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Word Builder – A Spelling Game for Your Child

Julie Haden —  : Dec 8, 2014 — Leave a comment

Your child can learn to spell by using my game called Word Builder. Word Builder makes seeing spelling patterns fun for your child. Simply, it is a nine box checkerboard with consonant-vowel-consonant (cvc) word patterns.

2014 12 08 Word Builder 1When your child plays Word Builder, her job is to build as many words as possible with the given letters. The only rule is she cannot jump over any letter to make a word. However, she can build any word by placing letters forwards, backwards, horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

Through the game, your child can learn word patterns and families – such as the “an” or “am” word families. She can learn how to use specific sounds to build words that sound the same but have different meanings. For example, she can learn that she can make the word “meet” by changing the “ea” in the word “meat” to “ee”.

If your child is a younger emergent reader, limit the number of words for her to find to five. Draw three blanks for each word to emphasize the difference between beginning, middle, and ending sounds. Also, differentiate vowels from consonants letters in the checkerboard by writing the vowels in red and the consonants in black.

If your child is an older student, use this game to help teach letter pairs that have the same sound, such as “ee” and “ea”. Talk about tricks to remember homonyms such as “meet” and “meat”, for example, “The meat that you eat.” My older students love the challenge of seeing how many words they can spell in a certain timeframe. “How many real words can you build in five minutes?”

2014 12 08 Word Builder 2Kids love Word Builder because it is a puzzle. They are motivated to find or build as many words as they can.

With this game, your child can master her consonant-vowel-consonant words (cvc). The game will help your child recognize word families, and patterns of letters within words – making spelling easier.

What are fun ways your child likes to practice her spelling words?

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Reading Focus

Julie Haden —  : Oct 28, 2014 — Leave a comment

Often times my parents will tell me that their children are having a hard time focusing when reading – especially the parents of kids just beginning to read independently. Here are a few techniques to try with your child to help increase their reading focus, fluency and comprehension.2014 10 28 focus

First, when your child is reading aloud, track each word for her with your finger as she reads. If she misreads a word or makes a mistake, keep your finger on that word so she is aware of her mistake until you teach her the correct word or help her focus on the skipped words.

Another way to increase focus while your child is reading aloud is to ask questions periodically about the context of the text or story to insure she understands what she is reading. Help bring her focus to the main idea and specific details about the story.

Finally, bring your child’s attention to words that she misreads aloud. As you track the words while she reads, highlight words that she misreads. So you can review these words with her, copy a chapter at a time as she progresses in the book or text. Then after each chapter, review missed words with your child. This technique also teaches your child to be aware of how many words she skips, since skipping too many words might affect her comprehension of what she reads.

By practicing these three techniques, you are teaching your child how to have greater focus as she begins to read independently.

What helps your child learn to have focus while reading?

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Fast, Fun Vocabulary for Your Young Child

Julie Haden —  : Oct 14, 2014 — Leave a comment

Want a fast, fun way to expand your preschooler’s vocabulary and understanding? I found one while working with a student who is an English Language Learner. English Language Learners often have limited exposure to English vocabulary at home. Vocabulary is important to building reading skills and listening comprehension as well as increasing conversational speech.

zoo toobMy new student and I started playing what I call “prop” stories. Prop stories start with small three-dimensional toy figures, or pictures on felt or magnets, that depict animals, people or other realistic or fanciful objects. A blank background can work or you can use a specific background like a zoo theme for example. The key is to focus on your child’s specific interests.

To introduce these prop stories, I model the story first using specific sentences, which I ask my student to repeat. For example in my zoo prop story I might say, “A mother takes her son to the zoo. They see the penguins swimming in the water. They see the elephants swinging their trunks.”

As your child gets more comfortable with vocabulary and sentence structuring, he can begin to create his own stories without your prompting and labeling of words.

zoo feltProp stories are great for children as young as 18 months – 2 years and for older children too. You can find materials for your child’s prop story around your home or can purchase magnetic and felt story sets at teacher school supply stores.

Prop stories are fun. Your child will see them as play and will be motivated by the imaginative interactions with you. As your child plays with you, she expands her vocabulary and language skills as you label the words and create a better grasp on sentence structuring. Your child’s creativity grows too as your child creates and tells stories.

How do you help build your child’s vocabulary through play?

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Your Child: Letter Writing Master

Julie Haden —  : Sep 16, 2014 — 1 Comment

This time of year, my parents ask for ideas to help their children make letter formations.

wilson pageStart your child working on lower case letters before capitals. I can’t emphasize that enough! Your child will see and use mostly lower case letters when she is reading or writing. A question I often get from parents is, “Which letters should we work on together?” The Wilson Reading System provides a fantastic chart that shows which letter formations to teach together.

Tactile tools are great ways for getting letter formations instruction to “stick”. Tools include placing paper over a plastic grid and then having your child use a crayon to make a letter. You can use “house paper”  to help your child place the specific letter in the right space. After your child writes a letter, have her use her finger to feel the bumps impressed in the paper from the crayon going in the direction of the letter formation. The tactile perception will help your child remember how she formed the letter.letter in the house

letter in the house detail

Another tactile teaching tool is to have your child write letters in chalk on fine-grade sandpaper. Have your child trace the chalk letter with her finger. Alternatively use shaving cream. It is messy, but your child will both feel and see in contrast letters as she forms them.

Tracing letters in letter formation workbooks is a good way to reinforce making individual letters. A way to make doing this even more fun is to use colored pieces of acetate. Cut sheets, found in an art store, to the size of your workbook pages. Use dry erase markers and let your child trace and erase each letter. Another tool, a small tablet like a dry erase board can help your child focus on the space and help create a boundary for writing. (I use a 7” x 4 ½” board.)

How your child grasps her pencil is important to mastering letter formation. Try golf pencils, short sticks of chalk or short dry erase markers to encourage your child to practice the three-finger pincer grasp. Your older child will enjoy having many choices of pencil grippers as she masters the three-finger pincer grasp. These are just a few tools and ideas to help your child enjoy and master letter formation. For a link to ideas that will help your young child start strengthening their pincer grip, check out: therapystreetforkids.comgrippersWhat are some tools you use with your child to help with making letters?

For more, see my blog: Reading and Writing Go Hand In Hand!

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Your Early Reader with 5 Easy Ideas

Julie Haden —  : Sep 7, 2014 — Leave a comment
  1.  Touch each word as you read to your child to emphasize that each is separate and unique. Emphasize that you are reading from left to right to teach directionality.
  2. Put objects that all begin with the same letter sound in a bag or box. Have your child pull them out. Say each object’s name emphasizing its beginning sound.  For example, cat begins with the |c| sound just like cow.  Then let them pull out more objects that make the same sound.
  3. Frequent the library. Help your child pick out books that they are interested in and age appropriate.  This shows them how much you value reading.  Let them see you reading your favorite books too.
  4. Play rhyming games.  This can be great fun on road trips or walking outings together.  For example, you might say, “I saw a cat on a mat with a _____. ” Let them fill in the blank.  There are no wrong answers in this game, except the sillier the better including nonsense words!
  5. When you teach letter names, use letters that are lowercase because this is what they will see in books.  Save capital letters until after they’ve mastered the lowercase.  You can find a set of lowercase letters at a teacher’s supply store.

Use these 5 ideas to start having fun cultivating an early reader!

What are some ideas you’ve used with your child to promote early reading?

Bella and Julie

First published October 3, 2013.

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Reading Games for Your Child: Target Dollar Aisle Inspired

Julie Haden —  : Aug 27, 2014 — 2 Comments

One of my favorite things to do is create learning games. This one was inspired in the aisle of the Target dollar aisle. Inspiration lies in every bin for teaching materials and learning games. Especially, when I have specific skills I know I need to work on with certain students.

bag of blocksMy walk down the aisle last week inspired a game that I call Word Family Mystery Box Grab. (Please don’t trademark this.) My inspiration came in the form of primary colored counting blocks – 18 per bag – the red blocks for vowels – all the other colors for the consonants letters. When I teach vowels, I always differentiate them from consonants by making them the color red.

To make the game, first identify the word family you want to work on. The “at” family of words is a great place to start with your child. (Think about all of those great books for your child about cats and hats!) Start by making your child’s game by writing the letter “a” on the red block, on both sides, and the letter “t” on the other consonant blocks – any color other than red.

atThen make letter blocks that your child will choose as the first sound of an “at” word. These consonant letters will make real words when added to the start of your new “at” blocks. For example, you can add the letter “c” to “at” to create the word “cat”. It can be fun to throw in a letter or two that doesn’t make a real word is fun, like “g” added before “at”. It will help your child gain confidence reading any word, even if, as one of my five-year-old students told me, “It’s a nonsense word.”

box of blocksNext put all the initial consonant letters in a box with an opening in the top. The opening should be big enough for your child to use his or her little hand to pull each letter out one at a time. (You can use a bag, too.) Before you start the game, lay out the two blocks that represent “at” middle letter vowel sounds and final consonant letter sound. Put all of your blocks for letters that can go in front of “at” in your bag or box.

The game begins when you ask your child to pull a letter out, add it to the “at” part, and then read the word. Next, have your child hand you the first letter sound block, and then pick another letter sound block to start a new word again. Repeat until the box is empty.

Multiple children can take turns and tally how many words they spell and read, or your child can play with you. Except when you build your word, have your child read the word to you.

word familyI love this game because you can use any vowel-pattern, word family you want. I recommend starting with the short “a” word families and then try other vowel-pattern, word families. Some suggestions for when your child masters “at”: try “ad”, “ag”, “ap”, or “ack” word families. Organize your word families using Ziploc bags – to identify each word family and separate the specific letters that go with each family.

Here is one game inspired by the dollar aisle.

What are some simple reading games that you have created for your kids?

 

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Make Your Early Reader’s World Better!

Julie Haden —  : Aug 16, 2014

With the school year starting, has early reading made your child’s world a better place? Research shows that if your child is an early reader, he or she is likely to be better prepared for the Common Core State Standards adopted by 45 States, which expect kindergarteners to:

  1. take in information faster through listening comprehension and independent reading
  2. have more vocabulary and strong verbal skills
  3. have a strong reading foundation

These skills will prepare your child to demonstrate knowledge through standardized tests, public schools’ measure of student knowledge today.

slide 24Research supports that your child will benefit from early reading enrichment. The best research on the benefits of early enrichment comes from Dr. James Heckman – winner of the Noble Prize in economics in 2000 and professor of economics at University of Chicago. The world knows him best for his paper, “Schools, Skills and Synapses”, which concluded that early reading and other enrichment for preschoolers yield the greatest return.

Sadly, his research supports that children who are not reading on level by third grade generally do not even graduate high school. There is just too much “catch up” time. Once behind, these children cannot keep up with the academic rigors as they progress. What happens to these kids? Many go to prison, become pregnant as teenagers, or at best are unemployed.

My own experience supports the research. Over the years, I have volunteered regularly in public schools to help at-risk, early elementary students who were reading way below grade level. Even at third grade, most were motivated, but were very aware of how far behind they were in reading. By third grade, some had been suspended already for fighting and other acts of frustration. All of my at-risk, public school students would have performed better in school with reading enrichment experiences as preschoolers.

If your children are successful in school, they will go on to be successful in life! My experiences as an educator and parent – and data – support this conclusion. When we emphasize early reading, we can make our children’s world a better place – a place where they are successful and happy!

What skills have helped your children succeed in school?

Updated from an article first published on October 14, 2013.

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APP: “Reading aloud to your child matters.”

 Posted by Julie Haden on : Jul 22, 2014 In Blog , , , , , ,
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“Read aloud to your child.” Say the experts!

Julie Haden —  : Jul 16, 2014 — Leave a comment

I was so happy to read the American Academy of Pediatrics’ public announcement: “Reading aloud to your child starting at birth is important.”

Why is it important?

First, the first three years of life is one of the most important times for healthy brain development. Reading aloud has a significant effect on that development.

Bella and JulieSecond, reading aloud noticeably increases vocabulary development. It teaches other important communication skills like voice intonation and facial expression changes to demonstrate nonverbal communication cues.

Third, reading aloud increases pre-literacy skills, like listening comprehension, which will help your child succeed once formal school begins.

What are some of your favorite books to read aloud?

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“This is the first time the AAP has called out literacy promotion as being an essential component of primary care pediatric practice. Fewer than half of children are being read to every day by their families, and that number hasn’t really changed since 2003. It’s a public health message to parents of all income groups, that this early shared reading is both fun and rewarding.”

Click for more about new AAP Policy.

Dr. Pamela High

 Posted by Julie Haden  on: Jul 16, 2014 In Blog , , , , , ,
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