Practice At Home

Reading Practice 

at Home

Just like we need to exercise our bodies, we also need to take care of our minds.  Here are some activities you can do with your child at home to keep their minds "in shape" and build strong reading muscles.

Helpful Resources

For Beginning Readers

Virtual Sight Word Flash Cards

Below are the Dolch Sight Word lists sorted by grade.  Start with PrePrimer list even if your child is in a higher grade just for practice.  Once your child masters all the words on the list you can move on to the next one.  Just click the list to begin the flash cards.  You child can simply click/touch the screen to move to the next word.

CVC Word List

In kindergarten we have been working on breaking words down to their individual sounds.  You can use this list of CVC words and the activities below to practice sounding out words at home.  Click the square with the arrow in the upper right corner of the activity for a printable version.

Race Car Printable.pdf

Hide the CVC

•Write CVC words on cards and hide them in our home.  Have your child find them and read them to you.

CVC Toss

•Set up old boxes, laundry baskets, etc. Put a CVC word on the containers.  Read a CVC word and have your child toss the ball into the correct container.  

CVC Hop

•Say a CVC word and have your child hop and make the sound for each letter sound in the word.

Long Vowel Practice

Mastering the vowel sounds is a very important part of becoming a fluent reader.  First we work on learning the short vowel sounds.  Then we move to working on finding how vowels work together to make the long vowel sounds.   Click the slides below for videos and flash cards to help practice reading long vowel sounds.

Long I
Long O
Long a: ai, ay, a_e
Long U
Long E

Chunky Monkey

We have been using the strategy Chunky Monkey in class when we come across unknown words.  When your child is struggling with a word when they are reading tell him/her to look for “chunks” or letters that are working together and think about the sound they make.  Break the word into parts to try to put all the sounds together to read the unknown word. Use the Chunky Monkey Journal to have your child keep track of chunks they find while reading. They can write the word then use a highlighter or crayon to trace over the chunk and make the sound.


Helpful Chunks

Chunky Monkey Journal.pdf

Chunky Monkey Journal

Click the square in the top right corner for a printable version of the Chunky Monkey Journal.

For Developing Readers

Book Study

The best thing your child can do to build fluency is read.  If your child was not assigned a book by his/her classroom teacher or is in need of a book please have them make a selection on EPIC.

Try reading the same book with your child so you can discuss the book together.  After reading here are some fun ways the enhance comprehension: