Try some of these strategies to help your child with reading comprehension

• Before opening the cover of a book, take a moment to talk about the cover art and encourage your youngster to make some predictions. Do you suppose this will be a scary story or perhaps a silly one? Do you think this book will be like something else we have read together? Do you recognize the illustrator’s style and/or the typeface? Savvy readers will recognize that Stella Fairy of the Forest and Houndsley and Catina are both illustrated by Marie- Louise Gay although the characters are not the same.

• Once you have read partway through the book, pause to talk about it. Involve your child in making predictions about what will happen next. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom offers more than a couple of opportunities to guess what will happen to the letters of the alphabet. If a character is facing a choice, ask your child what he would choose and why.

• At the end of the story, take a moment to talk about the characters. Which character does your child like best? / least? Does this character remind him of a person he knows or another book you’ve read together?

• Try reading more than one version of a fairy tale or other familiar story. Compare the illustrations and the author’s words. Which version of the story do you like best? / least?

• Try reading wordless picture books. In these books, all or almost all of the story is told through the illustrations. Wordless and almost wordless books are great because they “level the playing field.” Your child becomes an equal participant in carefully “reading” the illustrations and deciding what is happening in the story. Wordless and almost wordless books are also great for young children to share with someone who does not read in English. They are also valuable because they offer an opportunity for your child to use visual clues when retelling a story to someone else.

• Speaking of  “retelling,”  having an opportunity to retell a story is great for young children. Perhaps after you and your child enjoy a story together, your child could summarize the story for another adult.

• Finally, matching a book to an upcoming event or experience will help your child to make connections between the story or information in the book and his own experience. Whether reading a story about a visit to the dentist prior to an appointment or laughing about No David’s misadventures, making connections is what it is all about.

Beyond Bedtime Stories by V. Susan Bennett-Armistead, Nell K. Duke and Annie M. Moses

Beyond Bedtime Stories is a very thorough exploration of ways parents can promote early literacy with young children. The authors address dozens of important questions like “What if a book contains words or ideas that I find offensive?” and “Should I teach my child to read before kindergarten?” Beyond Bedtime Stories also includes suggestions of ways to fill your home with books even if you are on a budget, how to improve comprehension and ways to promote literacy inside and outside your home.

This is a very worthwhile resource for young families, daycare and preschool settings.

Beyond Bedtime Stories: A Parent’s Guide to Promoting Reading, Writing, and Other Literacy Skills from Birth to 5

Beyond Bedtime Stories : A Parent’s Guide to Promoting Reading, Writing, and Other Literacy Skills from Birth to 5 at Amazon.ca

I’ve been having some fun this week. I grabbed my camera and headed out on a hunt for environmental print.

Environmental print is print that is all around us. In our home, it is on food packaging and on other products we use. In a public building it is on door handles (PUSH, PULL) and above doorways (EXIT), when we go for a drive, it is on road signs (STOP), vehicles (POLICE, AMBULANCE), buildings (DRUG STORE) and in other public places (PARK, GARBAGE, RECYCLE).

For a preschool or kindgergarten-age child, who is anxious to read his first word, environmental print may be “just the ticket.” Head out for a walk and see how many words your child can “read.” In all likelihood, he will already know how to read “McDonalds” or “Starbucks.” Can he use context clues to correctly “read” more of the words around him? Can he “read” a situation and use the information he sees to make a correct guess about enviromental print?

When you go out with your child, take a camera with you. Take pictures of environmental print. When you get home, help your child to make an environmental print book to read. You can be sure he will be excited to show off his ‘new words’ to Grandma or Grandpa.

Food packaging and pictures from advertisements are more great sources of environmental print. Work with your child to put together a collage or scrapbook to read and enjoy.

Our free #1 Environmental Print printable for young children

  Environmental Print 1
Please become a member of Storytime Standouts to download this file.

Our free #2 Environmental Print printable for young children

  Environmental Print 2
Please become a member of Storytime Standouts to download this file.

There are some fabulous environmental print resources online, here are some of our favourites
Sharon MacDonald’s page about environmental print.

Mrs. Horner’s Environmental Print Alphabet (PDF)

Environmental Print Games – including Bingo from Canada’s National Adult Literacy Database

Read Write Think – From Stop Signs to the Golden Arches: Environmental Print

Logos from GoodLogo.com

Candy Bar Wrapper Image Archive

When children are beginning readers, we often encourage them to “sound words out” but there are some other strategies that we can and should suggest. There are many words that don’t lend themselves to “sounding out.” If you think of your own reading, you probably have used some or all of these strategies -

1. Beginning readers should look at the illustrations. I once worked with a child whose mom covered the illustrations so he couldn’t use picture clues when reading! Please don’t do that! Reading pictures is part of a child’s early reading experience. That is why almost all easy-to-read books are generously illustrated. Please, encourage your child to use picture clues.

2. Beginning readers are allowed to skip the tricky word and read the rest of the sentence. The rest of the sentence may give your child enough other information to help him figure out the word. As an aside, sometimes books use relatively simple words but include difficult-to-read names for characters. If your child can manage the story but stumbles over reading a character’s name, suggest calling the character by his or her initial and avoid the challenge altogether. It won’t make a bit of difference to your child’s understanding of the story (unless there are two tricky names and both start with the same letter!).

3. Beginning readers sometimes check out the first couple of letters and then make a guess. Not very scientific but we all do it! Keep in mind that the larger your child’s listening and speaking vocabulary, the better his guesses are likely to be.

4, Beginning readers should be encouraged to ask for help . When I listen to a young child read, my number one goal is that she enjoy the experience. I want her to want to read. I don’t want her to get hung up and frustrated. If I can make the reading experience more pleasant – by acting as a resource when she encounters difficult words – then she is more likely to attempt challenging books.

When working with children who are just beginning to sound out words, I have had great success using word families.

Shortly after a child discovers that C -A -T spells cat, it can be enormously rewarding to introduce B-A-T amd M-A-T. Often a child’s eyes grow as big as saucers as he realizes the relationship between the three words. He makes a connection and sounding out BAT, CAT, FAT, HAT, MAT, PAT, RAT and SAT is not nearly as difficult as he originally thought. Soon he has eight new words to be proud of (rather than just one).

On the Storytime Standouts Beginning to Read page, we include Word Family Flip Books for short vowel word families. Print the pages and cut out the individual letters. Cut out the larger rectangle along the lines. Make a pile of letters (check that they are all the right way up) and staple them to the left of the word ending. Encourage your beginning reader to ‘build’ on her knowledge that C-A-T spells CAT by flipping the letters and substituting the consonant. She’ll create many more words and feel a thrill of success.

Our early literacy printables, including our word family printables are in PDF format, if you don’t already use Adobe Reader, you will need to download it to access the word family printables.

Please note: some of our early literacy printables are available to Storytime Standouts members only. To become a member of the website (without cost or obligation), please click on the “Members” tab and register as a user.

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

If you appreciate our word family printables, please support this site by visiting and purchasing from Amazon.com or Amazon.ca.

There have been many, many books written that focus on word families. A search of “Fat Cat” might produce a dozen or more results. I’m delighted to let you know about a series that combines word families, spinning word wheels, picture clues and early reader books. The word wheels are sturdy and easy to spin. They each create eight words: the wheel for Bug in a Rug produces bug, hug, dug, jug, mug, pug, tug and rug. Beginning readers will need some help decoding the story but will find the illustrations helpful and will soon notice that the word family words are printed using red ink. if ‘reading’ with an older family member, the child could be asked to ‘read just the red words’ until familiar with the vocabulary. Good fun and a helpful resource for those who are just learning about word families and beginning to read.

Fat Cat at Amazon.com | Fat Cat at Amazon.ca

Jen The Hen at Amazon.com | Jen the Hen at Amazon.ca

Dog In The Fog at Amazon.com | Dog in the Fog at Amazon.ca

Bug In A Rug at Amazon.com | Bug in a Rug at Amazon.ca

Do you share my concerns about inspiring preteen and teen readers?

Over the weekend, I had an opportunity to take a quick look at The Reading Zone: How to Help Kids Become Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, Critical Readers.

I am always interested to read and hear the experts suggest ways to ensure that children, preteens and teens become “Skilled, passionate, habitual, critical readers” because for so many teen readers this does not happen. Ms. Atwell’s approach is practical and passionate. She reminds all parents that everyone has reading homework and there is no more important homework than reading. She also discusses the three categories of difficulty: Holidays, Challenges and Just Rights. I look forward to taking my time to thoroughly consider her recommendations. At the outset my sense is that this is a book that every parent or a preteen or teen reader (and most teachers) should read.

The Reading Zone blog

The Reading Zone: How to Help Kids Become Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, Critical Readers at Amazon.com

The Reading Zone: How to Help Kids Become Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, Critical Readers at Amazon.ca

Middle Grade Reading Depends on What Happens Outside the Classroom

My students have already figured out a few things about me, which they happily shared with my new student teacher today. They told her that I like diet pepsi (to the point of obsession), that I’m 35 (not sure she needed this information), and that I love to read. I can’t really complain, since they were correct and also because I was glad they already figured out how much I value reading. From the way they’ve been raiding my book bins, I would say they value it as well. So far, so good. The boys are gravitating toward the graphic novels, making me glad I have plenty. The girls are really seem drawn in by the classics (Oliver Twist, Alice in Wonderland). I love those first few weeks of seeing their preferences. While things feel like they are off to a good start inside the classroom, the importance of what happens outside the classroom cannot be underestimated.

As much as I would truly LOVE to spend the entire day reading and writing with the kids (and I would), there’s not enough hours in a school day. In a typical day, the students will get to hear me read aloud to them for 15-20 minutes and get to read to themselves for about 25-30. This sounds like a lot of reading in a day but it’s not if you consider that it’s academically directed. The read aloud tends to lead to learning strategies, such as predicting, questioning, and making connections. The 30 minute silent reading block is well liked by students, but hardly ever without at least one or two interruptions.

It is important that students know reading is not a “school activity”. We teach them how to read, how to connect with what they read, and how to write about what they’ve read. At home, a perfect compliment to this routine, is encouraging them that reading is a great option for down time, car rides, before bed, or in the middle of a rainy day (or a sunny one). Kids need time to read that is uninterrupted. They also need time to read that is not leading to activities that will show what they know. When my oldest daughter is absorbed in a book, it’s amazing what kinds of connections and conversations we have. I know that in school she can perform the reading strategies both orally and on paper. However, it is truly engaging to listen to her rave about a book or character she loves or to see her smile when I agree to “just one more chapter”.

It’s our job as parents to pass on our values to our children. Perhaps if you are not a reader, there are other ways to support and encourage your child. Take your lap top to the library while they read or ask them to cuddle on the couch, reading, while you do the crossword or watch tv. If you are a reader, READ. Your kids need to see you read. They need to see that you make time for reading and for yourself. This shows them the value, and pleasure, of reading.

As in many other areas of life, maybe it’s time to go back to basics. Switch family movie night to family reading night. I want to say, show them they don’t need technology to be engaged, but it seems hypocritical since I’m wrapping up this blog now so I can go read my Kindle.

Whether your child struggles with grade three reading or not, this is an enjoyable, generously illustrated chapter book

I Hate Books! written by Kate Walker

Hamish is blessed with a Grandpa who reads aloud “with lots of expression”. When Hamish was little, he loved books but the love affair ends when he begins grade three reading and his teacher asks him to read aloud. Before long, Hamish is referred to a reading specialist and it is confirmed that he has been making up stories rather than reading the words on the page.

After struggling with flash cards and remedial reading, Hamish decides that life will be fine – whether he learns to read or not. It takes a disasterous family road trip, an embarrassing birthday party and a persuasive older brother to change Hamish’s mind.

Happily, Hamish overcomes his struggles and eventially earns a prize for “most improved reader.”

Shortlisted for the Australian Children’s Book of the Year and the Young Australian’s Best Book Awards, I Hate Books! features relatively short chapters and very appealing illustrations. At about a grade three reading level, it is recommended for children aged seven to nine.

I Hate Books! at Amazon.com

I Hate Books! at Amazon.ca