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Simple and Fun Reading Strategies- How to Teach a Slug to Read

September 13, 2013 By Deirdre

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How to Teach a Slug to Read shares the steps a slug goes through to learn to read. If you want to teach a slug or child how to read, you will easily be able to follow these steps. They are simple and fun reading strategies.

Simple and Fun Reading Strategies- How to Teach a Slug to Read

Without giving to much away here are some of the steps:

Put labels on his favorite things.
Read books your slug will be interested in.
Show your slug words that they will see over and over again.
Help him sounds out the words in the book.

We loved the commentary between the slug and his mom on each page. They have the best chats about each step. The pictures in this book are wonderful too. I confess we have giggled a lot as we read this fun book.

What did we do to explore this book with reading strategies?

We looked at several simple and fun reading strategies from the book and from my experience as a teacher.

Highlight a Page from a Book

The book suggested that highlighting favorite words in a text. Rather than actually highlighting in a book I found a passage online about slugs for JDaniel and I read together. I read JDaniel the text and he highlighted fun slug related words.

We will try this activity again. I may photocopy a page from a favorite book or find passage online again. It is a great way to work on building vocabulary and learning new words.

This same activity could be used to find sight words or words with specific sounds in them. You may decide to keep a journal of found words or maybe even create a homemade dictionary of them.

Slug Reading Guide

A paper slug glued onto a stick made a simple reading guide. What is a reading guide? Well, it is a pointer or flat tool that can help children focus on one line of text at time. The guide was put together so that the slugs slime line would be right under the text. The slug’s eyes could be used to find and point to particular words or areas of text by holding the stick so the slug’s eyes are lined up with the words. This is great way to look for sight words.

Reading guides are so easy to make. You may want to make different guides for each theme or unit of study you are doing.

Slug Tracking Guide

Learning how to track your finger while reading text can be done using a folder with solid lines where the text would be. Dotted lines connect the solid lines and mimic the movement your fingers would making as they move from one line to the next. The lines can me drawn in any color you like. I chose yellow so the lines would like like slug slime lines. Yes, my guy got to run his finger right over drawn slime! How cool and gross at the same time. This activity is great reading warm up and help put into muscle memory the flow of text in a book.

Anticipation Building

We did one more activity to go along with this book. I will be putting it up next week. It was such fun I thought it needed a post of its own.

Reading tools and strategies can help young slugs and young children learn to read. Do you have a favorite reading tool or strategy for helping children learn to read?

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{Read.Explore.Learn} The Pirate of Kindergarten Activities

August 30, 2013 By Deirdre

The Pirate of Kindergarten (Richard Jackson Books (Atheneum Hardcover)) is about a little girl just starting kindergarten named Ginny. Ginny loves books and she loves the reading circle. When she tries to get to the reading circle, she runs into real chairs while trying to avoid the unreal ones. When she tries to read, she sees double words and pictures.

Activities Based on the Kindergarten Pirate

It is at the beginning of they year eye exam at school that her double vision is finally uncovered. Ginny didn’t realize everyone didn’t see things double. Her parents didn’t know she saw them this way either. They do take her to the eye doctor. He prescribes glasses, some exercises , and an eye patch.

Jinny loved the patch it made it so she didn’t have to squint. Back at school Ginny became the Kindergarten Pirate who could do work, cut bunnies out without three ears, and read.

I bet there are a lot of children that have vision issues that aren’t picked up until they start school. Ginny seemed to enjoy some of the benefits of hers. She loved seeing letters, numbers and pictures double.

What did we do to explore this book?

Sight Word Eye Charts

I made JDaniel some sight word eye charts. I set them up to look like the eye charts that doctors have. They have words spread across several lines and the lines are numbered. The words get smaller as you go down the chart. JDaniel had to cover one eye like the Pirate of Kindergarten.

One eye chart at a time was hung on our kitchen door for JDaniel to work on. I would call out a line and he would read me the words.

Here is a PDF for the Preschool Sight Word Eye Charts. (These charts have been updated)

What Do You See? Folder

Activities Based on the Pirate of Kindergarten

This What Do You See? The folder has extra large holes cut into it. It was designed for young children working on visual discrimination. For older children would benefit from a folder with smaller cut outs like the ones in the cat folder I made to explore the book Midnight: The Halloween Cat.

If you can’t find large pictures in magazines, you can mount smaller pictures on a piece of construction paper.

Double Vision Math Activity

Jinny had double vision so, I made JDaniel a game that worked on addition facts with doubles. He has a work mat with areas to put manipulatives in. The is a space to place the dice he rolls on the lines under that glasses. A third die can be used to display the answer to the math fact.

I put out wooden blocks to count with. They ended up being a little large. Next time we play the game I will put out a smaller manipulative. We also put these sheets into a plastic sleeve so we could use them over and over again.

I have decided to ask you to link your posts to the Read.Explore.Learn. Facebook page instead of running a link up. I hope you will stop by and share your children’s book related activities there.

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Preschool Activities- Ice Cream Games

July 26, 2013 By Deirdre

Should I Share My Ice Cream? (An Elephant and Piggie Book) is so cute. Elephant really wants to share his ice cream cone. He truly does, but while he is deciding what to do something happens to his ice cream. I bet you can guess what happens. No, he doesn’t play ice cream games. No, he doesn’t set it down to do preschool activities. Yes, it does melt. You really feel for him.

Preschool Activities- Ice Cream Games rolling

Elephant is lucky! Piggie ( his best friend) arrives on the scene and share his ice cream with him. Don’t you love that he does.

I love that both Elephant and Piggie think about sharing with a friend. Sharing is such an important thing to be able to do especially if the thing you are sharing is something you really love.

What did we do to explore this book?

We made pretend ice cream and played ice cream shop. We also reviewed learning concepts using ice cream games. (They would be great for preschool activities or early elementary aged activities.) Here are two of the games we played. There will be a post on Wednesday, July 31st sharing all nine of the ice cream folder games I created.

Creating Pretend Ice Cream and Playing Ice Cream Shop

The following recipe was used to make pretend ice cream:

Pretend Ice Cream Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups of hair conditioner

1 1/2 cups of corn starch

3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder

Directions: Mix all the ingredients in the bowl until the mixture looks creamy.

You could add food coloring and extracts to make other pretend ice cream flavors.

JDaniel had the best time using an ice cream scoop to serve the pretend ice cream in colorful plastic bowls. The pretend ice cream was creamy and easily formed rounded scoops. (It was just a tad sticky, but nothing like goop is.)There was plenty of pretend ice cream to play with. JDaniel filled two bowls and there was still some left in the large mixing bowl.

It was delicious as far a homemade pretend ice cream that you won’t ever really eat because it has hair conditioner in it can be. It was really easy to spoon out of the bowl and it looked like real ice cream. If were to make this in a classroom with a group of children, I would have to be very clear that eating even tasting was just not allowed. I wouldn’t want anyone to get sick. We just pretended to savor spoonfuls of the pretend ice cream at my house.

After pretending to serve the ice cream, we played with it. It easily rolled into balls and snakes. I was surprised at how malleable it was.

More Preschool Activities

File Folder Ice Cream Games

Counting Ice Cream Game in a Folder

I simply glued several construction paper cones and ice cream scoops to a file folder. Onto each of the cones I wrote a number. JDaniel was asked to read me the number. Then I had him put the correct number of button sprinkles onto the ice cream scoop on top of each cone.

JDaniel counted out the correct number for each scoop in his hand before putting them on the scoop. I then counted the button on each scoop to see it were correct.

This is a very simple game, but it really helps children make abstract (the actual number) numbers more concrete (visual displayed with real objects kids can touch).

Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Matching in a Folder

This time uppercase letters were written on cones glued into a folder. JDaniel was to put its matching lowercase letter on top of the cone. “D” and “B” are tricky for young children. They can be for my guy. I was impressed that he got them without and trouble.

This was a easy, but he asked me to make cones in folders for the rest of the alphabet. I guess he liked these preschool activities.

How did you explore books this week? If you have a post you would like to share, please link it up below. Once you have added your post, please visit at least three others.

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Read.Explore.Learn – Space Boy Learning Activities

July 19, 2013 By Deirdre

Space Boy by Leo Landry Leo Landry inspired the space learning activities we did this week. Space Boy is the story of Nicholas who needs a little time away for the noise and commotion of family life for just a little while before he goes to bed. His home is filled with his sister’s crying, a barking dog, and the radio blaring. (I believe his parents turned it up to drowned out the sound to the baby crying and the dog barking.) Oh! His neighborhood is noisy too.

He decides that he need to get faraway from it all so, he packs a healthy snack and puts on his spacesuit. Then he gets into his rocket and heads to the moon. (Apparently he has made space trips before.)

The moon is quiet and the perfect place to have a bedtime snack. It is also a wonderful place for a quiet moonwalk. There is something meaning on the moon. Nicholas quickly realizes that he miss his family and wishes his family could shared trip to the moon with him.

Nicholas rockets back to Earth and checks on each member of his family just before going to bed.

I think parents and children may both feel as Nicholas does at the end of the day. Taking a off for a walk on the moon is something everyone may enjoy from time to time. If only we all had a getaway rocket waiting for those days in our backyard.

What did we do to explore this book?

Sight Word Rockets on the Moon

Read.Explore.Learn - Space Boy Learning Activities

We used rockets on sticks and an old beverage holder to work on sight words. JDaniel was asked to read me the the word on each rocket. When he had read a word, he was able to land it into one of the slots on I had cut into the beverage holder.

One of the fun things about working with rockets on sticks is that you can have them zoom through the air and you can make rocket noises as it travels to it landing slot on one of the moon hills.

Space Science Experiment

I found a science experiment in a library book that I thought we could easily put together. The materials were ones we already had and it took just a little while to put it together. There were just a few challenges. Putting the holes in the top of the bottle cap with washer on top and the base of the soda bottle were a little tough.

Joining the two rubber bands together to feed through the holes as easy. After a few slips of the bands out of holes, we quickly secured each of the rubber bands with straws. Each of us took responsibility for one of the rubber band loop.

Adding the beans was super easy for us. We tried adding them by handfuls, but later moved to adding a bean or two at a time.
Once we secured the rocket and astronaut to the straw, we thought that the experiment would go smoothly. We turned the rubber bands as tightly as we could and then let the large straw with the pictures on it go and nothing happened. Literally nothing.

JDaniel suggested we turn the bottle upside down and try the experiment. It worked! The astronaunt and rocket flew around and around. I am sure why it worked better, but I am glad it did.

Rocket Snack

JDaniel has been asking for snack food creations lately. I decided to make him a rocket sandwich with a trail of blueberry flames.

When I finished it, it looked liked it was missing something. I cut out little pieces of a flour tortilla and a small grape slice to make an astronaut for the rocket. Some tiny sprinkles were used to give him eyes and a mouth. My husband thought it was clever. My son just like the way it tasted. I think we would enjoy another Space Boy snack.

How did you explore books this week? If you have a post you would like to share, please link it up below. Once you have added your post, please visit at least three others.

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A rainy day is perfect for science experiments and reading books about rain. We recently read several rainy day books and several rainy day. (We have had over ten days of rain.) You will find some of the other books with a rain theme that we read shared on the Who Likes the Rain? (Exploring the Elements)

We like rain at my house. JDaniel loves to jump in puddles and dance in the rain. I love to dance right along with him. We have had more than share lately as I mentioned. With all that rain came tons of questions about rain.

Rainy Day Questions like:

What do raindrops look like before they land on me?
Where do puddles come from?
Why do plants need rain?
How do snails get their shells?
Why does the air smell different after the rain?

These questions and several more are answered in this wonderful flap book for early readers. I learned a lot from reading this book with JDaniel and he understands a lot more about rain. We are going to have to look for other books in this series. The text is easy to understand and the questions are ones that my son loved knowing the answers to.

Science Experiments We Did to Explore This Book

Art-Related Science Experiment

A Rainy Day: Science Experiments -Who Likes Rain?

JDaniel and I decorated a construction paper umbrella with several different kinds of drawing tools. Chalk, magic markers, crayons, and a bingo marker were each used to decorate an umbrella.

The umbrellas were set in a broiler pan and then placed outside on a bench on our deck to wait for the rain. At first, there was only a small shower. I headed out to take pictures of our results and then left them outside to dry.

Then it rained again. This time it was a downpour. The artwork drastically changed after the downpour. The designs on all the umbrellas smeared and in some cases ran off. I need to disclose that I didn’t leave them out in the downpour for long after only a couple of minutes I scrambled outside to bring them in.

It was interesting to see what effect each type of rain had on the artwork.

Baking Ingredient Science Experiment

This experiment was done during a rainy day using the two storms on that day as the art-related science experiment. Several different baking ingredients from our pantry were placed into a silicone muffin tin.

We placed them on the same bench on the deck as the art project to save us from running all over the deck.

After the short shower, most of the ingredients looked a little damp and the colored sugar had started to run. The heavy rain caused a physical change to most of the ingredients. The Italian seasoning got puffed up a bit. The salt had absorbed the water. The cinnamon changed colors. The flour had craters in it from the raindrops. The sugar had gotten a little syrupy. The salt was a little puffier and didn’t display much water. The color sugar had a puddle of green in its cup.

JDaniel tasted them each and said the sugar tasted sweeter as did the colored sugar. The salt was still salty. He wasn’t willing to try the Italian season or the flour.

This experiment was wonderful for talking about physical and chemical changes that can happen to materials and ingredients when they come in contact with water.

While we were ready for some days of sunshine, some science experiments on a rainy day were fun.

How did you explore books this week? If you have a post you would like to share, please link it up below. Once you have added your post, please visit at least three others.

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