10 Ways to Sneak in Letter Practice into your Bitties' Daily Routine

Hello Again Readers!

As I'm finding more and more with my own toddler, sometimes the secret to being a good parent is being a sneaky one! Whether you're folding vegetables into mac and cheese, sneaking around the corner to pounce when you think your bitty needs to use the potty, or making cleaning up toys into a game, it certainly takes tact to both interest your toddler, and to direct them to a useful activity. From the ages of 1-4, one of those useful prereading activities is working on letter recognition, or your child being able to name letters. With this age group, however, you can't just drill them with flash cards because:

1. It's not fun for them, and they lose interest.
2. It's not fun for you, because you get frustrated.
3. They're little! Flashcards shouldn't quite be busted out on the regular juuuust yet!

So, you're probably thinking, "Well Reading Specialista, how in the world am I supposed to get my kids to practice their letters?"

It's easier than you think, you just have to be a bit sneaky, and slyly tuck the activities into your child's daily routine! In this post I'll show you 10 ideas for how to include letter recognition into your bitties' routine from morning to bedtime!

**As a disclaimer, I do NOT do ALL of these activities every day, but I do get to all of them a few times within a week!**

Morning

Getting Dressed/Changing Diapers

1. Sing the ABCs

It's simple I know, but it can make a world of difference in opening the door for letter recognition. I began to realize this myself, as I started to think of all the times I changed Charlotte's diaper or her clothes during the day. Instead of looking at this as time wasted in the day, or a chore, I could use it as an opportunity to teach her the ABC song. Every time I change her diaper or her clothes, we sing the song together. When you first start, your little one will be doing a lot of listening, but then gradually, he'll start to pick it up too! To be fair, we don't limit singing this song just to diaper changing time, but we sing the ABCs in the car, during playtime, music time, and on walks, just to name a few! She's picked up the song very well, and now that she can sing her ABCs, she's more ready to apply the letter names in her letter recognition activites throughout the day.

Brushing Teeth

2. Letters in the mirror

Another spot to work on letter recognition is the bathroom mirror. Simply use a dry erase marker and write 1 or 2 letters you're working on with your child. You can change them out every morning, or every few days to surprise your child with a new letter, or you can wipe the mirror clean every night and then write the letters in front of your child so they can watch you make the letters. An example of dialogue during this activity would be:

"Hmmm, I wonder which letters are going to join you today when you brush your teeth! Let's go see! Oh look! What letter is that? You're right! It's an 'M.' Look there's big 'M' and little 'M.' Oh, I'm going to add our other letter from to the mirror now, do you remember this letter? You've got it! It's a 'B.' Here's a big 'B' and a little 'B.' Can you say good morning to our letters?"

**On a side note, your toddler will not judge you for being silly, so don't worry if this exchange feels silly at first!**

Breakfast

3. Making letters with cereal/finding letters in cereal

There are so many fun ideas to practice letter recognition with breakfast food as long as you're willing to throw out the old advice of "don't play with your food!" You can make letter shaped breakfasts for your kids! One easy way to do that is use letter cookie cutters as pancake molds or to cut letters out of pancakes once you've made them. You can also arrange cereal in the shapes of letters before dumping it in the milk. You could even go one step further and buy alphabet cereal and have your little one look for certain letters. Berries, grapes, and banana slices all can be arranged into letter shapes. You can even have your little one practice making their letters with their food! It's a fun and tasty way to keep letter recognition in your morning, and maybe it will help them eat their food too!

Morning Walk

4. Using Wreaths and Letter Monograms

If you're like me, you live in a beautiful neighborhood where people love to decorate their front doors and lawns with single monogram letters of their last names! I've found this to be a wonderful opportunity for Charlotte to practice her letter recognition, out of the alphabet sequence on our walks. Another reason monogram letters are good to practice on, is because they look a little different than typical Arial of Times New Roman Font, which they usually see. This helps children to learn letters when they look a bit different, and thus cements their recognition that much more. Initially, I do most of the work to point out the letters, but now, Charlotte is familiar with these letters and where they show up on our walk. For example, we'll round a bend, and I'll tell her "Oh we're going to be on the lookout for that letter 'H'! Can you find it!?!? That's right! What sound does 'H' make again? Mommy can't remember? That's right! It makes a Hhh Hhh sound!"

If your neighborhood doesn't have a lot of monograms, you can always go on a letter hunt using license plates. We've done that before! For example, one walk, we spent the whole time looking for the letter 'B' which was hiding on the backs of cars and trucks and on signs! It's perfectly fine to repeat the same letter over a few walks! This gives your little one extra practice in really isolating that letter and identifying it among many letters.

Reading Time

5. Include ABC Books in your little one's library

There are honestly a plethora of possibilities when it comes to ABC books and they are SUCH a useful resource for teaching letter recognition to your little ones! The best books are ones that are engaging, bright, show both uppercase and lowercase letters, and that give examples of objects or words that start with the letter featured on the page. The books pictured below are some of my absolute favorites for all of those reasons, but if your little one likes a different ABC book, go with it! Motivation is absolute key, because you want your bitty to read these books again and again and again so they can get constant exposure to these letters and start to learn them!

If you're looking for more suggestions on great ABC books, click the following link http://childrensbooksguide.com/alphabet. It's a pretty impressive list, and it will give you a great starting point!

Lunch Time

Potty Time

6. Keep 3-5 letter flashcards by the potty for your child to practice

At my house, Charlotte is currently in the process of assimilation to the

potty. I hesitate to call it potty training, because with juggling her 3 month old brother Thompson, we haven't been able to get serious yet. As of now, we're at the point where I try to get her to sit on the potty once a day, and just get her comfortable with it. As I initially spent time waiting for her to do something/anything on the potty, I started playing I spy with her with colors in the room. She quickly cemented her recognition of colors and even started to quiz me. It was then that I realized I could use this time to have her practice letters.

In her bathroom, she has 3-5 letter cards at anytime. While she's sitting on the potty, she flips through the cards at her own pace, she talks about them, and every once in a while, I'll ask her to show me a certain card. When I can tell she's just about had enough of looking at her cards, I'll just casually ask her to name the letters on the cards one by one. This is in no way a drill or mindless repetition, but it's at her pace and at her comfort level. So far, it's working well for us. She may not be potty trained, but she's learning those letters! I'll call that a silver lining!

Nap Time

Afternoon Playtime

There are countless opportunities that you can use to play with letters with your child, but here are just a few games/activities that my little one loves!

7. Letter Balloons

After her second birthday, we had balloons all over the house, because she loves them so much. After the initial thrill of batting them around wore off, they would just gathered in corners and sat. As I was about to pop them one night, I realized I could use them to help her learn her letters. I then took 3 of the balloons and wrote both uppercase and lowercase letters on them as pictured.

Now we play a variety of games with them. We'll hide the balloons and then I'll say "Go find the 'A'" balloon!" or I'll get out a laundry basket and say, "Can you put the 'B' balloon in the basket? Good job! Now go get the 'A' balloon!"

Even when we're cleaning up, I refer to the different balloons by their letter name. This way she's getting used to identifying the letters on the balloons and not their locations.

**Note: Make sure to use the same color balloon so your little one isn't confusing learning colors for learning letters!**

8. Coloring Letters

A great way to have little ones interact with letters and practice their early writing skills and coordination is by doing alphabet coloring pages. There are many books you can buy on Amazon that offer great coloring pages and activities to reinforce certain letters. I have some of these that I've bought throughout the years, but I do like using Pinterest as my main source! The reason being that I can easily print multiple pages of 1 or 2 letters for free and have her work on those letters during the week. When you're on Pinterest, simply type in "letter coloring sheets," and a ton of free pins will pop up! I really like the ones that have not just the letter to color, but also trace, and then color objects that start with the targeted letter! Again, this is just another way to expose your child to letters and get them recognizing the letters and naming them!

9. Letter puzzles

There are SO many reason why I love doing letter puzzles with Charlotte!

1. She gets to work on fine motor skills.
2. It demands that you work on letters out of sequence.
3. She's improving her muscles memory for the form of letters as she's fitting them in their spots.
4. We work on sounds of the letters as well as names, because her puzzle has objects associated with the letters.

My absolute FAVORITE brand for letter puzzles is Melissa and Doug, but there are lots of other great ones out there too. Pictured above, there's the classic peg puzzle in the right corner, a Disney version on the top left, a butterfly version where the lowercase pieces help you figure out where to put the uppercase pieces, and Charlotte's new favorite on the bottom left which talks to her when she puts the letters in (for example '"R' is for rose."). These are just a few of the many examples available, and your little ones will enjoy doing them again and again!

Dinner Time

Bath Time

10. Bubble Bath Letters on the Wall

If your toddler is anything like mine, baths don't happen without bubbles. It's pretty much just a house rule! With that said, there's no reason you can't have just as much fun with those bubbles as your little one and use them to reinforce letters one more time before bed! Simply scoop bubbles from the bath and write letters on the wall with them, and ask you child which letter you wrote. Then, your little one can have fun splashing that letter away, clearing the wall for you to write another letter. When they get really good, you can have them make the letters in bubbles and then you can try to guess which letter they wrote! This is an especially fun activity because it's kinesthetic and it's getting your child to make big movements while making the letters. Not to mention, as long as the splashing outside of the tub is kept to a minimum, the clean up is really not too bad!

Bed Time

So there you have it, up to 10 activities you can sneak into your little ones' routines to help them work on their letter recognition! As you're starting out, so as not to make it overwhelming for you or your little one, I would suggest just picking 2 activities from the list to try a day, and focus on one letter. When both you and your little one feel more comfortable with the activities you can gradually expand to do more of them in a day! As with all things on my blog, remember to keep it fun and stress free! That's the best way your little one is going to learn and the best way to guarantee that you will keep providing those quality opportunities for your bitty to practice her letters, because you won't feel overwhelmed either!

Have fun with that ABC practice, and until next time...

Yours in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista

The Books I Buy for my Little Readers

Hello Readers,

Hopefully most of you are officially on your summer break! With the kids at home full-time and vacations starting to be planned, I imagine you've already made quite a few trips to the store (or Amazon) to pick up summer supplies. From swimsuits, to bug spray, suntan lotion, and brand new flip flops, summer vacation always seems shiny and new in June! Today, I'm writing to you to give some recommendations for some new summer books you might want to buy your itty bitties along with all of their other summer fun items! I get asked all the time, "Yeah, I know you use those books for your class, but what do you buy for your own daughter?" or "What series or books do you recommend for my PreK student to read?" Well, today you're in luck, because right before the end of the school year, I went on a big Scholastic Books shopping trip, and I bought a whole bunch of books for my daughter. Today, I'm going to tell you about 5 of my favorite books/series that I bought for her, why I like them, and how you can use them to help your little readers improve their reading skills this summer!

1. Clifford Books

Appropriate for: Ages 0-8

Why I like them

Clifford books are some of my favorites to use for a variety of reasons. First of all, who doesn't love a big red dog? In my experience, I've never met or taught a child who passed up the chance to read a Clifford book in this age range. The characters are wholesome, and there are a TON of books to choose from, so once you get your kid hooked, he will be occupied with the series for quite some time!

Now for more of the technical reasons, Clifford books offer a wealth of sight words! In fact, whenever I have a student within this age range that needs to develop their sight words, I will almost always reach for a Clifford book and start doing repeated readings on them. The plots within the books also offer opportunities to practice comprehension strategies such as making predictions, connections, working on retell, and questioning all of which are appropriate for this age range! The format of the books is also very predictable. For example, almost every books starts with "Hi, I'm Emily Elizabeth, and this is my dog Clifford." Although this might drive my more cynical parents nuts, this repetition is actually great for your little ones to develop their concepts of print and to start to "read the book" themselves. You will soon find, you'll start the first page for them, and they'll finish it, because they know what is going to be said. So in short...

How you can use them

*Work on sight words (and fluency through repeated readings)
*Have your kids practice comprehension strategies such as predictions, connections, retell, and questioning
*Strengthen concepts of print by pointing to words as they are being read within these predictable books

2. BOB Books

Appropriate for: Ages 0-8 (end of 2nd grade)

Why I like them

This series of books is truly an amazing one, because it offers leveled books from emergent readers (alphabet books and prereading skills) to more advanced decodable readers (books that focus on a certain word pattern or phonics skill) including long vowels and more complex word families. You buy the series in little sets, so as you see here, I bought a Rhyming Words set and Set 1 of the Beginning Readers. I really wanted the alphabet set for my 2 year old, but Scholastic was not selling them at this time, so I make sure to visit the library frequently to check them out for Charlotte. 

As a disclaimer, do NOT let the illustrations fool you. You may think that based on the cover and illustrations that you'd rather pass, but as mentioned the books that are in the set all offer excellent practice for the skill or level that the set suggests. For example, in this book Dan's Plan, (from the rhyming words set) the rhyming pattern is the -an family. Not only is this reinforced in the story, but on the last page, it highlights all of the -an words and other useful sight words. When Charlotte is ready to read this book, not only would I read the book with her, but we'd also use that last page to go over the -an pattern, and I could easily make flashcards to practice sight words with her based on the ones they suggest at the back. Between that helpful guide and repeated readings of the story, she'd quickly learn that pattern. Before she's ready to read it independently, however, I could read it to her, and ask her to listen for the rhyming words and tell me when she hears them. There's just SO much you can do with these books, and if you'd rather forgo the cost of buying all the sets, your local library most likely has them on the shelves!

How you can use them

*Alphabet recognition practice with the alphabet set

*Phonemic awareness (understanding the sounds in our language) practice with the rhyming set

*Sight word recognition and fluency (how smoothly your child reads the book aloud) by reading the books with your little ones

*Retell practice by having your little one tell you what the story was about

3. Frog on a Log?

Appropriate for: Ages 0-8 (end of 2nd grade)

Why I like it

Frog on a Log? is truly an adorable and playful book that really highlights rhyming words and patterns for our little readers. I got interested in this book, because it was highlighted at the Scholastic Book Fair this year, and I got the chance to preview it at that time. Throughout the book, the main character, the frog, is trying to find out why he has to sit on the log. The cat informs him that he himself has to sit on a mat, and then goes on to talk about other animals and the rhyming objects they have to sit on. Beyond the amusing and bright illustrations, this book is really great for beginning readers, because it allows them to expand their vocabulary and work on rhyming words, which is a vital skill for our littlest readers! While reading this book, you can easily have your child fill in the blank for you by saying which object an animal has to sit on. Because of the illustrations in the book, your little one that's JUST starting to work on rhyming words can easily find the rhyming object from the illustration, and as they get better, they will be able to fill in the blank without looking at the pictures. It's basically an example of a playful book where you can sneak in some valuable rhyming and vocabulary practice!

How you can use them

*Have your child practice rhyming words

*Increase your child's vocabulary (some of the objects in the story are not objects they would usually see)

*Have your child work on sequencing by having your child tell the order of animals and objects in the story. (Tell me which animal they mentioned first in the story. Okay, then what? Right! What did that animal sit on?)

4. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Series

Appropriate for: Ages 0-8 (End of 2nd grade)

Why I like them

Between the adorable illustrations, the crazy events, and the lovable characters, this series really does have it all! For those of you unfamiliar with the series, basically the main character (a mouse, a cat, a pig, a dog, or a moose) is given something or taken somewhere and the rest of the story is a laughable chain of events that continue until the character is reminded of what he got in the first place and the reader is left to infer that all the events will continue happening over and over again. These books are EXCELLENT ones to use for both fluency and comprehension!

Fluency

These books are great for fluency practice, because the stories are motivating, so kids will want to read them again and again. Apart from that, each page has a limited amount of text, so it's easy for a parent and child to read every other page until the child feels confident enough to read the entire book himself. Additionally, the stories have many vital sight words in them along with words that commonly repeat within the story itself. So, by doing repeated readings, not only will they work on their first 100-200 sight words, but also, they will pick up novel words that repeat throughout the story.

Comprehension

As a reading specialist, I used many of these books within my Literacy Lab classes to help students work on a variety of comprehension strategies. My favorites to work on with these books included retell, making predictions, connections (text-to-self and text-to-text), inferences (specifically to infer character emotions), questioning, and cause and effect relationships. You can do all of these with these strategies within these stories, because the text is so brief. This means that it's up to the readers to use these strategies to expand the stories for themselves!

How you can use them

*Practice fluency skills by reading the series repeatedly and working on sight words within the story
*Practice comprehension skills such as retell, predictions, connections, inferences, questioning, and finding cause and effect relationships

5. Disney/High interest books

Appropriate for: ALL ages (it just depends on the difficulty of the books)

Why I like them

Sometimes as a parent, you really have to forgo the super-duper instructional books and just go with what your kid likes best! This is REALLY important for us to do, because even though we want to make sure we add in quality books to our children's reading, we have to also make sure our kids are enjoying what they're reading. The early years are so crucial for little ones to develop a love for reading, and what better way to do that than picking books for them that involve their deepest interest or their favorite characters! For Charlotte, she's REALLY into Finding Nemo, Mickey, and the Disney Princesses. This doesn't mean I have to get junky books with these characters, on the contrary, I made sure to buy a variety of different types of books that starred her favorite characters and also included some leveling. For example, I got her the Mickey Mouse beginning readers series, and Little Mermaid Reader (to work on fluency), a Palace Pets Search and Find book (for vocabulary development), a Finding Nemo song book (for fluency and phonemic awareness), and a Finding Nemo story book (mostly for fun!). It's important to remember that every book you get for your child does have some level of choice to it, and sometimes, it's absolutely fine for you to let them read books that aren't award winners, because they're actively developing their love of reading!

How you can use them

*Let you child pick a book with their favorite topic or characters and read it with them.

*Reread to work on fluency and talk about the book with your child to work on comprehension.

These 5 ideas should give you a great start for getting some really great high quality books for your little one to help them avoid the summer slide! Remember, as always, keep it fun! You want your little ones to not only have some extra quality reading practice, but also, and most importantly, some positive memories of reading with you which is what will really grow their own personal love of reading!

Until next time...

Yours in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista

You want to read that AGAIN??? Why rereading books is actually a good thing!

Hello Readers,

I know we've all been there before, and even I've been guilty of saying it, "You want to read that book again!?" Having fully memorized the sequence of animals that parade through Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you See?, the exact costumes that appear in Minnie's Halloween Costume Contest, and all of the words in Duck and Goose Colors, I have to humbly admit, that my little girl clearly has her favorites. Even more, when she's on a favorite streak, we can read the SAME book 6-7 times in a row, and then 4-5 times more that same day. I'm here to offer all of those mommies, daddies, grandmas, and grandpas some comfort today! Besides losing your sanity temporarily from the repetition, rereading books multiple (and I mean multiple) times actually has many important benefits for your child! Here are just a few:

1. Vocabulary Development

Our little ones are constantly noticing and adding new words to their receptive (the words they understand) and productive (the words they use and say) vocabulary. For tiny itty bitties, you'll notice that their receptive vocabulary especially is vastly higher than their productive vocabulary. For example, when Charlotte and I are reading Richard Scary's Best First Book Ever (a current favorite). I am incredibly impressed by the amount of receptive vocabulary she has that the repetition of this book has built for her. I'll ask her to find the sink, piano, chalkboard, rose, paints, crayons, red, blue, and yellow, and she'll point to all of those items, but she's not ready to say them yet. She will point to the items that she does know and say them herself, and from that I can get a glimpse into her productive vocabulary.

The more often you read the same book to your child, you are actually giving them practice to develop their receptive vocabulary and also for them to start feeling comfortable enough to make a word, or words, jump from their receptive to productive vocabulary. In fact, most of the words your child learns throughout her childhood she learns implicitly (without direct instruction) and a smaller percentage, she learns explicitly (with direct instruction). This of course is not just limited to pictures, but also the text that you read as well. Also, recent studies have shown that when parents read books to their children, the books offer a higher variety of words than our usual spoken language to them does. Therefore, even though you're reading the SAME words to your child again and again from that favorite book, there's a good chance that you're offering a higher variety of words than those that you'd use in your spoken language. For example, can you imagine describing everything you see to your child with a color? Although it happens sometimes for me, it's not as consistent as most children's books! Which is why they are perfect for building vocabulary!

Ways to enhance vocabulary building:

• Point out new words in the text or pictures to your little one, and have them think about the meanings of the words. "Look the Pout, Pout fish is sad! Can you make a sad face?"
• Have them repeat words after you. "Can you say truck? Look! That's a truck. Try it, truck." (productive building)
• Ask them to find different objects and point to them in pictures. (receptive building)
• Have them count objects with you in counting books and point out the colors and have them find them in color books. (receptive and productive building)
• Act curious about words. Their own word curiosity will build off of yours! "Oh I like that word squiggly! Look, it is a squiggly line. I wonder where that word came from, but it describes that line exactly!"

2. Sight word recognition

Just as a child's spoken vocabulary can improve from rereading books, their sight word recognition can also vastly increase. Sight words are words that children can read or identify on sight and they don't need to sound them out, because they know them so well!

Once children get older (3-4),  they start to notice words in the book. To help children notice these words more readily, it's important that you underline the words with your finger as you're reading. When you're doing this, children are starting to associate the spoken words with the written ones in the book. Because you read the book so often, they then can begin to identify these words within the context of the book, and the words can easily jump into their mental sight word bank. For example, if your child loves to reread Clifford, he may start to be able to read "big red dog" by himself. (On a side note, for my parents with Kinder, 1st, and 2nd graders Clifford books are INCREDIBLE to practice sight words and many of Fry's sight words are used in the books. Whenever I tutor first graders, we ALWAYS read Clifford books for that purpose!) So by continually reading these books, and pointing to the words, you're actually offering your little one a great opportunity to unknowingly memorize their sight words! *And the best part is, it's much sneakier than making flash cards for sight word practice, because they're actually asking to reread the book! ;-)*

Ways to enhance sight word recognition

• Always point to words that you're reading as you're reading them.
• If a book has a very repetitive pattern, (such as Bear's Loose Tooth), and you've already read it a few times in a row, you can simply underline the repetitive words and have your child read them to you.
• Have your child point to words as you're reading them, or if you have a very itty bitty, you can help them point to the words, guiding their finger under the text.

3. Story sequencing and retell

Another plus to continually rereading a story is that it gives your little one an opportunity to improve their comprehension, or understanding of the story, through practiced sequencing or retell. Sequencing is basically when we ask our little ones to put the events of a story in order, and retelling is when we ask our little ones to tell us everything they remember in the story, so they are very closely related.

When you have the feeling that your little one is going to soon choose a book to be their favorite, you can start to ask them retelling and sequencing questions about the book, throughout the book. For example, after a page in a story, ask your little one, "Can you tell me what happened on this page?" When they get more "practiced" at a particular story, you can ask. "What happened on the last 2 pages?" When they've had lots of practice in the story, you can ask them to retell the entire book, "Can you tell me what happened in this story?" You can even ask them specific sequencing questions, "What happened first in the story?" or "Did we see the yellow duck or the black sheep first?" Although naysayers may say, "Well gee, that's easy, they've just memorized the story, because you read it 20 times, and now they're repeating it." Actually, much more is going on here. By having your little one repeat stories and narratives to you, they are truly building their understanding for what a narrative is (a sequence of events with a problem and solution). This will help them greatly when they get to school age or if they are already in school by helping them to understand not just what's going on in the book, but also the structure in which it needs to be described. So look at each rereading of a book as a potential practice for your little one to get ready to understand the book itself and the narrative story structure!

Ways to Enhance Sequencing and Retell

• Ask you little one sequencing and retell questions throughout the book, building on the number of pages to be sequenced or retold as they become more familiar with the book.
• Encourage them to use the words beginning, middle, end, or first, next, and last.
• When they are very familiar with a book, have them practice retelling the entire story.
• As a bonus, introduce basic story words like character, setting, and problem and solution. Their teachers will think they are super smart when these words easily fly off their tongues!

4. Concepts of Print

Another great skill for our little ones to practice while repeating a book are the concepts of print. The concepts of print are basically the little skills that all of us take for granted such as knowing where the front cover and back cover of a book are, understanding what a word is, understanding what a letter is, knowing which direction to read from line to line and page to page, understanding of punctuation, and what an author and an illustrator do. The magic of rereading a book is that the story stays the same, so you can really hone in on developing these concepts of print, because your child is familiar enough with the story to be able to attend to them.

To do this, it's important to use your finger, or your child's finger, to point out the text on each page, and to engage them in features of that text. Have them count words. Have them count letters in words. Ask them questions about the words, such as "Oh no, mommy forgot what she's supposed to do at the end of the line, where do I read now? Of course! I go to the next line and start on the left, you're so smart!" or "I finished this page! Where do I go to read more of the story? Oh the next page? Do I start on the left page or the right page? Oh of course! The left page, thank you for reminding me." If your little one isn't yet ready to answer these questions, you can have them point to where to go, or your can tell them yourself. You can also point out periods, exclamation points, questions marks, and commas, and tell them what they do. It'll help to give some variety to that story, especially after reading it for 15 times in one day! *Sometimes, patience can be bred through creativity!*

Ways to Enhance Concepts of Print

• Have your child count how many words are on a page, or how many letters are in a specific word.
• Ask your child what the first and last letters are of a specific word.
• Hand your child a book upside-down and ask you to fix it, so you can read it.
• Ask your child where to read next in a book when you finish a line or a page.
• Ask you little one to show you where the front and back covers are.

5. Learning to independently "read" a book

You'll soon notice that after about 20-30 times of reading a book and practicing all of the items listed above, your little one will start to do something extraordinary, they will start to "read" the book to themselves. Now, I do put read in quotation marks, because essentially, they have just memorized the story, and they are now reciting it, but for them, it makes them feel like a reader! At times too, you'll notice that they'll make up words to fill in the gaps of those they haven't memorized, and most times those words sound like the missing ones too. I was in complete awe when Charlotte "read" Brown Bear, Brown Bear for the first time, and I will still remember her version of "what do you see" which was more akin to "whaddaya ya," and it makes me smile, but for me, in that little moment, my little one was a reader, because she understood that this book made the story, and she was telling it to herself.

So the next time you're about to say to your itty bitty, "You want to read Oh the Things you Can Think AGAIN!?" Just remember that it's repetitive to you, because you've read it and understood it completely each of the 9 times before, but the 10th time MAY just be what your little one needs to develop understanding of that mystery word, trace the text with her fingers, or finally be able to retell the beginning, middle, and end of the story! So take a breath, smile, and open that book again for a 10th time in a row! :)

Until next time...

Yours in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista

V Ways to Add Literacy to Your Valentines

Hello Again Readers,

If you're anything like me, I imagine you have been both shocked by how progressively earlier each year the Valentines are put up for sale at the local CVS or grocery store. I'm pretty sure it was not yet January 2nd, when I saw the first big box of red, pink, and purple decor at my local Kroger. Of course with all the candy, stuffed animals, and hearts come the Valentines. Usually this sight brings me dread. As a teacher, I typically buy Valentines for my students each year quite early, to dish in on sales, but then I always find myself hastily addressing and creating them on Feb. 13th. Looking at those boxes being put up this year through the eyes of a Reading Specialist, I realized they don't have to be a burden, but instead are a great seasonal opportunity for parents to engage in authentic (real-life) literacy activities with their children. To take and adapt from one of my favorite Dr. Seuss lines...

Then the Reading Specialist thought of something she hadn't before! What if Valentine addressing, she thought, doesn't have to be a bore. What if Valentine addressing...perhaps...could have literacy galore!

As a way to help parents who dread those cards, I've thought of five simple, yet effective, activities you can use while Valentine Day Card addressing to help your little readers develop their reading and writing skills!

As a precursor to this list, I would challenge all of my busy parents out there to do 2 things to make sure you don't get caught in the mad rush of Feb. 13th addressing:

1. Buy your Valentines early!
It's not like stores make this one hard, because they've been there since early January! You may as well get them on your weekly grocery trip. Have your kiddo pick out their favorite theme, and pick them up. Having your Valentines early will help you to make this a gradual activity amidst your busy schedules!

2. Request your children's class lists early!
This is especially important if you have multiple children in different classrooms! Typically, teachers send out class lists for addressing a week ahead of time to give you two weekends to work on them. (That's what I typically did anyways!) If you feel you'd need more time, don't be afraid to send a kindly typed e-mail or note to your child's teacher requesting the list. You can detail that although you know it's coming shortly, you'd like a little extra time to practice some literacy activities with your child as they address their Valentines. Teachers can usually send you their lists quite quickly, and I know if I ever got this request, it would have been music to my ears as a classroom teacher!

So with those two important steps out of the way, it's now time to get to those...

V Ways to Add Literacy into Valentines!

1. Read the Cards and talk about them!

Although it may seem simple, this is an often overlooked activity. Have your child open up his Valentines, and read over all the sayings before he addresses them. Usually there are little jokes that you can laugh at with him, or if he's very young, you can help him to better understand. Many have great wordplay in them too, which is a great bonus! Help your child to sound out words they don't know, and enjoy the moment!

This activity is great for building their decoding (sounding out) skills, comprehension, and if you add reading the cards over multiple times, can even help them build sight words!

2. Read over the class list with your child, and talk about the different features in the names!

After you've read over those silly and corny Valentines, read over the class list. You'll be pleasantly surprised that your child can readily identify most of his classmates' names, even by this point in Kindergarten! Patiently help them to read the names they aren't quite comfortable with. After they've read the list to you, you can then play "I Spy" with them with the names. For example: "I spy Michael. Can you find Michael for me?" or to make it easier, "I spy a name starting with an M," and as a request that builds off that one. "I spy a name starting with an Mmmmm sound."

If you're feeling particularly motivated, sing the name game song with your child for all the names "Michael, Michael, Bo Bichael, Banana nana Fo Fichael, Me my mo Michael, Michael!"

By reading over the class list and playing with the letters and sounds, you're giving your child some AWESOME literacy skill practice! They're able to build sight words, practice decoding, build letter recognition, sound-letter relationships (phonics), and phonemic awareness (understanding the sounds in our language). The best part: It's free and fun!

3. Have your child write the class list in different ways!

There are many different ways you can have your child rewrite her class list to help her work on her letter writing and reading skills. Simply give your child an extra piece of lined paper, and help her work through these different lists:

• Write the names in alphabetical order by first name. 98% of teachers will make their class lists alphabetical, but by last name. I have yet to meet one that will give a list by first name, but I'm sure they exist (hence the 2%). This is a great opportunity to help your child work on alphabetizing skills. To help them, you can write the alphabet on the top of their paper, which can be a great reference as they write their classmates in alphabetical order, especially if they're just learning the skill.

• Write the consonants (any letter that isn't a vowel) in one color and vowels (a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y) in another. Understanding the difference between a vowel and a consonant is an important skill, and having your child practice this with their friends' names is super valuable! For example: Vowels are in pink and Consonants in purple Michael. Have them pick their own colors and go to town!

• Write the names in order from least syllables to most. Having your child practice sounding out syllables is a great opportunity for helping them to build their phonemic awareness! If your child finds this particularly difficult by "clapping out" syllables, you'll save a lot of time and hair by having her count "jaw drops" instead of "hand claps." Have her place her hand underneath her chin and count the number of times her "jaw drops" in a name, that's the number of syllables there are in the word. This works, because every syllable has at least one vowel, and when you make a vowel sound with your mouth, your jaw drops to accommodate the air you use to make the sound. It's much more reliable than hand claps, especially for little learners. Try it yourself with the word "encyclopedia." By counting jaw drops, you'd easily get 6!

4. Address the Valentines in your own fun order!

Instead of just saying, "Okay hun, now copy the list and check off the ones you've done." Use your practice in the previous activities to give them a fun order to address their Valentines in. For example:

• Hmmm, let's start with all the names that start with the Ssss sound!
• Awesome! Now, let's write all the names that have 3 syllables!
• Let's write all the names that rhyme with "sat!"
• Great work! Now, how about we write all the names that have the same first sound as your name!
• Good! Now, let's write all the names that start with the letter that comes after "s."

and so on, and so forth! For your own organization, have your child check off the names after they address the Valentines. This will make sure you don't skip any!

5. Have your child make his own Valentines for family members!

If your child has really caught the Valentine's Day bug, and you have a knack for arts and crafts, have him make his own Valentines as an extension activity and send them to family members. This is a great idea, because it helps your child to see how reading and writing have real-life purposes and it's fun! If you want some great ideas for easy or fancy Valentines, check out Pinterest! Even just making the traditional little paper hearts with messages on them is great too! Have your child choose which Valentine they want to make, get the cutting/pasting/coloring/painting parts done, and then help him to write a message he wants to write to his family. Not only are these precious literacy moments for your child, but they will serve as treasured keepsakes for your family members for years to come!

So there you have it! Five ways to really add quality literacy activities into an otherwise boring addressing Valentines burden! As with all suggested activities on my blog, make sure to keep the mood light, and space out the literacy learning over many days. For example, if you do suggestion 1 on one day, wait a day until you do suggestion 2. You want to keep your child's literacy learning light and fun, and not turn it into a mandated checklist! Even if it's more realistic for you to choose 2 activities instead of all 5, just do that! You know your child and your schedules best! Keep it fun for you too!

Thanks for reading everyone! Have a Happy Valentine's Day, and until next time....

Your in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista