Adventures in Literacy Land: Emergent Readers

Showing posts with label Emergent Readers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Emergent Readers. Show all posts

13 Picture Books That Get Your Students UP and MOVING


Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
Hi, this is Jessica from Literacy Spark.  If there is one thing I have learned teaching young students, it's that reading needs to be fun!  If reading is a forced chore  for a child in first grade, it will likely remain that way for years to come unless an awesome teacher comes along and makes an impact. 

One of the ways to make reading engaging for young readers is to use books that encourage movement.  This makes reading books a desirable activity because it is fun!  It's that simple.  I am going to share with you today 13 books that you can use to get your students up and moving.  The majority of them are most appropriate for pre-k, kinder, and first.  Many also incorporate rhyming and repetitive text.

Note:  This post contains affiliate links.  Click the book images or links to find the them on Amazon.

Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
From Head to Toe by Eric Carle is a favorite in our house!  My daughter is only 15 months old and she has learned the movements of the animals from this book.  She even opens it up and does what the animals are doing all by herself.  And now if she sees or hears "gorilla" she pats her chest.  Amazes me!  I used to have a big book of it when I taught first grade and it is really fun book for early readers.  It's very repetitive ("Can you do it?  I can do it! I can do it!") and on every page a movement is encouraged, for example, turning your head like a penguin or stomping like an elephant.

Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams is a classic and Halloween favorite.  The little old lady is walking outside late at night when she starts being chased by shoes, pants, gloves, etc. Each of the items chasing her makes a special sound or motion (the gloves clap, for example).  This book would be great for working on sequencing with little ones as well as problem and solution.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
Silly Sally by Audrey Wood is silly book about dancing, leaping, tickling, walking backwards, and more.  While not much depth, it does rhyme and have repetitive phrases so it would be good for fluency practice.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
Huff and Puff by Claudia Rueda is a very simplistic take on The Three Little Pigs with a surprise ending.  There is not a lot of text and the pictures allow for kids to tell and interact with the story themselves. The book itself has holes in it so that the reader can pretend to "blow" down the houses like the wolf.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
In Oh! by Kevin Henkes, the animals all want to come out and play after a snowfall.  Each page has a different motion being performed by an animal so this would be a great book to use for teaching action words to young readers.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
There is something about The Gingerbread Man that makes me (and my students) feel like running!  Kids into second grade still love this story!  I've had second graders work together to put this into a play.  Since the text is repetitive, it's easy for them to remember and they absolutely love running around and role playing it.   This is still my favorite version.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
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Today I Feel Silly by Jamie Lee Curtis is a really cute book all about feelings.  It also rhymes and reads to a rhythm.  Kids love acting out the different emotions shown in the text. Great for helping students learn to express their emotions using words other than happy and sad.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
Up, Down, and Around by Katherine Ayres describes how some plants grow up, others grown down into the ground, while others grow around so it would work perfectly for a science lesson  with young students. The text is simple and rhymes making it fun to read while learning how plants grow.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
All kids know this song, right?  I mean I listen to it in the car every day now...   I bet your students would be surprised to know that it is a book and I bet they would also find it very fun and easy to read!  If You're Happy and You Know It! adapted by Anna McQuinn has colorful illustrations of children around the world and also comes with the music CD.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
Like a Windy Day by Frank & Devin Asch would be an excellent book to use for visualizing.  The little girl in the story basically imagines that she is the wind.  It has fairly decent descriptive language for young readers too ("zoom down the hillsides") that they would have fun trying to replicate.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood has simple sentences that describe a boy pretending to be certain characteristics of animals, such as  "I am as small as an ant."  This text would be a good model for having students write their own similar sentences.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.

Move! by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page would be a another book to use for teaching about action words or even for science as it specifically describes how different animals move.  Kids love trying to act out the motions, which are pulled out of the text and written in large print on each page.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen brings the famous song to text.  I'm actually not sure which came first since I never knew this was a book!  Kids love singing along to the rhythm and patting their knees while they role play the actions.  Here's a good You Tube video with the song and photographs to go along with it.
I hope you have found something new to use with your students or even your toddler at home.  Just remember to let them move and have fun reading!
Follow Literacy Spark's board Student Motivation on Pinterest.
If you are looking for other ways to motivate your students, follow my Pinterest board above.




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A Website Primary Teachers Will Love

Hello Literacy Land Readers! I'm popping in today to share a website that I just stumbled upon and L.O.V.E.  

The Unite for Literacy website hosts a collection of original, nonfiction picture books for beginning readers of all ages.

If you are a primary teacher, teacher of language learners or the deaf, reading specialist, or parent of a beginning reader, this website is for you!

The books feature familiar topics, colorful pictures, and audio support in many languages including sign language.


It's Easy to Use!

Students select a book by clicking on the picture of it. They turn the pages by clicking on the arrows. The left-hand page features a crisp, clear photograph or illustration. The right-hand page features text in an easy-to-read font. Audio support is provided by clicking on the speaker icon beneath the page. You can pre-select the language options.


Advantages

  • nonfiction (hard to find at the emergent level)
  • relevant topics
  • attractive photographs and illustrations
  • cultural diversity
  • predictable, rhythmic language
  • text that ranges from one word up to a few sentences 
  • audio support (narrated in a real human voice)
  • narrated in English, many foreign languages, and sign language
  • new titles added every Tuesday
  • always free
  • no registration or logins required

Implications for the Classroom

Unite for Literacy is a valuable resource in the classroom and at home. I envision teachers using this to website to support their emergent readers and language learners during independent reading time or literacy centers. I plan to use it with my intervention students and share it with their parents and classroom teachers.

How would you use this website?  








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Using Student Names to Teach Early Readers

Using student names in books to teach letters, sounds, rhyme, and other reading skills.
Creating a love of reading can begin with student names.  Student names can be as unique as each student.  Even if they have a "common" name, they make it their own.  Use what they bring with them to make them stronger.
Using student names in books to teach letters, sounds, rhyme, and other reading skills.

Read a Book

Everyone has probably heard of Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes.  It is such a quintessential kindergarten book.  Watching Chrysanthemum love her name, then fret over her name, then finally LOVE her name again with the help of the wonderful music teacher is heart-warming.  I read the book to students then send home their name in bubble letters for their first family project.  They'll send it back in a week later, decorated and unique.  I also love A my  name is Alice.  It's a fun play on beginning sounds. I love giving the students a fun oral activity with the sound chart:  _____ is on the ____.  They'll write silly sentences like:  Austin is on the apple.  It certainly brings the giggle. Finally, my favorite book about names is an oldie:  Just Only John. It's about a little boy named John who doesn't like his boring name so he takes a magic spell to get a new name. Of course, in the end he wants to be "just only John." It's the cutest story.
Using student names in books to teach letters, sounds, rhyme, and other reading skills.

Name Chart

Please, please, please have a name chart.  Make it with them.  I'm not a fan of putting names on the word wall...because some names aren't easily decodable.  You can add a picture, if you'd like.  I usually highlight the beginning letter.  Sometimes, I circle all the A names, B names, C names, and so on.  We use the name chart to find letters in the alphabet.  I can use the name chart to help decide who is going to write a letter during interactive writing.  I can also use the name chart to find similarities and differences.  We can also use the name chart in the Fab 5 Center.  They have to write 5 Friends Names on the provided paper.  Do it.Using student names in books to teach letters, sounds, rhyme, and other reading skills.

Anchor Charts

Use their names all over the room.  How many letters in your name?  What letters are in your name? How many syllables are in your name?  How many vowels?  Use their name!Using student names in books to teach letters, sounds, rhyme, and other reading skills.

Art, too.

After reading Ten Apples on Top, a wonderful counting book, have the students draw their picture and count apples for each letter of their name.  (I usually use small Ellison(c) cut-out apples.)  They have to count, write, spell, create, order...and it's all with their name.Using student names in books to teach letters, sounds, rhyme, and other reading skills.

Writing Sample Plus!

This is the formative assessment our students will complete the first week of school.  At first, it's a listening, gluing and ordering activity.  They'll get the write paper, a pink "I" square and a blue "am" square.  Students will be asked to find the square with the circle in it and put a circle of glue stick inside the square.  Then, they will put the pink "I" square on the spot.  Next, they will find the square with an "X" in it and put an "X" of glue stick inside the square.  Then, they will put the blue "am" square on the spot.  Finally, they will write their name (with a model) independently.  They will also be asked to draw a picture of themselves.Using student names in books to teach letters, sounds, rhyme, and other reading skills.

First Partner Activity

Students can have a name model in their hands and you'll direct them to find a friend who:

  • has 1 letter the same as their name.
  • has 2 letters the same as their name.
  • has the same number of letters as their name.
  • get creative!

And we've just begun.  Are their any name activities you'd like to share?

I hope you have a wonderful September..and celebrate their names.

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Word Building...the Foundation That Never Fails!

Hello, this is Cathy from The W.I.S.E Owl.  As you know from my previous posts, I love Kindergarten.  It's the best!  There has been some request for some Kindergarten Word Building Ideas.  I have 3 for you today.

Word Work

I'm not trying to start an argument, but I believe Kindergarten is the MOST IMPORTANT GRADE! Tools provided to the student in Kindergarten are invaluable.  They are truly the foundation for all other skills to be built on.  With this in mind, each lesson is important.  Word Building is the culmination of letters and sounds and their relationship.  Here are 3 ideas for word building that can be done in whole group, small group, and even independent learning centers.
Vowel Posters
We use vowel posters in classroom with yellow backgrounds.  Not only is this visually easy for children to see, it will help with a future activity for word building (you'l see in number 3).
The first, and most supported activity is word building with CVC mats.  These mats are designed to help the earliest learner. These seasonal cards have the CVC picture with the letters at the top of the card.  Students need to rearrange the letters to spell the CVC words with magnet letters, letter tiles, or dry erase markers.  The emphasis is practicing the order of the sounds:  beginning, middle, and end.

Another idea for word building, is practice with CVC word puzzles. This CVC activity supports the student with choice.  The students are still asked to stretch the word and color the beginning, the middle, and the ending sounds.  The colored boxes spell the picture.  To create a clear connection to the classroom vowel posters, students are asked to color the vowel yellow.
Finally, the last activity includes a stoplight.  Students know about a stoplight.  Ask any kindergartner, "What does a red light mean?"  They will confidently tell you "STOP!"  Using that background knowledge, teach them to build words.  When stretching words, make sure you allow them to hear the beginning, middle, and end of the word.  When writing the sound representations, they will write the beginning, middle, and end.  BUT, the true value in Stoplight Writing is the yellow light. Just like we "slow down" for a yellow light, we need to "go slow" with our vowels.  "We have to go slow...they can really trick us."  Once we practice this in a whole group situation, it is put in a CVC center for independent practice.  Stoplight Cards can be laminated or put in pockets to be used with dry erase markers or magnet letters for mastery.

If you would like FREE Vowel Poster Set, CLICK HERE!








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Center Survival! Three Keys to Success during Independent Centers

Center Survival! Three Keys to Success during Independent Centers

1.  What is your favorite time of the day?
2.  What is the most crucial time of the day for independent learning?
3.  What is the easiest part of your weekly lesson plans?
4.  What needs to be based on routine, routine, routine?

OK...by now you know the answer to all of these should be center time.  If it isn't, I hope to convince you to change your mind about centers.  If it is, I hope I can give you at least one new idea to think about and maybe even implement.

I cannot emphasize enough the key to centers is routine. From Day 1.  No excuses.

Set-Up and Classroom Management

This is so very important...your room has to lend itself to independence.  The more independence your child has, the better centers will be.  The set-up of your room and materials cannot be overlooked.  When teachers and I work together to make centers work in their rooms, we make sure center areas are clear.  Each center has a table or group of desks and a designated shelf.  To make sure everyone knows about the center areas, signs are hung from the ceiling.  These signs are universal in the room, as they will be on the shelves, the bucket for materials, and the center board for self-directed centers.  Students know where to get and return materials and where the center rotation takes them.

Center Expectations

Expectations are key.  Students must need to know what is expected or they can't give it to you.  It's that simple.  Centers are NEVER the new skills.  If you want centers to be independent, they must be review skills.  If your lessons are the "I do, we do, you do" method...centers is without a doubt the "you do."  The best method for keeping sanity in the room and sanity in your plans:  CHANGE THE PRODUCT, NOT THE PROCESS.  If the ABC center is practicing rhymes, let them do it for several weeks in a row.  Change the rhymes, but let the exercise for rhymes be the same.  If the word wall word center is a "Read It, Write It" sheet, change the words on the paper, but the process is the same. My poetry center is always the same...just a different poem.  OH, and I forgot to mention, my poetry center and art center are ALWAYS the shared reading poem from the week before. They know it, they don't need help.

Center Self-Monitoring

Finally, students must be taught to self-monitor.  Part of this goes hand-in-hand with expectations.  Students will know what to do...you've covered that!  Students will know how to do it...you've covered that.  The last thing you need to do is let them know what to do when they are done. If you have a teacher assistant, students should be taught to raise their hands and get their work checked.  The TA will look over the work, decide if it's done, then tell them to "stamp it and put it away."  That's right.  Let them stamp their paper and let them file it.  They can do...it's part of their job.  If the student did not complete the assignment or if something needs to be fixed, the TA should ask them to check the example and fix the problem.  Don't get in the habit of telling them how to fix it, they need to do it.  If you don't have a TA during that time, then an additional step must be added.  Students should know to "get a book" or add a "fill activity" (something familiar to fill the time until you are done with a reading group).  You pull a reading group while they work.  When you are done with the group, you rotate and check and move to the next group as they move to the next center.

I could go on and on.  I can talk centers all day...but that's a good start.  Routine is the key!







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Developing a Concept of Word with Emergent Readers


Hello from Comprehension Connection!  Today's post is aimed at the Emergent Reader and will hopefully provide some help and guidance for the Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten teacher.  The specific topic is how to develop a concept of word (COW) in young readers. I chose this topic after requesting input from my Facebook readers on the types of activities that are used in the regular classroom to work on this skill and how much time is devoted to it.  Interestingly, there were misunderstandings on exactly what Concept of Word meant.  Many understood it to be matching speech to print or being able to track.  However, Concept of Word is a bit more than this, and it is *the* sign that an emergent reader has become a beginning reader.  

What is a Concept of Word?
A Concept of Word (COW) is the culmination of a student's automatic knowledge of letter sounds, his/her ability to isolate the beginning consonant sound, match spoken word to the print and realizing that words are separated by space, and remember words in isolation that have been previously taught. A student's COW develops in stages.  
Developing Concept of Word

The student shows following at each stage:
1.  Has left to right directionality, but no word awareness. Writing looks like squiggles across page.
2.  Points along with stressed units (syllables or words, but does not differentiate).  Writing begins to include some letters, but they are random.
3.  Points to words and says syllables. Writing begins to include beginning sounds of words.



Rudimentary Concept of Word Development

The student is approaching the beginning reader stage when he/she:
4.  Points to words and begins to self correct when he/she gets off track. Writing now includes beginning and ending sounds, but may not include vowels.

Firm Development of a Concept of Word

The student has reached the beginning reader stage when he/she
5.  Demonstrates accurate tracking of print.  Writing includes space between words and short vowel words include beginning, middle, and ending sounds. The reader in the video below is not completely  firm, but very close.


How Can Teachers Work to Develop COW With Students?

The first step with Concept of Word Instruction is to teach the poem to the students.  They need to have the poem memorized, so that they can accurately match the memorized words to the print they see. Teachers can use pictures that represent the text or hand motions with common nursery rhymes and finger plays.

Check out this informational post demonstrating how to develop a concept of word with emergent readers. Includes video modeling and a free COW poem to print and use.
What follows is the fun part for me!  The best way to develop COW is by playing with words, sentences, and a large assortment of pointers.  I mean really...don't we all love swinging around a light saber once in a while??  The pointers in the greatest demand in my room are most definitely my light sabers, but magic wands are very popular too. I also recommend flyswatters of various designs. They are perfect for boxing individual letters or for finding sightwords.

When working with my kinders on pointing, I place a touch point under each word.  I discovered this tip when I downloaded freebies from Sparklebox.co.uk .  I downloaded short vowel word cards for a game that included a dot under each sound.  (perfect for blending, but that's for another post).  Anyway, I transferred that technique to developing COW.  As we continue to develop COW, I put my students more and more into leveled books.  I continue to use this strategy with projected books on Reading A to Z and with other powerpoint resources I've made.  If you are a primary teacher, Reading A to Z is a subscription that is well worth the price.   The projectable feature has been very beneficial to my students for modeling and practice, but there are many other resources for beginning readers available on the site.  You can explore that further {here}.


Check out this informational post demonstrating how to develop a concept of word with emergent readers. Includes video modeling and a free COW poem to print and use.Matching words in isolation to words in context is another activity that fosters an understanding of print. Teachers can use different fonts with the word cards.  Using Dolch words with various games helps students to identify them in context too and helps students recognize when their tracking is off.
Marie Clay refers to Concept of Word as "Reading the White Space", and this activity has helped my students recognize this.  I model how to separate words by cutting between them like pulling apart puzzle pieces.  In fact, we often take the pieces, mix them up, and reorganize them to make the individual words become the line of the poem.

Check out this informational post demonstrating how to develop a concept of word with emergent readers. Includes video modeling and a free COW poem to print and use.

After we have worked a few days with the sentences strips and words in isolation, I transfer my students to the book form.  With the book form of the poems, I spend time on letter identification, sighword identification, using picture clues, and even comprehension.  The children enjoy highlighting, boxing, underlining, and marking with mini stickies features I ask.  In the pictures below, you can see where we highlighted sightwords (I normally call it, "I Spy" which means it's a game).  We also mark by boxing around the letters by name and sound.


Even though comprehension is the focus with instructional readers, emergent and beginning readers need modeling of comprehension skills too.  After all, as students begin to read, they need to understand the meaning in order to cross check their accuracy.  For beginning readers, the picture clues provide a support to this understanding.  Teachers can have students "read" the text and decide what is missing in the picture. Above, you can see the apple before coloring and after.  The apple in the picture needed to be colored in order to accurately match the print.  
For this picture, teachers might ask,
 "How can you tell she loves to eat apples?"
For this picture, the teacher might ask students
 to connect the picture to the words that describe it.
With my students, I typically work with a poem for a 3-5 days depending on the poem's difficulty. The last thing I do with my students is give them the poem on a single sheet.  We practice reading without the aid of touch points, highlights, boxes, etc.  I have them prepare the poetry page for their keepsake book, and as the year goes, the poems we use increase in difficulty.  Our kindergarten teachers use thematic teaching, so the poems I choose to use with my groups typically parallel what is happening in the regular classroom.  I do not use the same poems in my room though because I try to provide them with new experiences to build upon skills that are developing in the classroom.  Plus, new poems keep the learning fresh and fun.
Check out this informational post demonstrating how to develop a concept of word with emergent readers. Includes video modeling and a free COW poem to print and use.
If you'd like to add this poem to your COW collection, feel free to download your own copy using the image below which shows what is included.  I also have a yearly bundle for $20.00 that includes 39 COW sets.
Pin for Later:
Check out this informational post demonstrating how to develop a concept of word with emergent readers. Includes video modeling and a free COW poem to print and use.
Now, readers, it is your turn.  Please share the clever ways you work on these skills or any observations you have made with your students.  Have a great start to the school year, and thanks for visiting today.

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