that month within that genre, even if they are reluctant to read it at first.
• Read along with them: A great way for even you to understand more about the genre, is to pick your own book in the library and read it too! This will give you even more items to talk about with your child as you can share with them your impressions about the genre as well!

3. In 2016, I want to read (insert number here) minutes each day.

In the spirit of "saving the best for last," I most certainly did on this one! Encouraging your child to read every day is the best thing we can do for their reading development at home, and this is supported by multiple studies! The best part about this resolution, is it works for all ages! From birth-college, our children greatly benefit from daily reading and daily reading routines. For our little ones (birth-PreK3) this resolution may be more of yours, and making sure to do it with them, but for PreK4 and older, they can easily take ownership of this time, and start to show independence in their reading habits. Here are some suggested time ranges to suggest to your children as they are setting their resolutions:

• Birth-PreK3: 10-15 minutes a day
• PreK4-Kinder: 15-20 minutes a day
• 1st-2nd: 20-25 minutes a day
• 3rd-4th: 25-30 minutes a day
• 5th+: at least 30 minutes a day

How do we make this happen again?

• Set aside a specific time to read each day: By specific, I mean super-specific! For my schedule with Charlotte, I might block off 5:15-5:30 JUST for reading. The more specific we can be, the more consistent we will be, especially when balancing work, practice, school, and other little ones! If she is old enough, let your child pick her reading times. This gives her ownership over the time, and helps her to make it part of her routine. It's commonly cited that it takes 21 days to develop a habit, so by keeping your children reading at that specific time each day for 21 days, they'll soon be doing it on their own!
• Get a timer: You can easily buy a timer for your child's reading, and let them control it. Or even just use the one on your phone! This will help them get excited about their reading. Additionally, for our readers who are just starting off on their bigger block of time, it gives them the freedom to divide the time up. For example, for a 1st grader, you might have them read from 5:10-5:20, and then after dinner from 7:20-7:35. This gives them their 25 minutes, and their timer will ensure that they did all 25.
• Read along with your child: You can listen to your child read, or model good reading yourself. Can you imagine how powerful it is for your child to see everyone reading at the same time? Think of how much we get into sports, and how our children get excited for it, because everyone's gathered together. That same energy could be transferred to reading by having everyone read at once. 

I hope this post helped you to both round out your resolutions with your little ones and gave your practical ways to do it! May your 2016 be filled with new adventures in reading and growing with your child! Have a wonderful night, and a Happy New Year!

Until next time readers...

Yours in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista

Songs that Pack a Literacy Punch!

Hello Again Readers!

It's hard to believe, but we're already deep into the second quarter at my school! After my first quarter in my new position, I do have to also confess that one of my favorite parts of being a Reading Specialista (and believe me, I have many favorite parts) is the Early Childhood Literacy lessons I teach at my school. Although some people may shutter at the prospect of being in charge of 20+ 3 and 4 year-olds, I look forward to the songs, the motions, the jumping, the moving, and the dancing that our Literacy Labs hold together!

Besides reading books for our little ones and practicing letters, singing quality songs is one of the most powerful tools we can hold in our literacy arsenal. By singing songs, our little ones are able to develop their phonemic awareness (their ability to understand and play with sounds: an important precursor to reading) and increase their vocabulary. In this blog post, I've included my 5 favorite songs to use for itty bitty learners, and tips for how you can go beyond the songs to enrich them and add even more umph to them for your little learners!

1. Dance Like You've Got Ants in Your Pants- Eric Herman

First of all, if you haven't heard of Eric Herman, he's basically the new Raffi! He has a host of adorable fun sing alongs, many of which are available on Youtube. I highly recommend him!

The Reason I love this song:
I love this song, because it seamlessly mixes rhyming and vocabulary. By dancing to this song along with the video, our itty bitties learn new words by practicing movements and seeing images on the video, and they also learn basic rhyming pairs!

Add more umph
To add on to this song, you can simply add verses for your little learner to dance and sing along with that rhyme and follow the pattern of the song, for example:

• Dance like you've got a bed on your head...
• Dance like you've got a treat on your feet...
• Dance like you've got eggs on your legs...
• Dance like you've got rubber bands on your hands...
• Dance like you've got charms on your arms...
• Dance like you've got gum on your thumb...

The longer it goes on, the more fun they (and you) have, and the more they learn!

2. If You're Happy and You Know It

The Reason I love it
I love this song, because it is typically very familiar to our itty bitties. Besides the "Itsy Bitsy Spider," it's probably the most sung song in my household, but many people don't notice its great potential for listening and vocabulary building! Every motion and every "command" in the song is immediately followed up by a motion that reinforces it which is awesome for building vocabulary!

Add More Umph
To add more umph to this song, similar to the first suggestions, simply add on to the song. Typically, the song only includes clap your hands, shout hooray, make a smile, and stomp your feet, but there are many other commands that you can do with your little one.

• Wiggle your ears
• Pat your head
• Rub your tummy
• Tickle your knees
• Wrinkle your nose
• Jump up and down
• Spin in a circle
• Stretch up your arms
• Tap your fingers

You'll want to make sure that you model the command along with your child too, to ensure that they understand what to do. Again, the longer it goes on, the more they learn, but remember to keep it fun, and not turn into a "If you're happy and you know it drill sergeant" ;-). 

3. The Wheels on the Bus

The Reason I love it

Just like "If You're Happy and You Know It," this song is easily recognizable and a favorite for most children. It's also a great way to increase vocabulary and practice new words with your child. In fact, with just a few tweaks, this song can really pack a HUGE literacy punch, and you can even add sound play to your child's singing practice.

Add more Umph

For Vocabulary: To support your little one on her vocabulary journey, you can add different characters on the bus (Disney characters, book characters), animals (farm animals, zoo animals), seasonal favorites (Halloween items, Christmas decorations), etc. *Note: Your bus may get quite loud and fun during this activity!*

For Sound Play: As you're adding items onto your bus, instead of referencing the motions or words they would make, reference the first sound of the word, for example:

"The driver on the bus starts with 'duh,' 'duh,' 'duh,'"...

Identifying first sounds in words is an important phonemic awareness skill that your little one can work towards with this fun practice!

4. BINGO

The Reason I love it

This song not only has an adorable tune, but also it promotes early spelling skills, and the understanding that individual letters make up words.

Add more Umph

As you know, Bingo is not the only five letter word/name in the world, consider these names:

Aaron
April
Abbie
Brian
Lilly
Sofia

Also for a religious version "There is someone who loves me so, and his name is Jesus.J-E-S-U-S...my heart remains in Jesus."

5. Old McDonald

The Reason I love it

Just like "The Wheels on the Bus," this song helps our little learners develop their vocabulary, and it can be tweaked to add sound play as well!

Add more Umph

For Vocabulary: There are many animals you can add to your farm besides just the traditional farm animals. It's fun to consider all sorts of zoo animals and all the fun noises they can make too! 

For Sound Play: Just like with "The Wheels on the Bus," you can have your little one practice the first sound of the animal instead of the sounds that the animals make. For example:

...on his farm he had a cow, with a 'cuh' 'cuh' here and a 'cuh' 'cuh' there....

Again, first sound identification is a great early skill to work on with your little ones!

**Just a note, it's best to practice sounds without using vowels to immediately accompany the sound. So the letter c should be as close to the 'c' sound as possible. I just wrote the "cuh" to clarify that you should make the c sound, and not say the letter "c."**

I hope these songs help to enrich your literacy learning time with your little one! After all, (besides Church), there's never a bad place to sing one of these songs. At the grocery store, in the tub, and in the car, your little bitties will love practicing their literacy skills with you! So happy singing readers...

and until next time....

Yours in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista

5 Ways to Enhance Your Littlest Reader's Book Knowledge During Read Alouds

Hi Readers,

I have to admit, this post was inspired by my own busy life and that of other busy parents! Whether you work outside of the home, in the home, or have been able to devote your time to be a full-time SAHM, there never seem to be enough hours in the day to teach our little ones all the things they need to know. Picking up Charlotte from day care at 4:30 (if Houston traffic allows), and then getting her home to eat dinner, practice walking and other gross motor activities, and play, we are lucky if we get to a really good quality read aloud every day during the work week without her getting too crabby. I therefore thought it would be useful to come up with 5 tips for busy parents to help them make the most out of their read aloud time with their little ones. 

Why Read Daily?

To start with, much of the research suggests that as early as six months, babies have the capacity to concentrate and focus long enough to read a book. I, however, find that babies are never too young to be read to (Charlotte was first introduced to Five Little Monkeys in utero by my husband after all!)! Any type of read aloud that you have with your little one is beneficial to not only their reading skills, but also their positive feelings toward reading and books that can affect them for the rest of their lives. By further targeting your read aloud with your little ones, you can even help to start them out for PreK and Kindergarten readiness in multiple areas. With the importance of reading daily fresh in our minds, we can now delve into the 5 ways to enhance your little one's book knowledge during this precious reading time you share together.

5 Ways to Enhance Your Littlest Reader's Book Knowledge

1. Point out the text features.

When our little ones are first entering school, teachers start to assess them on how they understand the concepts of print. Basically, what this means is teachers check if they know the front and back covers of a book, where the title and the author and illustrator are, and which direction to read a story. As you're sitting down with your little one, make sure to mention or talk through these features with them.

"Look, Charlotte, this is the front cover of the book, and these words are the title. Mommy is underlining the title. The book is by Dr. Seuss, that's the person who wrote the book. See his name right there?"

Giving your child this vocabulary, and having her practice pointing to the different items to locate the items herself will really give her a leg up on those early assessments, and it will help her to learn more about the structure of a book.

You can also have your child practice opening a book correctly. For example, give it to him upside-down, and see if he can turn it around and open it right-side up. "Whoops! Mommy can't remember how to open the book! Can you show her?"

**Fun fact: it only seems to be socially acceptable to refer to yourself in the third person if you're a parent or a teacher. Could you imagine if other people did it? (Just a little laugh!)**

2. Trace the text, and call your child's attention to it.

It may sound surprising, but some children simply don't notice the text in the story, because they are so excited about the pictures. In fact, if you think about it, there is text all around our children all the time, signs, billboards, TV ads, books, etc., but seldom are they really interested in text until they are starting to read.

Because of this, it's so very important to point the text out to your child and trace it with your finger. This is powerful, because not only are they starting to understand that words carry meaning

(and that you're not making up the story which they first believe), but also they are seeing which direction we read and they get to see the difficult return sweep (the fact that we read to the end of a line on its right side, then return sweep to go down to the next line and start on the left side again.) Some children have a hard time grasping the return sweep and early reading can prove difficult to them.

Furthermore, you can teach one-to-one word correspondence to your child. This means that he understands that one spoken word stands for one written word in the book. Once he gets more advanced in his reading (by age 2-3) you can help him
trace the words as you say them, hopping from one word to the next. Another great activity is having your child count how many words are on the page. This helps them to not only be aware of the words, but also to understand their concept of word (or what a word is: letters separated by spaces).

3. Ask your child to find meaning in the pictures.

I'm pretty sure that ever since she had the motor skills to do so, my little girl was pointing at something, anything, and everything around her. As a Reading Specialist, I was especially excited to see her point at the different pictures in the book! Sometimes, especially in picture books, the pictures can have equal, if not more meaning in them than the text itself. Before our little ones can read the words, it's important to help them "read the pictures" and notice that the pictures carry meaning too!

One way to do this is to ask your child to find the characters you just read about. This way they can point to the characters right away and note their importance in the story. You can also talk about the pictures too. "Oh we just read about how Thistle is grey can you point to something else that's grey?" or "Oh they said the clouds are grey and the rock is grey. Where is the rock? Where are the clouds?"

Again, by having our little ones actively engage with the pictures, you are helping them to note the importance of the pictures in the story, and to use the pictures to help them understand the story better! Using pictures to retell a story or understand a story is commonly referred to in PreK and Kinder as a picture walk, so helping them notice the pictures is helping them to get ready to showcase this skill!

4. Engage your child in discussions about the book. (Even if they don't have words yet!)

Another very powerful and simple technique we can use to help enhance our child's reading is to talk with them about what we're reading together, even if they can't talk yet! We can do this in four easy ways:

1) React to the book or characters "Oh my goodness! That Clifford eats so much! I can't imagine how much Emily Elizabeth needs to feed him every day! Look at all that food! You eat a lot sometimes too, but that's even more than I can eat!"

2) Ask your little one questions (and answer for her if she can't talk yet) "Hmmmm,how do you think the firemen felt when Clifford helped put out the fire? I bet they were happy and relieved. They were probably grateful too, because Clifford helped them to do their job!"

3) Talk to them about what could happen next. "Look how dirty Harry is! He got dirty playing at the railroad and in the street! I think he's going to keep getting dirtier, and even darker with dirt! What do you think? Do you think he'll keep getting dirtier? Do you think he'll ever take a bath?"

4) Practice retelling what happened on the page. "Wow! We were right! On this page, Harry kept getting dirtier, because he slid down a coal chute. Look at him, he's sliding right down it!"

Notice that in every example conversation with a child, there were exclamation points! It's so important to be excited about reading with your child and to engage them in an equally exciting conversation. Even if your child isn't talking yet, it's perfectly fine to engage them in this conversation. Our little ones learn so much of their language skills and vocabulary from what we tell them and use around them.

It's therefore important that even though you may feel a bit crazy for talking like this to a little nugget who can't talk back yet, that we become comfortable with it, because it's the best thing we can do for our little one. If you think about it, if you can dance with your baby to the "Hot Dog Dance" from Mickey Mouse Club House and sing along to the song, talking to them about a book doesn't seem like the craziest thing you'll do all day! ;-) 

5. Cuddle Your Little One!

Although the previous 4 tips will help your child's skill levels with reading, and are therefore important on their own, perhaps the biggest impact we can give to our child during read alouds is the feeling they have when reading a book with us. This helps to foster a love of reading for them, and helps to turn them into a lifelong reader.

Think about it. Can you recall reading with your parents? Weren't they comforting memories of a bedtime story, being tucked in, kissed, and going to sleep? When you began reading on your own, without knowing it, you carried these positive feelings about books with you. Because of those experiences, you found books comforting and fun.

We want to create those same feelings of comfort, love, and safety with our children when we read with them. To do this, we want to be close to them when we read. Have them sit on your lap or right next to you. Cuddle up with a blanket, or have them tucked in bed while you're reading with them. Smile often. Hug them lots. Keep it fun. You'll soon find that not only is this quality time good for your child to feel positively about reading, a feeling she'll carry with her for the rest of her life, but also it's time that you'll treasure as well.

So get ready to get friendly and personal with Clifford, Arthur, Curious George, Fancy Nancy, Winnie the Pooh, and the Big Hungry Caterpillar! Because after all, they're going to be your child's favorites, and I'm sure you'll find that the joy they create in your child's eyes will make them your favorites again too!

Until next time....

Yours in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista

Helping Your Child to Pick a Good-Fit Book

Hello Readers,

Now that many of us are back in school or school's right on the horizon, one of the catchiest phrases your kids will be hearing in school is "picking a good-fit" book. Teachers, rightly so, are really working with your children to help them find books that are appropriate for both their interest and difficulty level to read. All the research points to the fact that when students spend time reading good-fit books, they are able to vastly improve in their reading skills and advance to more difficult books in the future. Reading, however, cannot and should not stop at school. In fact, it's advised for our children to read at least 20 minutes every night (in addition to their homework) in order for them to increase in their reading skills and vocabulary knowledge.

To do this, as parents, we have to be able to not only put aside a time and place for our little ones to read each day, but also provide the materials they need. You don't have to be a Barnes and Nobles member, or an Amazon guru and buy all of your child's books! Quite the contrary, you needn't go further than your local library to find an astounding array of great-fit books for your kids.

Understandably, the library can be a dizzying place, and sometimes you may walk out wondering if your child really did pick the type of good-fit book that will help them improve in their reading. Well, that's why I, as the Reading Specialista, am here to give you some tips to make the process of picking a good-fit book for your child both fun and easy.

Motivation First

The first step to helping your child find a good-fit book is to ask them what they like and what they want to read about. Although we may think we  have the best ideas in mind for our children at all times (believe me, I'm super guilty of this one!), when it comes to picking what they want to read and what they're interested in, your kiddo will tell you! Whether they want to read about dinosaurs, fairies, police officers, dogs, cats, or roller coasters, find out what they like and you've got a great place to start. 

It's important for our children to be motivated when they read, so they will read the material more deeply, and will be more likely to finish what they're reading. It's vital to keep in mind that the reading they do, although it is important to be done nightly, it should be done for pleasure, and they should be allowed to read about a topic they want to read. So, once you've found out what your kid wants to read about, you can easily do a topic search in the library database.

5 Finger Rule

Step two, you checked the database, and pulled 10 books of various shapes and sizes for you child. You know some books look too hard and some look too easy, but you can't remember exactly which reading level your child's teacher suggested he had recently achieved. Well, there's a simple fix that teachers teach students in their classrooms that you can also do with your child. It's called the 5 Finger Rule. 

As detailed on the poster, you have your child open the book to a page, and start to read. Each time he misses a word, he puts up a finger. If he puts up 5 fingers or more on one page, that book may be a bit too hard for him to read successfully at this time, and you could gently council him to pick a different book. If, however, he only finds four or less words he has difficulty reading on the page, this could be a good fit book for him, and he can continue reading.

As an important note, sometimes this approach does not always weed out books that are too difficult for our children. In fact, it does tend to allow for our children to read books easier than is appropriate for their level. It's therefore important to have a conversation with your child to ask them if the book is "challenging" enough for them, but not too challenging, or if it's a bit too easy. By doing this, we are helping our children to monitor the difficulty of what they're reading and mature in their book choosing skills. 

Teacher Suggestion and Scholastic Book Wizard

Another great source of information on helping your child to pick a good fit book is your child's teacher and the website Scholastic Book Wizard. In the first couple months of school, your child's teacher will quickly become familiar with your child's growing reading level, and will most likely give an assessment or two to locate the approximate reading level of your child. It's important to note that these tests are not perfect and they only offer an approximate level, not an exact level, but it's a good place to start!

You can ask your child's teacher two questions to help you find good-fit books. 

1) You can ask the teacher "What is my child's reading level in your class right now?" (Many teachers have this information readily on file by the end of the second month of school, or would be able to give you an estimate if you politely ask them to observe your child over a week.) 

2) You could also ask your child's teacher for specific book suggestions. Many teachers have a wealth of knowledge of not only the interest levels of students in the age group that they teach, but also books they know your child would enjoy based on what they read in class.

With the information of your child's reading level, you can access Scholastic Book Wizard, which is one of my all-time FAVORITE TOOLS! I use this in my own work as I'm picking instructional books for small groups, or suggesting books for students.

Once you click on the Scholastic Book Wizard Link, you can search for books by title or level. If you search by title, the site will tell you the level a book is both for interest and reading level (as seen below).

If you search by level, Scholastic will suggest a list of books your child could read that would be on that reading level. You can search by grade level, guided reading level, DRA level, or Lexile level, all which are different types of ways to level books that your child's teacher might use (pictured below). 

It's always important to keep in mind, however, that motivation should always win out over level. I, for one, would never tell a child a book is too hard for him, but I would instead let him try to read it, and if he needed to abandon it, because he found it was too hard, that would be okay. I'd then be there to suggest another book, on his level, and it would be the student's choice if he wanted to read that one or not. So although the Scholastic Book Wizard allows you to be more exact and informed in your child's book choice, it's not the final say in what your child reads.

Those are just a few quick tips to help you make your time in the library with your child both enjoyable and fruitful! When you help your child pick a good fit book to read at home you are not only complementing the instruction that she is receiving at school, but you're also giving her the tools to strengthen her reading and become a lifelong reader!

So enjoy your weekend library trips and your smiling reading child, and...

Until next time...

Yours in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista

Hitting the Ground Running: What the 1st Few Weeks are Like for a Reading Specialist

Hello again Readers,

It's been quite a busy few weeks in the world of the Reading Specialista! My school just had it's first full week of classes, and everything's starting to get into full swing for everyone! For me, I've really been able to have a new found respect for the saying that a Reading Specialist wears many hats. I decided to document what I've been up to for the past month, as many future or current Reading Specialists may want a comparison/confirmation point and many teachers and parents may be wondering, "What does that Reading Specialist do all day anyway?" In short, a lot a bit of this, and a lot a bit of that! As a bonus, I'm also including some organizational forms I used when working with different populations in the school. Feel free to use them if you are a Reading Specialist, and classroom teachers may find them useful too, especially my small group intervention forms!

Setting Up My Classroom

Just like regular classroom teachers, I had the job of setting up my classroom, but it was a bit different, because my classroom is actually our school's library, and this was the first year that I was transforming it into the Literacy Lab. This role that I have is a bit different from the traditional Reading Specialist role, because I am responsible for teaching Reading Enrichment classes for grades PreK3-5th each week. I see PreK3-Kinder two times a week, their first class focuses on alphabet knowledge, phonics, phonemic awareness, and fluency, and their second class is a comprehension lesson. I then see 1st-5th once a week to give them comprehension strategy instruction (predictions, connections, questioning, sequencing, etc.) 

Therefore, I had to transform the Library into the Literacy Lab. To do this, I reorganized the shelves, integrated my literacy supplies, selected more Literacy Learning posters and elements to put in the room, and organized the space to provide for more interactive lessons. The pictures show the result of the setup work. (I'm still kicking myself for not doing a before picture, but at least you can see the "after" ;-) ). I will say, it was harder for me to set up my classroom this year, because unlike before, I wasn't sure when I'd feel done. I knew how to set up my 3rd grade classroom so well, that it felt like I'd never be done in the Literacy Lab. I can say that after 2 weeks of working, however, it finally feels like my new little home, and it was ready for students and fully functional this past week!

Working with Admin

Another unique challenge to my year this year is that I am the first Reading Specialist we've ever had at my school. Because of this, I've worked extensively with the Administration in the past year to create my job description and responsibilities and over the past couple of weeks, I've been in communication with the Administration at my school to follow-up with those responsibilities to ensure I was covering the needs of the school.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have worked with my principal and assistant principal to make sure we were all on the same page for the literacy development needed to continue to move our school forward which I would provide for both our students and our faculty. We decided on full-group professional development topics I would give for the first few months of school which included Daily 5 workshops, Standards-Based Grading for reading teachers, DRA training, DIBELS training, and the STAR assessment training through the AR program. We also discussed the frequency with which I would meet with small groups for further instruction, and I talked about how I would be meeting with teachers to provide individual coaching and support. After these discussions and meetings, we had a good shared game plan that we could use to support our school's literacy endeavors. 

Working with Teachers

Once my classroom was set up, and the other teachers had set theirs up during inservice as well, I started to meet with the other teachers to set their goals. I used the goal setting sheet below to help facilitate these meetings. Basically, I met with every reading teacher and asked them to pick three areas of growth which they are interested in working on during this first quarter. After they chose those goals, I asked them to pick one which they are most interested in working toward for the first quarter. I did this, because it's not realistic to ask teachers to work on three areas at once, and this way, we'd have a starting point for when they wanted to make goals for the next quarter. 

Then, I asked them to tell me ways they wanted me to support them in achieving this goal. I offered modeling lessons, observation and feedback, giving resources, and being available to coplan or to just drop in every once in a while to have a conversation about what they were up to. I felt it was important for me to find out how each teacher wanted my support, so I could differentiate my professional development for them, and so they could choose a way to welcome me into their teaching that made them feel comfortable. This allowed me to build rapport instead of stepping on toes! I then organized all of the completed goal sheets in my Teacher Binder.

Feel free to use my goal planning sheet if you are a Reading Specialist at your school!

Teacher Goal Planning Sheet

Working with Students

Although many Reading Specialists do not have this opportunity, I actually do have a class of my own, Literacy Lab. Students from PreK3-5th grade come to my class, and I provide reading enrichment lessons to them, and allow them the opportunity to check out books. Because of this, I had to have my yearly plan prepared and ready to hand in, and I do plan official lesson plans each week as well in addition to my job as a Reading Specialist. 

The best part of Literacy Lab, aside from seeing all the students, is providing a place for me to model lessons and ideas for other teachers. Teachers are free to come and see what I'm up to in Literacy Lab in case they want to adapt some of these ideas in their own classroom! 

Organizing for Small Groups

The last hat I have been getting accustomed to wearing is preparing for small group intervention instruction. During the first couple of weeks of school, I met with teachers from grades PreK3-4th to get their input on students whom they think would benefit from additional small group instruction in literacy. After getting their lists, I crafted a parental consent letter both to get permission to teach these students and possibly pull them out of the classroom to do so, and to notify the parents that their children would be in small group instruction.

After this, I looked over our school schedule and picked out times to meet with these groups. I will meet with PreK3-PreK4 once a week for language development, letter recognition, and phonemic awareness instruction, and I will meet with Kinder-4th for fluency, decoding, and comprehension twice a week. To better keep my groups and student data in order, I also created the following forms that you are free to use! They all live in my binders. One is for Early Childhood, and the other is for 1st-4th grade. The first form is to track the lessons we do in small groups, so I can continually plan and keep track of what we're doing. One is for individual student work in groups, so I can annotate their progress, and a final form is to keep track of the assessments I give them throughout the year, so I can have an area to organize the data I collect on each case and show growth. My hope is that these forms will be useful for me to keep organized, and to communicate progress to both teachers and parents.

Small Group Intervention Form

Individual Small Group Comments

Individual Progress Monitoring Form


So that's just a bit of what it's like to wear the many hats of a Reading Specialist! I hope now that if you're a parent or a teacher you have a better idea of just exactly what that Reading Specialist does all day! Stay tuned for more parent tips in my next blog post, and until next time...

Yours in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista

3 Quick Tips to Get Your Kids School Reading Ready After Summer

Hey Readers,

Well it's getting to that time again, back to school! Although some of you may have already started (like me), others still have 2-3 weeks before you go back (I'm talking about you Michigan!). No matter if you've started yet or not, this is the perfect time to pump up your child's reading readiness for those early weeks of school to propel them into valuable literacy learning throughout the entire year! Whether your summer had more movies and Mickey than books and writing, or if you had your kids on a tight book reading system this summer, these three tips will help your child, not to mention impress your child's teacher!

1. Sight Word Practice

When working on fluency (how quickly, correctly, and with expression your child reads), one of the easier ways to improve this skill is to expand your child's sight word vocabulary. Sight words are basically words that children can read "at first sight." They don't have to take up precious time decoding them, and their energy can be freed up to figure out harder words. A great place to find sight words, and a widely used tool by teachers, are the Fry Words. For the individual list of words, which are arranged by grade level, you can click on the following link Fry Words. You can use these words to:

•  make flash cards to use in the car, before bed, after breakfast, any time!
• play sight word smash (lay 5-10 cards on the ground and ask your child to stomp on or slap one that you call out)
• write them on the mirror (in dry erase marker) for your child to practice when brushing their teeth

As an added help, if you're more into cutting than writing, you can follow this link to print the words and cut them out Printable Flash Cards. Remember, when you're practicing with your child, you're easing them into school again, so keep it fun, start small (10 cards at once), and then add as they learn more! Can you imagine the look on their faces when they have a whole stack of cards that they know!?

2. Comprehension Practice

A way to help your child get their comprehension (how they understand the text) muscles working is to get a little bit more involved in your reading time together. As you're reading a book together (either picture book or chapter book), you can stop every once in a while to ask students comprehension questions. These types of questions can include:

Questions about Summarizing

• What happened on this page?
• Can you tell me where we were in the story before we start? What was happening?
• What problem did the character have?
• What happened first in this story? Then what?
• What happened at the end of the story? What about the middle?

Predictions

• What do you think will happen next?
• What do you think will happen at the end of the story?
• Wow! Look at that picture on the cover! What do you think this story is about?

As an added bonus, you can actually have your child ask questions about the story to quiz you! See if they can "stump you!" Various studies have shown that when our little readers are in charge of asking questions, they actually understand the story better!

3. Text Structure and Concepts of Print

This section not only helps your child to amp up their literacy success and their ability to keep up with classroom book discussions, but if kids know these terms and use them correctly right off the bat, this really gets a "wow" factor from the teacher (I would know ;-) )! During your reading time with your child, you can easily work on these areas with them! Depending on the age of your child, they may have already mastered these areas, but keep in mind, summer is long, and review is essential! Check on the lists below to see how you can enrich your book discussions with your child by mentioning these concepts.

Text Structure (How a story/text is organized and the parts of a story/text)

• Characters (People/animals that are involved in a story)
• Main Character or Protagonist (The person/animal who most of the action happens to)
• Setting (Where/when the story takes place)
• Beginning, Middle, and End or Plot
• Problem and Solution of the story (What goes wrong and how it's fixed)
• Climax (the moment the problem is solved in the story)

Concepts of Print (Skills dealing with the understanding of the physical aspects of a book and basic structure of text in a book)

• The location of the front and back of the book
• The location of the beginning, middle, and end of a story
• The location of the author, title, and illustrator (BIG wow points when kids can use the word "illustrator")
• Understanding what a period, comma, question mark, and exclamation mark are for
• Concept of word (a child can define where a single word is in print)
• Concept of letter (a child can define a single letter within a word)
• Being able to name/point to the first and last letters in a word
• The direction we read text (left to right and then top to bottom)

When practicing these areas with your children always remember to keep it fun and interactive! We want to get them warmed up for school not burn them out before the first bell after all! The best part about these activities, is they can actually be used all year long to help your child become an even better reader! By working with your child at home while her teacher is working with her at school, you're creating a partnership with your school that will truly lead your child to amazing reading success!

Thanks for stopping by and reading, and until next time! :)

Yours in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista

Why my school is doing Daily 5 this year, and why yours should too!

My Story of the Daily 5

I'm one of the lucky ones! Daily 5 has been a part of my teaching reality since I was finishing up my certification year at Michigan State University. Under the helpful guidance of my internship teacher, I watched her unfold Daily 5. I got to slowly dip my toe into it before I backed up to cannon ball in! I loved, loved, loved it!

When I was on my own in my first year, I had a pacing guide and a basal with little wiggle room. I found that quickly the basal didn't reach all my students and the small group packs that came with the program, although "differentiated," didn't provide the resources or the structure I needed to truly meet the needs of my readers.

I was beyond thrilled when I interviewed at my school, and my principal was excited to hear more about Daily 5. He gave me the green light, and I never looked back! Two other teachers at my school also adopted it in their classrooms, and this past year, I helped to train another teacher so she could launch it as well. Daily 5 allowed me the flexibility to authentically teach! Within its structure, I launched book clubs, literature circles, held reading and writing conferences, and had the opportunity to give meaningful assessments to individuals as well as progress monitoring. What were my other students doing you might ask while I was working on these objectives? They were all meaningfully engaged in their own literacy tasks WITHOUT WORKSHEETS! They were meeting in their own book clubs before discussing with me, practicing readers' theater, reading books of their own choosing, writing what they wanted, peer editing and revising, taking AR quizzes, and reading out loud with each other.

This year, with three blissful years of teaching using Daily 5 under my belt, I had the wonderous opportunity to provide professional development for the Kinder, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade teachers at my school to teach them how to implement Daily 5. (Fifth grade was already an implementer herself!) It's truly a dream come true to see such an effective teaching structure like Daily 5 implemented school-wide, and I wanted to share with you not only the benefits that I have found from Daily 5, but also my tips for starting it in your classroom, and a professional development presentation which I used at my school and that you are free to show your staff to help them start Daily 5 in your school as well!

What is Daily 5?

The beauty about Daily 5 is that it isn't a curriculum-in-a-can program! Instead, it's an expertly thought-out STRUCTURE for you to use to teach reading and writing! When the 2 sisters, Gail Boushey and Jane Moser, thought out Daily 5, they wanted to give teachers a structure which they could use to keep students engaged in learning and doing literacy. As they stated:

“We are literacy evangelists, and our most fervent belief is that the
best way to become a better reader or writer is to practice for extended
periods of time each day. Therefore, as we designed the Daily 5, we
were committed to making sure the tasks were authentic and would
lead to measurable growth, as well as help boys and girls become
lifelong lovers of literacy” (Boushey & Moser, 2012, p.173).

Within Daily 5, there are 5 main activities students practice independently with the opportunity for teachers to work with students during each activity and to offer whole group mini-lesson between each activity.

The Daily 5 tasks include

1. Read to Self (independent student chosen and read texts)
2. Read to Someone (partner reading with student chosen texts)
3. Work on Writing (students writing on topics they choose)
4. Word Work (students independently practicing word spelling or patterns)
5. Listen to Reading (students independently listening to books on tape, CDs, or eBooks)

Boushey, G. & Moser, J. (2012) Big Ideas Behind Daily 5 and CAFE'. The Reading Teacher, 66, p.172-178.

Why it capitalizes on best practices

Daily 5 capitalizes on a wide variety of best practices of literacy! Here are the ones that have most impacted me in my teaching, and that I have found to be most helpful for other teachers at my school.

• It promotes Independent Reading practices: Students are explicitly taught how to do each activity with autonomy, told why each activity is important, and through the program are slowly given practice to build upon their existing skills.
• Student Engagement in meaningful, and authentic literacy practice is prolonged.: Throughout Daily 5, students are always engaged in doing real reading, writing, or having discussions. Time is not wasted through worksheets or sub-par basal stories.
• Students are motivated to read and write with the high variety of choice: There are many elements students can choose from including which book they want to read, who they want to read with, which activity they want to do, what they want to write, and where they want to sit to do it. As we know as educators, choice is a BIG MOTIVATOR for our kiddos, and Daily 5 certainly doesn't skimp on it!
• It allows for differentiation and small group instruction: The fact that there is so much choice allows for student chosen differentiation, and a teacher can easily offer book suggestions for students, group them by need, meet with them, and provide tier 2 interventions in the classroom! The structure is completely setup for this type of instruction and it's encouraged within the book as well!

Secret Start-Up Tips

When starting Daily 5 for the first time, I've found these tips to be most helpful for teachers whom I work with that are new to the wonderful world of Daily 5.

1. First and foremost BUY THE BOOK! There are many things you want to save on in your classroom, and believe me, I'm all about the Dollar Tree, but you cannot do this program effectively without buying the book! You can get either the first of second edition on Amazon for pretty cheap Second Edition or First Edition. Look at it as a major investment! Within the book, it gives you the exact sequence of lessons, specifically what you need to write on your anchor charts, problem shooting, and their complete tips on how to do this program! You will want to read, highlight, reread, tab, and reread those sections so you can successfully launch their program. (My school actually bought each new teacher their own book!)
2. Amp up your library! You need to make sure you have a wide variety of texts to choose from in your classroom library as your students grow in their reading throughout the year. You can check garage sales, ask for parent donations, or even ask your school library for loaners.
3. Get some book boxes! I was not able to spring for the fancy plastic book boxes, but my favorites were IKEA Flyt Magazine Files. They come in packs of 5 for $1.99, and perfectly fit my kids' books and readers' notebook. For an extra long-lasting tip, make sure to tape the bottom to reinforce it with packing tape.
4. Organize your Readers' Notebooks. You want to think of the tools you want your readers to have at all times. I've seen some people use a composition notebook and pasted various logs, graphic organizers, goals sheets in them. I personally just liked using 3-pronged plastic folders. I filled them with goal sheets, a reading log, book genre information, letter writing topics, and 40 pieces of loose leaf for them to use during Work on Writing. I also printed out a portable word wall they can use and add to as the year went on. Pinterest has tons of options for any of these items, so make sure to check there!
5. Get your cute Daily 5 signs! Teachers Pay Teachers and Pinterest all have adorable templates and already made Daily 5 classroom packs! I know you can find some for free, because of beginning of the year promotions and there are some free ones on Pinterest. It just helps to make your classroom look a little sharper as you're getting Daily 5 going, and one less thing you have to make!

Presentation to give to Faculty and Staff

As a final bonus, I've posted a presentation I made for my school this year to help teachers get a bit more oriented to Daily 5 after they read their books this summer. Feel free to click on the link below and use the presentation for your staff development or to show your principal if you're interested in implementing Daily 5 at your school!

How to Daily 5 Presentation

Thanks again for stopping by, and until next time!

Yours in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista

10 Activities to Cook up Literacy Fun While You're in the Kitchen

Let's face it, cooking is an ever-present part of our day, so why not make it a fun literacy learning environment for our little ones? I, like you, know how difficult it can be to entertain a tiny one while cooking. It can also seem like you could never have all the necessary "fancy" literacy tools to make meaningful activities. In reality, you CAN find fun, affordable, tools right in your kitchen, to use to make literacy games for your kids!

So I made a list of 10 literacy activities you can do with your little ones that take less than 5 minutes to prep for, and some take no prep at all! Everything you need, you can find right in your kitchen! All of these activities are great for building letter recognition, and some can be extended to higher levels by changing the questions you ask.

**Please note, all activities should be done under the watchful eye of a parent or guardian to ensure safety and maximum learning!**

1. Salt Letters

Suggested Ages: 2-6 years

Materials Needed: 

1. small baking pan (with sides for easy clean up), 
2. 1 cup salt

Steps
This activity works on a child's letter recognition and encoding skills. Simply pour the salt into the pan (as pictured) and tell your child different letters to make in the salt. They can also make piles in the salt to build letters instead of just making them from the depressions in the salt. You can also ask questions like "What letter makes a 'buh' sound? Can you write it in the salt?" As an extra bonus, this gives them sensory enrichment too!

Bitty Learners: If your child isn't yet ready to make their own letters, you can trace one on a piece of paper, and put it down before you put the salt in the pan, this way, the child can trace the letter in the sand while revealing your drawing of the letter. Have them practice multiple times too!

Amp it Up: This is also a fun activity for kids to do with sight words! If your child is at the point of using sight words, they can write sight words in the salt instead of just letters!

2. Dry Spaghetti Letter Building

Suggested Ages: 2-6 years

Materials Needed:

1.  brownie pan (or a baking pan with sides), 
2. small amount (1/5 pack) of angel hair or uncooked spaghetti pasta

Steps

This activity is another great way for children to build their letter recognition skills! Place the cookie sheet on a surface where your learner is comfortable working (the table, a chair, or the floor) and place the spaghetti inside the pan (so it doesn't scatter everywhere). Ask your child to make different letters with the noodles, and make sure to show them how they can break the noodles to make different sized lines (as seen in the picture). This activity can be a bit challenging for your little learner, because it's helping her to recognize letters in different forms.

You can even get her started by making letters of your own, and have her guess what letters you made!

Bitty Learners: If your learner is not ready to make letters themselves, you can again write your own letter on a piece of paper, have her make it with the noodles, and then have her name the letter! By building letters in this way she is engaging many different sensory processes to help her learn the letter shapes!

Amp it Up: Have your learner combine letters to make short words, sight words, her name, etc. Don't be afraid to use extra noodles ;-). 

3. Cooked Spaghetti Letters

Suggested Ages: 2-6 years

Materials Needed:

1.  brownie pan (or a baking pan with sides),
2.  small amount (1/5 pack) of angel hair or cooked spaghetti pasta

Steps

Although it may seem repetitious, it's important to give our little learners various experiences with building letters that constantly engage their senses and give them different kinesthetic experiences. This helps them to not only retain information and recognize letter forms, but hey, it's boring to do the exact same stuff all the time! For this activity, simply cook up some spaghetti noodles, rinse them in cold water (to cool them and so they don't stick together). Then, place them on the cookie sheet on a surface comfortable for your learner. Next, ask your learner to make different letters with the cooked noodles (as pictured). 

I assure you, you will soon here giggles of delight as your little learner manipulates the noodles to make his letters! Show him how you can fold noodles or break them to make them shorter. Also, show them how easy it is to make curves with the cooked noodles, by making an uppercase "B" for example! 

Bitty Learners: Again, if your little learner needs a guide for his letter shapes, make sure to give it to him to place his noodles on, or show them the letter they are making by giving them a magnet or a drawing of the letter! We don't want the activity to turn into a drill, so by providing helpful and necessary support even your itty bitties can learn in a meaningful way about letter formation while still having fun!

Amp it Up: Just like before, you can have your learner make words, or his name. Keep in mind too, that your learner always benefits from practicing lowercase letters as well as uppercase letters! 

4. Cookie Sheet Magnets

Suggested Ages: 2-6 years

Materials Needed: 

1. 1 cookie sheet,
2.  alphabet magnets

Steps

This activity is actually really great, because it can take place anywhere you can take a cookie sheet! You can even explore further activities about cookie sheets on Pinterest as Early Childhood teachers have since adapted this instrument by storm! For our purposes, cooking up literacy in the kitchen, all you have to do is take one clean cookie sheet and multiple letter magnets, which will stick to the metallic cookie sheet (as pictured). You can mix up the letters and ask your little learner to find a certain letter by name "Find the A." You can ask her to find letters by sound as well "Which letter makes the Mmmmmm sound?" This is another activity that will help with your child's letter recognition.

Bitty Learners: If your learner is still in the early stages of learning letter recognition, you can write down a letter on a piece of paper or a dry erase board, and ask your child to find the matching letter magnet. Additionally, you could draw their attention to print by bringing out one of their favorite picture books and pointing out a letter for her to find. For example "Look! Clifford starts with a 'C' can you see the 'C'? Now find the magnet 'C!'" 

Amp it Up: To increase the challenge, have your learner spell her name, sight words, or help her to spell word families. Whenever she spells a word, have her say the word, sound it out, and spell the word back to you by pointing at the letters. For example "My name is Piper  Puh-I-Puh-Er. Piper is spelled P-I-P-E-R." This helps to cement her phonics understanding and her understanding of the alphabetic principle. 

5. Muffin tin letters

Suggested Ages: 2-6 years

Materials Needed: 

1. 1 muffin tin,
2.  1 piece of paper to rip up and put in each muffin cup,
3.  1 pen/marker to label letters, 
4. game markers for the game (can use Cheerios, Goldfish, anything small)

Steps

First, you'll want to take a sheet of paper, and divide it into 12 different pieces. Rip each piece apart and write a different letter on each piece. Then, place the letters in the muffin depressions (as pictured). Now, give your learner little game markers (such as Cheerios) and ask your learner to put a game piece on the letter spots. For example, "Okay, find the 'H' and cover it with your Cheerio!" Make sure to give plenty of praise when your learner gets it right and support such as reminders of what a letter looks like if he is getting frustrated. Also, don't forget to ask him for a letter that you didn't choose! He will really start to giggle when Mommy or Daddy asked him to find something that wasn't there! This is a great activity because it not only helps with letter recognition, but also with listening comprehension and even fine motor skills!

Bitty Learners: As your learners are just starting to learn their letters, you could use your alphabet magnets or drawings of the letters to help him find the letters in the tin. This gives him some necessary support as he is looking for the letters. "Look at this magnet, it's the letter T. Can you find the T in your tin and put a Cheerio on it?"

Amp it Up: For our older learners, see if they can use their Cheerio markers to spell a word within the tin (to do this, you'll have to make sure you give them some vowels!). Make sure to have them spell their word out loud to you as well. You can also make the directions more complicated "Put 2 Cheerios on the M, 1 on the C, and 3 on the A." Again this is a great way to strengthen their listening comprehension.

6. Egg Carton Shake

Suggested Ages: 2-6 years

Materials Needed: 

1. 1 empty egg carton,
2.  1 marker to label letters,
3.  1 game marker (Cheerio, Goldfish, anything small)

Steps

I saw this idea at the recent International Literacy Association Conference, and I thought it was absolutely adorable, fun, and simple! It's also great for building letter recognition. All you have to do is take an empty egg carton of whichever size you wish, and label the depressions with different letters (as pictured). Then, put a small game marker, such as a Cheerio in the carton. Have your learner shake, shake, shake, and shake the carton, and then open it. When he opens it, ask him which letter his Cheerio landed on! Then, shake, laugh, open, and repeat!

Bitty Learners: For learners just learning their letters, make sure to give them extra support. This might even be an activity that you would carefully monitor with them, helping them for the first few times, but then praising them highly when they get the hang of those letters! You might even want to give them a half dozen egg carton, so they aren't overwhelmed by the letters and are able to find success more quickly!

Amp it Up: To make it more difficult, for your learner, write some words in with the letter mix. You can also give her more than one game marker, so she is identifying more than one letter at a time. You can ask her if they can think of a word that starts with their letter. "You're right! That's a 'T!' Can you think of a word that starts with 'T?'" Another way to increase difficulty is to give her a larger carton, such as one for eighteen eggs.

7. Cheerio Tracing

Suggested Ages: 18 months-6 years

Materials Needed:

1.  1 paper plate, (you can use more if you want to do more letters)
2.  1 marker to draw a letter,
3.  1 cup of Cheerios

Steps

This is another great activity to work on letter recognition and fine motor skills! Simply take a paper plate, write a larger letter on it, and give your child a pile of Cheerios. Then, have him place Cheerios on the letter to trace it (as shown). This helps children to practice their letter formation skills and letter recognition. When he's done, you can have him wipe the plate clean and remake the letter, or you can have him do another letter on another plate.

Bitty Learners: As your little learners are tracing the letter, you want to make sure to ask them which letter they are working on. Having them repeat the letter as they are tracing it will help them to remember it. You can also talk about the letter they are working on and what sound it makes.

Amp it Up: For older learners, you can give them the plate and have them make the letter without you tracing it first. You can also have them spell out words with their Cheerios or give them the sound of a letter, and have them spell the letter in Cheerios! These extension will really help to challenge your little learners!

8. I Spy an Object that Starts with...

Suggested Ages: 2-6 years

Materials Needed: 

1. 1 expert mommy/daddy, 
2. 1 or more tiny learners

Steps

Although it may seem simple, this game really helps children to build on their letter and phonics knowledge as well as their phonemic awareness (understanding of sounds in the language). You can start the game by saying "I spy with my little eye something that starts with a 'wuh' sound." Then your child would guess different objects that start with the same sound until she gets to, for example, "water." Then she gets to be the leader and pick something out. 

Bitty Learners: For our little learners, we want to make sure to model out thinking about sounds. You might say for example, "Hmmm I'm looking for a 'tuh' sound, but milk starts with a 'mmm' sound. Oh, were you looking at the 'tuh' 'tuh' 'table?'" They will also need more support when looking at objects, so you can pick some and help them hear the first sound, "Hmmm ffffffork starts with a 'ffffffff' sound." Don't be afraid to really stretch out those sounds!

Amp it Up: For our more advanced learners, you'll want to ask them for objects that start with different letters instead of sounds. "I spy with my little eye something that starts with a 'B.'" This is more challenging, because they have to remember what sound a 'B' makes and then locate an object with that sound.

9. Ketchup Bag Letters

Suggested Ages: 2-6 years

Materials Needed: 

1. 1 Ziplock bag (with a good seal!), 
2. 1 cookie sheet (to keep the bag contained),
3.  1-2 cups ketchup (depending on the size of the bag)

Steps

Although this sounds like it could be a messy activity, when done correctly, it can have minimal clean up and allow for fun sensory letter recognition activities! First, you'll want to put 1-2 cups of ketchup (or other similar condiment of similar consistency) in a Ziplock bag with a STRONG seal! Then, seal the bag, and put it on a cookie sheet. This helps to keep the activity contained! Next, ask your learner to create different letters by tracing them on the ketchup bag (as pictured). Please note, these letters will not look perfect, but this really helps to engage their senses as they create these different letters!

Bitty Learners: For our little learners, you'll want to make sure to give them extra support by showing them the letter they are drawing by either giving them a magnet or writing it on a piece of paper and showing it to them. Remember, this is all in good fun, so keep it fun, and offer praise for successful attempts!

Amp it Up: To increase difficulty, have your child write his name, words, or give him sounds or blends and have him write which letter(s) he would need to make those sounds. Again, keep it fun! 

10. Talking out the Steps

Suggested Ages: 3 months-8 years

Materials Needed:

1.  1 expert mommy/daddy,
2.  1 or more tiny learners

Steps

It may seem simple, but talking out what you are doing to your child in steps can actually greatly help their listening comprehension and their ability to understand narrative text in the future as well as enhance their vocabulary! As you are cooking or working, tell your little learner what you are going to do before you actually start. Then, as you are going through the process, talk through the steps and have your child repeat after you. For example, "Okay Charlotte, first Mommy has to get out the eggs, then crack them, put them in the bowl, and whisk them. So what's Mommy doing now? You're right! She's getting the eggs out!" By doing activities like this, you are prepping your child to be able to identify and understand the narrative story structure within her future reading!

Bitty Learners: For our youngest learners, who may not be able to talk yet, they can still benefit from listening. Make sure that you're telling them exactly what you're doing and show them the different objects you're talking about while you're doing that step. "Look these are the eggs, I'm going to crack them now! Watch! Look at them, I'm cracking the eggs." The more we talk to our little babies, the stronger their language skills will be!

Amp it Up: To increase the difficulty of this activity, you can talk out the steps at the beginning, and then see how many of the steps your child can remember to help guide you through the process. You can also see if she can remember the steps at the end. This would help her to build her memory as well as her understanding of the narrative story structure.

I hope you find these activities useful and a helpful way for you to work with your little learners in the kitchen! Remember to keep it fun! The main goal of these activities is for our tiny ones to practice their literacy skills in a fun and supportive environment! If you have other activities you've done with your learners and want to share below in the comments, feel free! I know it would be beneficial for all!

Thanks again for stopping by, and until next time!

Yours truly in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista

Who is this Reading Specialista, and why is she blogging?

This is of course a valid question to ask, and one that I welcome all of my future readers to ask, and as your writer, it's my job to answer. My name is Piper, and although the tiny profile to the right will give you a taste of my life, it doesn't quite explain who I am, and why I thought it would be a good idea to start a blog. So I'll first back up and give you my literacy autobiography (which anyone who has taken a few graduate courses in literacy will be able to tell you, you write about 3 of these before graduation!)

In the beginning:

I loved reading from the start! My parents read to me and other relatives did too. I was even one of those complete nerds who signed up for Junior Great Books and had a zest for highlighting important text! Harry Potter, Scout, Ella, and Calvin were all my favorite characters who stretched my imagination to my limits and beyond!

In college, at Michigan State, I realized I wanted to be a teacher. It was probably driven by not only my love of teaching, but also learning. I absolutely loved being in the classroom and reflecting over lesson plans and thinking of new and innovative ideas to bring into my internship year. When I got my first job as a fifth grade teacher, I was thrilled to be able to move down to Texas with my college sweetheart and start a new life there!

But then...

Nothing changed about being a teacher, I loved my students and teaching, but something was different. The climate surrounding the state test at my school became overwhelming. Pressures from the district and the test started to squeeze my creative teaching instincts. Teaching became a job, not a joy as it once had been, and I thought of quitting. Luckily, however, I enrolled for Michigan State University's MA program in Teaching and Curriculum with a Specialization in Literacy.

And then there was Light!

I absolutely loved the courses and the learning I was completely engrossed in! My eyes were again opened to the possibilities and joys of teaching. I tutored various students to pay the bills throughout my courses and was renewed in my zest for learning and teaching. After I graduated, I started teaching at the school where I currently work. As a third grade teacher, I continued to share the renewed passion in teaching I found in grad school. I introduced and provided professional development on school-wide literacy assessments and various other topics, wrote a grant to Target for $2,000 which funded our first literacy night and take-home reading program, and helped to amp up summer reading by starting summer reading kick off events and summer reading packs school-wide. 

All the while, my principal and I talked about the possibility of me becoming the school's first Reading Specialist. After my second year of teaching at the school, I became certified as a Reading Specialist, and this past year, my principal and I laid the foundations for the position which I will be stepping into this year. It's truly a dream come true to not only find my dream school, but also my dream job within it!

So, why the blog again?

It has always been my thought that nothing is seen better or clearer than with fresh and new eyes. I'm reminded about this lesson daily when I watch my daughter, Charlotte, play. Everything's new, and she's constantly learning. She notices objects and colors with a novelty that my jaded eyes have long since taken for granted. It it because of this that I think it's the BEST time for me to blog about being a Reading Specialist. Yes, I am new, and I DON'T suppose to know all the answers, but I'll know some, and I'll find more that work for me which could also work for you. 

I'll share the tips I pick up and the difficulties I encounter, because let's face it, the Reading Specialist field is growing fast, and sometimes, it's kind of awesome to find someone in your same situation, just to be able to say "Oh yeah, that happened to me too," or "That's a different way to handle that than I would have thought, maybe I should try it next time!"

Who is this blog meant for anyways?

Well it's meant for you. All of you! 

If you're a parent, there will be ideas for literacy lessons and teachings to do with your kiddos at home. Even the little bit-bits can benefit from literacy games! 

If you're a classroom teacher, you'll have ideas to take from here as well! Centers, guided reading ideas, lesson plans, and tips, I hope to have a lot for you!

 Of course, the Reading Specialists! I'll have topics about my schedule, my hats (because as we know there are many), and my revelations as the year progresses.

So, I hope that you'll enjoy following my journey and that the little tidbits and extras I provide to my readership along the way will be helpful and applicable to you immediately! Thanks for stopping by, and see you next time!

Yours Truly in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista