Read-Aloud and its many Benefits (with FREEBIE)

Read aloud is an activity where an adult will read to a child to assist them with their reading development. Many educators know the benefit of read-aloud in the classroom and encourage parents to do the same at home. The best time for read-aloud at home is when your child is relaxed and calm. Traditionally, many parents read-aloud to their kids before going to bed at night. You can also read to your kids in the wee-morning hours of the day, as their attention and knowledge retention is peaked at that time.

What is read-aloud?
Read-aloud is an activity where an adult or child will read aloud a text in a clear and loud voice. The adult lets the child finish reading before making any corrections. It is recommended that a child reads every day for 15 minutes. This can be in the form of read-aloud or quiet reading.

What is the parent's role during read-aloud?
A parent's commitment and involvement are key when it comes to reading aloud with your child. The parent guides their child as he/she reads or reads the complex/struggling parts for them. You are your child's guide and teacher during read-aloud. So tread carefully through each component of the text and read each word clearly, paying close attention to pronunciation. If, as a parent, you are unsure of how things should be done, then you should read the book beforehand. This gives you time to come up with ideas for questions, understand important messages or themes of the story, spot key vocabulary, and/or the personal characteristics of the story's characters.

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What types of books to choose for read-aloud?

• Poetry is the best book choice for read-aloud. Use age appropriate poetry books like Nursery rhymes or "The 20th Century Children's Poetry Treasury" by Jack Prelutsky. Poetry reading teaches the child to read simple text with rhymes, rich descriptive terms, and multiple meanings. It allows your child to think about something with a different perspective which leads to a great discussion to build their reading comprehension and critical thinking skills.
• Picture Books are beneficial for readers of all ages. They are especially suitable for little guys aged 3 to 8, as it allows them to depict the meaning or theme of the story by looking at lively illustrations. Picture books are great to use for retelling or summarizing stories. Occasionally, I let my pre-reader to tell me the story of the book just by looking at pictures in his own words. This skill builds on vocabulary and reading comprehension development.
• Audio Books are great to use for a change. It is always refreshing to hear a story from someone else’s voice or point of view. Audio books are related to read aloud as the reader follows along with the author or story reader. You can give your child a pointer like a Popsicle stick with a googley eye stuck to the top (my son loves it!).
• Factual or Non-Fiction Books are also good to teach read-aloud. Kids are naturally very curious and love to learn about things in the world. Choosing a topic that interests them goes a long way. For example, if your child loves dinosaurs, then it's a great opportunity for you explore prehistoric dinosaurs and their characteristics. Factual books are a good opportunity for your child to develop their vocabulary.
• Finally, Cookbooks are also great to build on read-aloud skills. Have your child look at the pictures and read instructions out loud before every step so that you can progress together. For little readers, it is important for the parent to read-aloud the text to make it easier.

What are some activities that you can do before, during, and after read-aloud to make it a more effective learning experience for your child?

• Brainstorming - the best way to start a book is by looking at the picture on the cover page or by reading the title. Title and the picture help your child infer what the book is about.
• Inferring - as you read the story, you can infer or make predictions about what will happen next. It is also good to infer or make a prediction before a problem in the story can be solved or how are some other ways that a story can end.
• Asking Questions - the best way to ask questions is through inferring. The best types of questions are open-ended questions that lead to more questions and opens the channel for discussion.
• Discussion - I love to take a break during reading to discuss about a topic or theme that is related to what we are reading. This is an opportunity to scaffold/activate prior learning about a topic. For example, if you are reading about winter animals, then one topic can be about how winter weather helps certain animals survive the winter atmosphere or environment.
• Summarizing or Retelling - It is important to summarize what you read at the end with a lesson you learned, the morale of the story or how the story turned out by going over main points or story themes.

How to make Read-aloud fun and interesting for your child? Match everything you do with the story text and the pictures.

• Match your voice to the characters in the story.
• Make animal, movement sounds or other sound effects (i.e. howling of the wind, the crow of the rooster, birds chirping, opening of the door, etc.).
• Act out the story or various parts of the story as a form of reader's theater (where readers tell the story using vocal expression).
• Always ask questions to keep your child engaged.

Reading aloud to your child is a great learning experience and you can start from an early age. In the beginning, some children may persist or some may like the book read to them at a different time in the day. Finally, I cannot begin to say that the love of reading that you instill in your child's heart is forever.

Fun fact: if you read to your child every day for 15 minutes that equals to 5475 minutes or 91.25 hours in one year.

On a side note: it is okay to read your child's favorite book more than once.

Freebie: I have made a read-aloud chart that you can print in plain and color to track all those reading session and to instill a love of reading.

Have fun reading, 

Annie

Preschool Reading Readiness

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We are currently reading levelled readers together to get my preschooler ready for school. Levelled readers are a series of books that have age appropriate vocabulary and content. Most levelled readers are marked according to reading levels expected at the end of each grade at school. For example, a "K" levelled book is what may be expected from students in a Kindergarten classroom to master at the end of the school year. On the other hand, some levelled readers are based on reading ability. There is a lot of research that goes into the publishing of such levelled readers. The child is matched to the right level of books at the right time (aka reading readiness).

Levelled readers are the perfect opportunity for parents and educators to spend one-on-one time reading with the child. This can build into reading and recognising certain words or simple sentences. After reading, you can delve into questioning, analysing, summarising or retelling the story. This type of reading exercise using levelled readers is called "Guided Reading". It is also the perfect opportunity for beginning readers.

Remember when choosing a book for your preschooler use a text that has simple sentences, large or bold print, and accompanying parent teaching tips. In the beginning you will be doing most of the reading, while your child follows along. In the course of time, your child will start recognising commonly used words such as I, the, me, my, he, she, is, it, etc. Believe it or not, that's a big milestone for your preschooler! 

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Reading is all about practise; the more you read, the more you will learn. Nowadays, we are reading K levelled readers that allows the parents to read the text on the left hand side and the child to read the large print text on the right side by looking at picture for clues. My son loves it and is able to get it right most of the time. As an elementary teacher, my experience with levelled readers in my classroom has always been beneficial to the students. I highly recommend age and ability appropriate levelled readers along with picture books, for a pre or beginning reader! The best part is that you can find lots of levelled reader series and levelled reader brands/publishers in your local library.

What are some reading strategies that you use with your kids?

Annie

Preschool at Home

Currently, I'm doing preschool at home with my 4 year old and we both love every minute of it.  Usually, we do activities based on an yearly schedule that follows the seasons and related holidays. We are blessed to have all the seasons of the year, where we currently reside.  I have been doing preschool with him but this year starting on the day he turned four, we have officially started to follow a more structured preschool schedule. I am doing this to prepare him for kindergarten, as all the great teachers say: "Consistency is Key!" I want to help my child transition smoothly into school next year (fingers crossed ;)

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What I do every day (while the little one is napping, possibly in the early morning hours after breakfast or during the little ones nap time) as follows:

This was what we did before he turned 4. 

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Here is what we during our preschool schedule:

1. Go over the schedule (I change this daily or weekly).
2. Calendar (place date card on calendar and reading the date/day of the week aloud)
3. Reading (any book from the library; today we "If you give a mouse a cookie" by Laura Numeroff.
4. Alphabet Writing Practice (in a lined notebook with instructions from moi).
5. Poem or song read aloud/singing, based on something that starts with the letter we are practicing.
6. Alphabet related activity or playing together with a manipulative (i.e. blocks, games, things that kids can touch/feel, etc) that directly deals with the alphabet we are practicing.
7. Number Writing Practice (activity books from kids section at your local family store).
8. Counting aloud practice (on a number line, on sticks, on cards, in a 100 chart, as numerals or cardinals, etc.
9. Number or counting related activity or playing together with a manipulative that deals directly with the number we are practicing.
10. If time allows, we do an art activity based on/related to something that we did during the day.
11. We have added a science activity to our schedule to include inquiry-based learning. It is pretty low-key and my child gets to be my assistant, as we test, analyze, question, make conclusions, and record our observations. 

Believe it or not, we are able to do all that within an hour to an hour and a half.  I feel so great that I'm getting my child ready for kindergarten.  I never push him to finish or accomplish the tasks but only go on till he is bored or tired.

Hope you have as much fun as I do!

CALENDAR ROUTINE UPDATE 

I have been planning and executing a classroom-like Calendar time activity for my preschooler to get him ready for Kindergarten. I have been growing the Calendar Routine and adding new learning concepts whenever my preschooler becomes comfortable with whatever is introduced and practiced.

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The following are some things we do with a preschooler for Calendar Math practice:

• Greet each other with a polite greeting like "Good Morning!" or "How are you?"
• Check the window for a weather update and change the weather wheel to indicate what the weather is like today; "Today is Sunny." I always remind my preschooler to look at the sky and the surroundings to check for a weather update.  
• Read the date, days of the week, the months and the year using a complete sentence: "Today is Saturday, November the 9th, 2013."
• Place the date card on the Calendar in a pattern (we have mastered the AB, AB pattern and will be moving on to the ABC, ABC pattern once the month is over). Repeat the pattern by saying it aloud. For example, we have date cards in two colors and place the cards according to the pattern sequence. In this case, we say: "yellow, green, yellow, green,....).
• Count the numbers on the date cards aloud (from 0 to Present Date). Then we say aloud which date was yesterday, today, and tomorrow in sentence form.
• Sing the Days of the Week song to the theme of The Addams Family. We also sing the months of the year to my own tune :)
• I bought a really affordable color-in Calendar that my son can color in, rewrite the current date in the box and then place a dot sticker on the box to indicate that the day is over.
• Then we organize the numbers in a number line with our pre-made number cards for additional number practice.
• Finally, we do a math manipulatives game that teaches math concepts like numbers, shapes, colors, patterns or counting/cardinality. During Calendar tine and other times of the day I focus on teaching important sight, literacy, math, science, social and calendar related vocabulary words.

We do other activities that are literacy related at another time of the day (usually before going to bed). This activity is mostly listening, reading, identifying, questioning and discussion related.

What are some routines that you do with your preschooler that are similar or other creative ideas?

Let me know...

Annie