JA SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES

Books, Books, Books! Young readers benefit enormously from living in a “print-rich” environment. The accessibility of books to children is a huge support system for their growing understanding of print and print literacy, and for their lifelong attachment to literacy and scholarship. The number of books in the home has a huge effect on the level of education children will ultimately attain, according to a 20-year study. The New York Public Library is an amazing resource! You can check out many, many books at a time. You can use their online system to request books to be delivered to your home library. So you don’t have to buy tons of books to always have lots of books around.

Create a library at home. Organize books so that they are easily accessible for your young reader(s). Bins with picture-and-word labels will help kids to “book shop” in their own home and to take out a whole bin and read many or all books in that bin in a sitting. (See image below of nonfiction bins categorized by topics.) Periodically, you may get your child to help you resort the library - you could sort into “old favorites,” “Mo Willems books,” “mostly pictures,” “books in Spanish,” “books that make you laugh out loud,” or any other category you and your reader(s) come up with. Getting kids to draw and write the labels is a wonderful crossover activity that engages reading and writing. 

Read aloud picture books. Young readers benefit from hearing the rich language and looking closely at the kid-friendly art of picture books, even though they themselves cannot yet read these conventionally on their own. Reading to your child in English or a mother-tongue language and talking about the story and the pictures will deeply support an appreciation of reading as a social, meaningful activity. If you have older children, they can also read to their younger siblings, benefitting both readers.

Encourage young readers to reread a familiar book, approximating reading. This is known as “emergent storybook reading.” When a child knows a book almost by heart, it’s natural for them to want to read it themselves, though they are not going to read it with complete accuracy. You might make a bin of favorite picture books that you’ve read many times, and set up times for your child to reread them out loud, alone or with you. Celebrate that they’re turning the pages, looking at the pictures, reading with a storyteller’s voice, and getting dramatic with dialogue! Here’s a video of an entire class working on this at the same time:

• Emergent Storybook Reading

Listen to audio books with your child. There are some amazing recordings of picture books available through the local libraries. Hearing the language of children’s literature will build vocabulary not typical of everyday spoken language. When listening with very young readers to picture books, looking at the physical book together will be helpful so that the pictures are part of the experience. Be ready to pause the recording to be able to linger on a page. Although this list says “for Preschoolers,” it is just fine for your Kindergarteners as well!

• 20 Audiobooks for Preschoolers

Engaging your child with their leveled books. Starting in October, based on assessments, children in JA will bring home books that they are ready to read themselves in their book baggies, in addition to other books they are interested in (which you can read aloud as mentioned above). Books at the earliest levels are likely to have a pattern that repeats across pages. You could start by taking turns reading pages. Even though these books are very short and have minimal content, try your best to use the pictures and the words to have a conversation! Expect kids to read out loud and to point to each word as they read it as a tracking support. After you’ve read a book together, you can encourage the child to reread the whole book at least one more time, more fluently and without your reading every other page. This video shows an example of what it’s like to work with a young child with a leveled book: 

• Partner Reading with a Leveled Book

Label your home! Ok, maybe not everything in your home. But putting labels on your kitchen cabinets and drawers that say “Dishes,” “Glasses,” “Silverware” can support children in learning what these everyday words look like. You might decide to label in the language you speak at home - either instead of or in addition to English labels. Encourage your child to read the label out loud as they look for “pants” in the pants drawer. This just makes for lots of opportunities to put reading in the context of home life. 

Make kid-friendly grocery lists. (see below) As you walk the aisles, get your personal helper to read aloud the next item on the list, then have them check it off when you’ve got it in your cart/basket.

Letters, Letters, Letters! Make letters accessible in a variety of formats and in many places in your home. The classic refrigerator magnets are great, especially if you are able to engage your child in letter play while you’re doing other things in the kitchen. You can do a kind of scavenger hunt with questions like “Find the “D”!” What letter does “sink” start with?” (Don’t try that one with “knife” 😃.) Bathtub letters that stick to the tub are also fun, and you can play the same kind of game. Keep the tone light and fun, and quit when the child gets bored or frustrated. No need to push - the whole point is to bring joy to this learning and to embed it in fun family scenes.

A bin of alphabet books. This can be a revolving bin from the public library, in case you don’t want to invest in many alphabet books. But the more of these books that you can have on hand for your child to look through and practice associating letters with words that start with that sound, the better! It helps them to transfer their understandings and solidify the connections they’re making between written letters, sounds, and words with meanings. 

Online apps that playfully support phonics learning. Some examples of high quality online phonics apps are:

• Starfall

• Montessori Letter Sounds - Phonics in English, Spanish, French and Italian (on iOS devices only for $3.99) 

The Story of your Flags: Take some time to learn about the history and meaning behind the flags of your nationality! 

Counting Fish  The player counts small numbers of animated fish. Talk to your child about different ways to count the fish, perhaps by finding groups of 2 or 3 fish. Players scoring 70% or better will move to the next level. The directions are spoken aloud.

Counting Games  Choose from an assortment of games: Teddy Numbers, Underwater Counting, Gingerbread Man Games, Ladybird Spots.

Number Frames Use frames to count, represent, compare, and compute. This free manipulative is available both as an app and online.

Number Rack Count and compare movable, colored beads. This free manipulative is available both as an app and online.

Ten-Frame  Select from several games that challenge students to count objects, build numbers, or answer basic addition problems using a ten frame. A Five-Frame  is also available.

Connect the Dots with Art Games  Connect dots by clicking on numbers in order to make a picture.

Numerical Order  Players order numbers from 1-10 (Level 1) and 11-20 (Level 2). Audio directions.

Number Bubble: Count to 100  Fill in the missing numbers by popping bubbles and dropping the number on the correct spaces.

Balloon Pop Comparison  Pop the balloon to match a statement, either "greater number" or "lesser number."

Marble Math  Players see and hear an addition problem. They can drag marbles onto a work surface to help them figure out the problem. Play includes five levels of addition, starting with simple 1-digit problems. Players must score 70% or greater to advance levels. Audio directions.

MathTappers: Find Sums  An app compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, this simple, free game uses ten-frames and is designed to help learners make sense of addition. It's an excellent game to explore with your child while you're on the go.

Math Lines  In this game, race to pair numbers that add up to a target sum. Before your child plays, review the pairs of numbers that add up to the target sum. You might even look at different ways to make the number using game pieces, marbles, or pennies.

Fuzz Bugs Number Bond  Select a target sum and challenge your child to click and drop the missing number into the number bond at the bottom of the screen. Consider using 10 as a target sum or choose from another number from 5–20.