Reading Aloud: Blog Post #3

Reading Aloud 

Welcome back! I am happy to hear that our classroom's blog has been a great resource for families to connect with what we are doing during our days in school. I hope you all continue to provide me with feedback in order to not only make this blog as helpful as possible but to also make our classroom an even better learning environment. 

This week we have been focusing on reading books aloud, varying between story books, picture books, and books that do not contain any print. We have been reading books aloud as a whole class and in small groups as well. Reading aloud provides a great opportunity for children to expand their language development as well as learn how to identify different sounds in words. I believe that reading books aloud not only helps children with the development of their language and cognitive skills but also helps to show children that learning can be fun as well as educational. Reading aloud also provides children with the opportunity to explore their own interests and hobbies. 

Our classroom has very much enjoyed reading books aloud and will continue to do so as well as doing other activities that grow out of the stories we read. Please continue to read aloud with your children, they are doing such an amazing job! Below I will include some suggestions for books that are great to read aloud with your child, a website that provides stories you can listen to that are read aloud online, and some tips you may want to use while reading with your child in case you are feeling unsure with what to do. I use them myself! Thank you for your continued support and please always feel free to contact me with questions or concerns. 

Storyline Online 

http://www.storylineonline.net 

Suggested Books 

• Stellaluna By Janell Cannon 
• Goodnight Moon By Margaret Wise Brown 
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar By Eric Carle
• Llama Llama Red Pajama By Anna Dewdney
• The Rainbow Fish By Marcus Pfister 
• If You Give a Moose a Muffin By Laura Numeroff
• The Runaway Bunny By Margaret Wise Brown

Tips you may use when reading aloud with children: 

• Rhyming and patterns books help children actively participate when reading aloud, it provides them with the opportunity to retell simple plots and themes in books through the repetition of patters, rhymes, and the re-reading of books 
• Read books that interest the child 
• Introduce the book, read the title and author while showing what the cover looks like, suggest things for your child to look and listen for 
• Run your finger under the text 
• Wait after each page for questions 
• Repeat interesting words and rhymes 
• Pause and wait so children can say the word or phrase that is repetitive and/or predictable 
• Stop to ask thinking questions like "what might happen next?" "where did she go?" "what is she doing?" 
• Encourage your child to draw, write, paint, or act out a story or particular character from the book you just read 

Reading is Fun! 

 

Second blog post: phonemic awareness

 

I hope everyone is having a great week so far and I welcome you back to our classrooms blog. I believe it is important to keep the communication between our classroom and families open therefore I will be posting a blog every week to provide an update on what the students have been involved in and why we are doing those particular activities. This week we have been focusing on phonemic awareness through the reading of books, singing songs and using “fingerplay” (using puppets to go along with a story or song). Phonemic awareness is a term associated with language that can sometimes be a tricky term to understand because it is very closely related to phonics and phonological awareness. However, phonemic awareness is the ability to hear the individual sounds in words. Phonemic awareness is an important component of literacy development and is the basis for understanding an oral language system.

Through phonemic awareness songs, books, games and more students will learn:

•  How to recognize individual sounds in words
• How to identify similar sounds in different words
• Learn new vocabulary words
• Learn how to read/expand on their reading skills

Understanding and learning how to hear and identify individual sounds in words is not easy and it is important for our classroom to be repeating the use of books, songs, and fingerplays in order for children to become more familiar with recognizing these sounds over time. The amazing thing with the students in our classroom is that they already have a general awareness of identifying these sounds because of the parents, grandparents, and siblings that work or play with them at home. I bet you did not even realize that! Children have begun to notice these individual sounds in words through the experiences they have already had listening to books being read aloud to them or listening to songs and rhymes. Thank you for your help, keep it up!  

In order to continue our work with phonemic awareness in our classroom I am asking if each child can bring in either a picture of their favorite food or a picture of their favorite animal. This will be a “show and tell” in which each student will present their picture to the class and then we will learn the name of the food or animal in each picture. As the children begin to become more familiar with each picture and the different sounds that can be heard through saying the name of the food or animal we will start to sort them by the beginning sounds and/or the ending sounds of each picture. This will be a fun activity that you can help your child with at home as well as a fun opportunity for our students to learn more about each other while developing their phonemic awareness. Thank you for helping your child choose a picture to bring into our class, I appreciate it very much!

If you are looking for more activities to do with your child to help them practice their phonemic awareness I have included a few links to activities, songs, and examples of fingerplays with puppets below. Please let me know if you have any questions or are looking for more activities to do with your child outside of class, I will be happy to provide more!
Down By The Bay

Activities for Phonemic Awareness

Banana Phone

Five Little Monkeys

Welcome

Welcome to our classrooms blog!
I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to my future students and their families. My name is Simone Jones and I am going to be your future teacher and am looking forward to starting our school year together! I am currently studying Early Childhood Education at Indiana University and hope to teach in a preschool or kindergarten classroom after I graduate. I love working with young children and seeing the excitement children exude with each new learning experience. I believe that each child should be treated as an individual and it will be my pleasure to learn about each student's personal learning style in order to promote an individual pathway to successful learning. It is my hope as an educator to help each student reach his or her full potential by creating a classroom environment that is safe, inviting, and provides every opportunity for children to reach their full potential. It is my hope as your child's teacher to provide them with the essential tools they will need in order to become responsible members of not only our classroom but of the future we are creating together. Please do not hesitate to email me or visit our classroom with any questions or concerns that may arise. I am excited for this new school year and am looking forward to meeting each and every one of you.