Those of us who work in the children’s room have the distinct privilege of seeing kids become readers — and see them grow up. We get to see all sorts of real “cuties.” We get to hear the little squeaky shoes (sometimes they get too squeaky!) and the little jingles of ankle bracelets. All very practical ways to keep track of your child (which we appreciate!) And we see little ones holding books, pulling them off the shelves, drooling on them (occasionally)…
As parents and other adults in their lives, we expose children to language and reading long before they are reading words, themselves. We expose them to early literacy skills. You can help your child with print awareness by letting them handle books — even at just a few months of age.
At Fremont Main, we get to Shake Rattle and Read (mostly shake, rattle, sing, do fingerplays) — exposing kids to language to rhyme and rhythm and meter.
Being exposed to rhyming words helps kids with phonological awareness — realizing that words are made up of parts, (for instance, the “ar” or the “ee” will often be the same in different words.
“car” and “start”; “bee” and “see”. We give kids print motivation when we choose engaging stories (not too long!) and use voices to enhance the story.
We have the preschool story times that continue with the fingerplays, felt boards — fun ways to be exposed to literature — and also several books — an actual story with plot, characters, sometimes. With ages 3-5, we adults can encourage narrative skills — we can have a dialog with kids and ask questions as we read a story. When one-on-one, we can have a child retell the story.
We expose to letter knowledge even by distinguishing shapes, alike and different, and opposites.
We continue to help families with print motivation by finding fun books for various grade levels.
Often we are asked for books to read to a 3, 4 or young 5-year-old.
Often they know characters like Thomas the Tank Engine (and Friends) or Pixar characters like Cars or Up or Despicable Me. Or Lego Ninjago.
So, even though kids aren’t reading to themselves, we can find early readers for them. Kids and parents get excited when there are just a few sentences on each page.
These books look approachable to a child who is getting ready to read.
And we can help introduce them to the new favorites that will continue with them into kindergarten and perhaps beyond. I just found out a 4th grade teacher was having kids read Gerald & Piggie (Elephant & Piggie) stories by Mo Willems as an introduction to narrative. Who knew?
So, let’s keep on reading, telling stories, singing, playing with words and rhyme. 🙂
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Halloween decorations, the big day is only a week away! I remember the excitement when my kids were young. We would visit a very sincere pumpkin patch, and the kids would pick out a pumpkin. A day or two ahead of time their dad would carve the pumpkin and we were all set! On the big day, there were always activities at school, but at night they were ready to trick or treat! It w as fun to see the kids excitement as we went around the neighborhood and they would fill up their sacks with goodies. And when we were done, watching them go through the goodies, and checking to make sure they were okay, was quite an event!
