Teaching Your Child to Read

[Warning: You may smile and have way too much fun!]

Dear Parents:

The following activities are fun ways to interact and play with your child while learning reading skills at the same time. It is very, very important that you join your child in this fun. Skills to focus on include forming letters, naming letters, naming the letter sound, naming the beginning sound of a given word, naming the ending sound of a given word, producing a rhyming word, and clapping out syllables within words.

• Fun website for literacy games:  www.GameGoo.com

• Shaving Cream: pour some shaving cream on to a cookie sheet and draw both uppercase and lowercase letters in it.

• Hair gel: pour clear hair gel into a sandwich-sized zip-loc bag. Cut a piece of white paper the size of the zip-loc bag. Write a letter with a colored marker on the paper. Place the gel-filled bag over the piece of paper. “Trace” the letter.

• Sand: Cover a cookie sheet with play sand. Draw letters in the sand. Name letters.

• Name the sound the letter represents.

• Play-Doh: Take turns making letters using play-doh. You can also make objects with the play-doh. Let’s say you make a snake with the play-doh. Ask your child questions like, “What sound does “snake” start with? What sound does it end with?  Can you tell me a word that rhymes with “snake”? How many syllables does the word “snake” have? You’re right only one! Let’s clap out the syllable together.”

• Alphabet Cereal: Take a handful of the cereal and have your child name the letters. Then ask your child to find the letter that starts with a certain sound. For example, if he/she has the letters “b, and m” in front of him/her, ask your child “Which one of those letters represents the first sound in the word “ball”? Which one of those letters represents the last sound in the word “man”?”

• Alphabet Noodles: You can do the same activities as the Alphabet Cereal.

• Baby Carrots, celery, and pretzel sticks: Take turns forming letters, naming letters, and naming the letter sound.

• Line up any three of your child’s toys. Ask your child, “Which one of those toys starts with the “_” sound? Which one of your toys ends with the “_” sound?

• Jell-o: Use letter jell-o molds for a yummy snack.

• Dinner Time: Talk about the beginning and ending sounds of your food items. You can also make up silly nonsense words that rhyme with your food items.

• Laundry Time: What sound does “sock” start with? What sound does it end with? Tell me a word that rhymes with “sock”. Use different clothing item names. You can also use several socks to form letters.

• Bath time: What sound does “leg” start with? What sound does it end with? Tell me a word that rhymes with “leg”. Use various body part names.

• Cookie Time!  Michaels (and probably other stores as well) sells letter cookie cutters.

• Talk about the letters while making and baking them. Have the child name the letter and the letter sound of the cookie he/he chooses to eat.

• Before you recycle … Cut out pictures of interest from magazines and newspapers.

• Discuss beginning and ending sounds of the pictures. You can also choose a sound, for example the ‘r’ sound, and then cut out pictures with the ‘r’ sound in it and paste them on paper .

• Learning numbers? Discuss the beginning and ending sounds of various numbers.  For example, “What sound does ‘four’ start with? What sound does it end with? Can you think of a word that rhymes with four?”

• Jenga? If you have a Jenga game, you can write various letters or words on the blocks.

• As you pick a block, name the various letters and discuss the letter sounds. (”You’re right; that is a ‘b’. What sound does ‘b’ say?”)

• Beach ball: Take a permanent marker and write various letters (both UPPER AND lower case) allover the ball. Toss the ball back and forth to all family members. “Which letter is your left thumb closes to? What about your right thumb?”

• Car trip: Let’s see how many billboard signs we can find with the letter’s’ in it? Don’t forget to change the letters.

• I Spy around the house, park, zoo, grocery store, etc.  “I spy with my little blue eye, something that starts with ‘B’.” [example-boat] “I spy something that ends with the ’r’ sound.” [example-car] “I spy something that rhymes with “fall”. [ball]

• Arts and Crafts: Most stores sell foam letters … even ones that are self-adhesive! Make a card to a loved one. Spell words and discuss the sounds within the words.

• Go on a sound hunt and find objects around the house that starts with every sound A-Z.

READ, READ, READ BOOKS!!!  Increase your child’s vocabulary through literacy.

Tagged as: reading, reading to children, teach your child to read, teaching your child how to read, teaching your children to read