COMPREHENSION:
This is the ultimate goal of reading: making meaning! You can work on this at home early on by talking about books, magazines and things you read with your child.
Discuss the characters, setting, problem and solution. Ask questions, make predictions and use the text as evidence for your assumptions. Make connections as you read to other books, your own life and the world.
For non-fiction: discuss what the topic was and the details that support it. If you are reading about snakes, e.g., recall some facts. Based on what you have learned, would snakes prefer a home in Antarctica? Use new knowledge.
There is SO much you can do to aid comprehension but these are the basics. Happy reading.
Guided Reading:
Here are some things we do at school in our small reading groups when we come to unknown words. You can also do them at home when reading with your child.
- Check pictures for clues
- Check to make sure what you are reading makes sense
- Does the word look like the word you said?
- Skip the word and come back to it
- Look for small words or chunks that you know inside the bigger word
*** Remember, retelling a story is one of the most important factors in reading.
Independent Reading:
The take home books (for home-fun Sept-Dec) being sent home are on your child's independent reading level. Your child should be able to read these books comfortably on his/her own. It should be an enjoyable experience, not stressful! If your child is spending most of their time trying to decode words, then their brain is working so hard on decoding that they are not grasping the meaning.
Re-read good ol' books for fluency practice and fun.
Concepts about Print:
Here are some things to have your child point out as you read together:
- Front/back of book
- Title of book
- Where to begin reading
- First/last word on page
- Capital/lowercase letters
- Identify period, question mark, exclamation mark
Phonemic Awareness:
The first and most crucial step in literacy development is phonemic awareness; it is the ability to hear the sounds that make up words. Here are a few simple activities that you can do with your child to help develop their phonemic awareness:
- Play with rhyming words (you say a word and have your child come up with a rhyming word, then switch roles)
- Listen and say beginning and ending sounds in words
- Count the sounds they hear in words (syllables)
- Change the beginnings or endings to words (-at with a c in the beginning makes the word cat, change the c to a b and you make a new word bat)
Writing:
In our classroom we use the writing process in a writing workshop format. We begin by getting students confident in trying to write. We want them to be excited to express themselves.
Here are some things you can help your child with at home when writing:
- How to decide what to write
- How to draw a picture with a character, setting, action, and details
- How to listen for and write the sounds they hear in words (it is difficult not to tell them the correct spelling, but please try and let them sound out words slowly and write what they hear).
-First grade is expected to be able to write several detailed sentences by the end of the year with correct punctuation, temporary spelling, correctly spelled core words, descriptive language and combined sentences (using and or because).
Core Words:
There are core words that all kindergartners in New Hanover County should know how to read, write, and spell with ease by the end of their kindergarten year as well as the first and last name. These words are seen frequently in books and often used in their writing. Learning to recognize these words in print and write them with ease will allow them to focus on decoding unfamiliar words and meaning as they read and write.
Try to encourage your child to spell/read the K core words.
THIS year we are using Fundations trick words:
Kindergarten Trick Words