The Reading Railroad is a free newsletter for parents, caregiver's and teachers.
Fun reading ideas & activities for preshool and primary grade children
Learn to Ride a Bike How to teach your child to ride a bike in less than two hours
without getting hurt!
1. Echo Reading
2. Car Games and Activities
3. Fun Question to Get your Child to Give You More than a One Word Answer
4. February - March Winners of the Car Train Drawing
ECHO READING
Echo reading, or reading together, allows your child to read along with you at your pace. This helps to develop fluency )speed and smoothness) in your child's reading.
Have your child read along with you.
Follow the words that you are reading with your finger or a bookmark.
Drop the tone of your voice when you sense that your child is feeling confident and can read the word or words alone.
CAR GAMES AND ACTIVITIES
Spring Vacation is upon us. In this economy you and your family are probably wanting to do something that will not cost a lot of money. Visiting local museums and parks or a car trip are perfect for your young, impressionable children to develop and incorporate new vocabulary words from their experiences.
If you take a car trip, instead of bringing along the usual movies and TV shows for portable DVD player, why not try some original programming. Bring your home movies. They make great entertainment.
Sticker Detective This is a different version of "Where's Waldo?" Stick a dinosaur sticker in a book or magazine page that has a new or intersting photo on it. Don't show your child where the sticker is located. When s/he finds the sticker, ask questions that will increase your child's vocabulary.
Have a sticker book where your child can place the sticker with the correct dinosaur's name.
Then have your child hide a sticker and have him / her come up with a question for you.
This game can probably last at least one half hour.
Car Counting Game
Before your tips, print picturs of different vehicles and assign a value to them (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) depending on uniqueness. Maybe minivans and motocycles are worth 1 point. Hummers and convertible Volkswagen Beetles are worth 5 points.
Each member of the family keeps track of the cars s/he sees, and the person with the highest score at the end of the trip wins.
FUN QUESTIONS TO GET YOUR TO GIVE YOU MORE THAN A ONE WORD ANSWER
A question that begins with the word WHAT transes the other person to go thru the "files" in their brain and come up with an answer. But there are never guarantees! The most important part of this excerise is that you show loving, focused interest in whatever your child says without judgment.
A trick to get around a shrug or the infamous, "I don't know" is another trans strategy. Try this in a sing song like voice / phrase:
That's Ok I know you don't know But if you did know what would you know?"
If this still doesn't work, then say,
That's Ok, make it up, like a story.
Remember to smile and have fun :-)
What mahes you laugh really hard?
What makes you smile? Make a picture in your mind?
How does the song go that you sang at circle time?
Who brought the best lunch to school? What was in it?
What happened in the story your teaher read today?
