Friday Thoughts - Comprehension

I love teaching little children...

It is fantastic to see littlies grow in all aspects - in their confidence, in their independence and academically. Little children are like little sponges and seem to 'soak' up information and learning at such a fast rate. It is one of the rewards of teaching.

At the beginning of the year, you teach these little ones sounds of the alphabet and by the end of the year they can read sentences, even mini-novels for themselves. However, one draw back of being able to read more complex words, is that these little ones don't necessarily 'think' about what they are reading. Comprehension is a vital skill in reading, otherwise why read?? It is a skill to comprehend what is read and then respond to it, be it a form, a letter or a story.

One such idea to help with comprehension, is this fun activity (that unfortunately I can't source the original creator of this idea - I do apologise). The idea is to find a piece of short text that is age appropriate for the child(ren). I chose a simple poem about a boat that was blue, that had two red sails and oars. After reading the text, the child(ren) paint a picture of what the text depicts. Not only is this a fun activity (as painting always is for children) but it shows whether the child(ren) have understood what was in the text and their thinking about the imagery of the text. This activity could be used with children from a range of ages, not necessarily little children.

Have a lovely weekend :)

Friday Thoughts - Book Week

It has been one of my favourite weeks of the whole year - Book Week. It has been a week of delving into books that have been shortlisted for awards by the Australian Book Council and there have been a number of interesting and fun books to read this year. Perfect to promote reading in young children! The children that I work with have enjoyed the stories, but it is also a great opportunity to teach and highlight literacy features. Here are just a few ideas that we looked at that you could use with any book with your child:

• Firstly, teaching the enjoyment in reading. I enjoy using different voices for the different characters in the story. How you use your voice is important in story reading - quieten your voice for sombre moments in the story or when there are moments of suspense, then read more quickly and loudly when there are moments of action or excitement in the story. Don't be afraid to pause to add emphasis to a suspense-filled moment. It makes the story so much more interesting.
• Model what you 'do' when you read by 'thinking aloud'. Read the title of the story and look at the front cover and chat about what you think that the story could be about (eg. 'Hmm, the title of the story is "Come down, Cat" and I can see a picture of a cat and a boy up on a high place. Maybe this is a story about a cat being stuck somewhere. I wonder why the cat is up so high?, etc). Talk about how you work out words and what is happening in the story (eg. {everywhere} "Wow, this word looks a bit tricky. I could try to look for little words in this big word. I can see the word 'every' and I can see the word 'where'. This word could be 'everywhere'. Maybe I will try that word in the sentence to see if it makes sense...").
• We looked at what an 'illustrator' does. We read the book 'Run Away Hug' by Nick Bland - a book that 'Freya Blackwood' has illustrated. We attempted her style of illustrating, by drawing pictures with lots of lines.
• We focused on the similies in 'That's not a daffodil' by Elizabeth Honey. We made up our own daffodils and wrote what they looked like (eg. My daffodil looks like a ...).
• We looked at alliteration - a series of words starting with the same sound - in 'For all creatures' by Rebecca Cool and Glenda Millard. We wrote a short list of things that start with the same sound and used them as a basis in a simple thank you prayer.

I hope that these ideas encourage you to delve into a book this weekend :)

Friday thoughts - Reading and Writing

I love teaching little ones. Not only are they eager to learn and you can sing fun songs, make crafty items and read picture books, but you see so much growth, educationally, in such a short space of time.

People who deal with older children often say to me "I wouldn't know where to start teaching young children to read and write". Well...(as the 'Sound of Music' song says) start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start.

Words, sentences, texts are all made up of building blocks - sounds/letters. Once you know these building blocks, it is easier then to decode words/texts or create your own. However, focus not only on  the 'name' the letter makes (eg. 'a' as in apricot), but also the sound the letter makes (eg. 'a' as in apple). Special emphasis should be placed on the 'sounds' as that is what we use to 'sound out'/decode or write out unfamiliar words. Think about what you do if you need to write down a word that you find difficult to spell.

Expose children to the different ways the same sound makes. For example, 'a' (as in apricot) can also be written down as 'ai', 'ay' or 'a-e' (as in 'made'). This provides the children with more reading cues when they are beginning to read. I have all of these sounds on 'flashcards' and everyday I get the children to say the sounds back to me when I hold up the cards. They are at the stage that they immediately know what sound/letter combinations make and are now applying that knowledge to their own reading.

Providing fun activities to do with the sounds also helps them to learn the sounds (eg. making 'c' cupcakes with currants on top). Spot a focus sound in books or newspapers (eg. cut out all the words with 'ee' and 'ea' in them. Have a number of words that have a common sound and sort them into groups (or 'post' them into boxes/containers), for example: bee, meat, deal, feed and sort them into 'ee' groups and 'ea' groups. Practice and repetition help children to remember the sounds.

I hope that you find some quiet time to sit down and read for a little bit over this weekend!