For this week's #classicchapterbooks, we bring you Henry Reed, Inc., written by Keith Robertson and illustrated by Robert McCloskey. We are privy to Henry's journal which details the events of one industrious summer—when he decides to set up a research firm and other interesting commercial ventures with his crony Midge.
Visit @the.book.report to see what she's sharing today.
To celebrate The Darkest Dark's book birthday, we’re partnering with Little, Brown and Company and Tundra Books to give away a copy of this incredible book by Chris Hadfield and the Fan brothers.
Head over to @averyandaugustine on Instagram to enter. The giveaway ends on Friday, 9/16.
Lonely Bear wants to meet his forest neighbors so he decides to throw a winter party. The other animals are scared to meet him (somehow bears possess the unfortunate reputation as frightening creatures). ;) Their fears are allayed when they see the warm lantern in his window and notice the aroma of honey-ginger cookies and huckleberry tarts wafting out of his cozy cottage. I love the soft watercolors that bring to life this sweet story about friendship and taking chances. P.S. There’s a recipe for honey-ginger cookies at the end of the book.
Bear’s Winter Party is by Deborah Hodge and Lisa Cinar. Published by Groundwood Books.
Today I’m talking about ways you can work your child who is just starting to learn to read—things you can do at home to provide a solid foundation for becoming an independent reader. Knowledge of letter names and sounds, phonological awareness and phonemic awareness are among the many skills needed to begin reading independently and these tasks support those skills.
1. The game Boggle Junior is a great one for learning to spell and sound out simple words.
2. Mo Willems' Cat the Cat and Elephant and Piggie are both excellent series for beginning readers. Some of the words in the series will be difficult for a first-time reader to decode, but there are still a lot opportunities to practice reading simple first words in both series. For sight words, try a series like Bob Books. You can do repeated readings with you reading the book out loud with your finger pointing to each word as you read, then have your child follow along with her finger as you read. For a list of books for beginning readers, head over to this post.
3. Later you can try simultaneous reading (you and your child reading the sentences together in unison) as they become more familiar with the texts of the books you're reading on a regular basis.
4. Later you can have your child point out individual words that you say (e.g., "Find the word 'dog' and put your finger on it." "Can you find a word that starts with "b?").
5. You can work on some phonemic awareness like blending and segmenting (which are some of the more important ones) with the words from the books. An example of blending would be "What word am I saying? C - a - t." Later they become more familiar with the words, you can do segmenting, e.g., "Tell me all the sounds in the word 'cat.'" You can use manipulatives (like blocks) to represent each sound to provide support.
6. Joint writing (writing words, phrases and sentences together) also hugely supports pre-literacy skills. Draw pictures along with what you write to support reading comprehension.
7. And one last thing, making sure that you're reading rich children's picture books with good writing in them and having conversations about them every day goes a long way in supporting budding reading skills.
Check out other my other posts about how to work on phonemic awareness and early reading skills here.
We all know a child’s imagination is boundless and this couldn’t ring more true for Sam. Dissatisfied with her first pet, a standard issue hamster, she dreams of more exciting prospects...of mythological and epic proportions. Her thoughts run the gambit and she considers all the quirky possibilities—shy unicorns, temperamental dragons, high-maintenance manticores, biting chupacabras, mischievous fairies... Eventually, she comes to a realization—the hamster really will do just fine. She has a newfound appreciation for the little guy. But as it turns out, the tiny creature has a few of his own surprises.
If I Had a Gryphon’s author/illustrator pairing is perfect. Cale Atkinson’s exuberant style brings to life Vikki Vansickle's animated and extremely enjoyable text. Final thoughts—we hope Sam doesn’t give up daydreaming completely. We’d love to get another peek at the workings of her boisterous imagination. If I Had a Gryphon was published by Tundra Books.