1st and 2nd grade
Reading Skills
Phonological Awareness Watch this video to see why this skill is important to becoming a strong reader.
Phonological Awareness This is a great article to read from Reading Rockets that gives you some activities you can do with your child to help them develop phonological awareness.
Heggerty Lessons: https://heggerty.wistia.com/projects/bb9fqmhi1i
Playing with Words: At Home Edition This article and video from Heggerty, curriculum we use at CES, will give you some ideas how to play with words with your student.
Decoding is when a reader uses their knowledge of letter-sound relationships, including knowledge of letter patterns, to correctly pronounce written words. Understanding these relationships gives children the ability to recognize unfamiliar words quickly and to figure out words they haven't seen before. The article below will guide you through ways to help your child when they are reading words they do not know by looking for phonics patterns.
Decoding
The goal of reading is to be able to recognize words quickly, or automatically, without having to decode each word every time. This video What is Automaticity? from BrainSpring explains why it is important for readers to recognize a large number of words quickly.
L blends ~ introduction to pounding and tapping:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZAR2O5YHZSxvZtyiCSv6FjxJLQgrQyu6/view
Syllabication:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YH9ii97MyeQhDphYCF44ffmjhEiR-i7H/view
Activities to help your child become a fluent reader:
Word Sorts - give children a way to practice seeing phonics patterns in words and read them quickly and accurately. This short video shows how to have fun with word sorts. You can create word sorts with the phonics patterns that your student is working on in class each week. Your child can hunt for phonics patterns to cut out of old magazines and glue them on 3x5 cards. This is helpful for them to see and recognize phonics patterns in different fonts.
Subtitles Reading Rockets article that helps children build fluency by letting them watch their favorite TV shows!
Red Words - Children use this strategy to help them memorize words that do not follow the phonics pattern rules we teach from BrainSpring
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpjfHO8jUYQ
Another great red word activity comes from Jan Richardson using magnetic letters. Children really like this because it is an engaging game. Click the link to take a look at the Mix and Fix strategy!
Games are a fun interactive way to get your child to play with words and learn new vocabulary. Building vocabulary will increase your child’s comprehension of the text they read.
Games for Road Trips
Reading Games - Check out PBS Kids
Storytelling
Listen to short stories. Stories have a structure that is predictable. Once children understand that all stories contain characters, setting(where the story takes place), a problem or goal, and a solution to the problem, it is easier for them to retell the stories.