Comprehension is the most important skill in reading.   We should encourage all preschool children to make connections between books and their own real-life experiences (a new baby in the house, having a ‘bad’ day), events (planning a birthday party, going to a zoo), people (going to the dentist) and places.  The more understanding and information that children absorb now, the better.

Before entering kindergarten, most children should be able to retell stories and make predictions (What do you think will happen next?  Will this be a funny, sad or scary story?).  With adult guidance, we can help children to connect stories to background experiences.  We can ask our child,

• ‘Who was your favorite character?’

• ‘Would you have gone into the three bears’ house?’

• ‘Why were Cinderella’s stepsisters so mean to her?’

• ‘Which version of the Gingerbread Boy did you like best?’

Wordless picture books like Pat Schories’ Breakfast for Jack and Peter Sis’ Dinosaur!, rely entirely on pictures to tell a story.  These books encourage vocabulary development and ‘reading the illustrations.’ When sharing a wordless picture book, give your child an opportunity to look through the entire book. He should check out each picture in order to gain an understanding of how all the pictures work together to tell the story. Then, encourage your child to ‘read’ the book with you.

Wordless Picture Books at Amazon.com

Wordless Picture Books at Amazon.ca

Who’s Under That Hat? David Carter asks, ‘Bright blue feathers, sharp shiny beak.  If you give me a cracker, I just might speak.  Who’s under the BLACK hat?’  Enjoying a book like this with your child will encourage her to listen carefully to the word clues, look at the picture clues and solve the riddles.  Gain listening and comprehension skills while solving riddles!

Before opening the cover of a book we often reach judgements about what we will find inside.  Of course we do the same thing with magazines, movies and web sites.  The next time you visit the library, choose one or two or more new books with interesting covers.  When you get home ask your child to predict whether the stories will be funny, scary, silly or sad.  Take a look at the cover of Winnie’s Magic Wand by Korky Paul and Valerie Thomas or Out on the Ice in the Middle of the Bay by Peter Cumming.  Both covers are fascinating and both books lend themselves nicely to making predications.  What will happen when Winnie tries to use her just-washed wand?  Will Baby Nonook and Little Leah meet on the ice?

Remember that just a few extra minutes spent talking about a book will help your child learn to retell stories, make predictions and connect stories with his own experiences.

Storytime Standouts posts about comprehension

Reading Comprehension Printable Activity – Compound Word Riddles
Compound Word Riddles

Reading Comprehension Printable Activities – Sequencing

Building a Snowman Sequencing Activity

  Building a Snowman Sequencing
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Planting a Garden Sequencing Activity

  Planting a Flower Garden
Please become a member of Storytime Standouts to download this file.

Making a Valentine Sequencing Activity

  Valentine's Day Sequencing Activity
Please become a member of Storytime Standouts to download this file.

Our early literacy printables, including our Compound Word Riddles are in PDF format, if you don’t already use Adobe Reader, you will need to use it to access the downloads.

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You will find our selection of free printable alphabets here and all of our early literacy printables here.

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