We continued with our second book, Farm Animaals in K prep reading groups. The children workied hard to track each word in the repetitive text that introduces a new sight word each week. The sight word we worked on this week is the word, is. Sight words are words that are used most frequently in text. The reason that they are called “sight” words is because the goal is for your child to begin to recognize these words instantly, at first sight. These are very important to master because they account for up to 75% of the words used in beginning children’s books. These words, typically, are not words that can be “sounded out,” therefore need to be learned by sight. Many of the readers will be printed for the students to take home to continue rereading to help improve fluency and sight word recognition.
Color words have been our focus in reading groups these past two weeks. We focused on the spelling patterns -ee, -ay, and -ow. Some of the color word activities included building each word with Play-Doh, reading multiple emergent readers with color words, covering color words with color stickers to create a rainbow gum ball machine, and color the illustrations in our readers to match the color words in the text. We incorporate coloring into many of our activities. Coloring has an important place in child development. It provides an opportunity to practice and develop many skills such as concentration, fine motor and coordination for early writing skills and correct finger grip.
The developmental process of learning to read can be broken down into five stages of reading development. 1) Emergent Readers 2) Early Readers 3) Transitional Readers 4) Self-Extending Readers 5) Advanced Readers. All children advance through these stages at different rates based on cognitive development, early and consistent exposure to print, the development of basic reading skills at home and at school. Our class is currently made up of Emergent Readers, Early Readers and Transitional Readers. Many of the readers are sent home throughout the year for the children to keep and continue to read at home independently. As we get closer to November, due to the varying stages of development in our K Prep classroom, you will find that your child may be reading different texts than their classmates. It is so exciting to watch young readers develop the ability to read and become fluent readers!
We continued to read our sight word reader, I’m Not Afraid of Anything! today, but in the spirit of Halloween used witch fingers as our “Magic Reading Finger” as we pointed to each word that we read aloud. Sight Word Focus: of, not
Our early reading adventure began in K Prep last week. The focus last week was how to use their “Magic Reading Finger.” Why do we have children use their finger to track the words while they read? The reason for this practice is because our eyes naturally follow movement, placing a finger, on a page and strategically moving it down the text, a reader will naturally keep their place and be more focused. This helps readers concentrate and understand what they read making reading a more satisfying experience. They did a wonderful job!
Creative Tots has specialized in the private education of both toddlers and preschool age children for over 15 years. We began in the heart of Madeira and now also have a new Mason location. We are specifically designed to focus on early childhood development for children ages 18 months to 5 years.
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