Collection of books, activities, and more designed to help your child develop important pre-reading skills. These skills will help them not only in reading, but in lifelong learning! Brought to you by Lake County Public Library (Indiana).
… Jungle edition! If
you’re happy and you know it, give a ROAR! This fun and
interactive picture book will have kids clapping their hands,
scratching their fur, flapping their wings and more as they sing and
play with their favorite jungle animals. Singing
and
Playing
are
important early literacy skills and two of the Every Child Ready to
Read practices for kindergarten readiness.
You can read this book
one-on-one with your little one, but it’s extra fun with friends!
You may find it this summer at one of our preschool storytimes - sign
up at your favorite branch.
Extend the book with a fun activity using Twitchetts free printable action dice.
Action
dice like these encourage imaginative play, which can help your child
build narrative
skills.
Some
of the combinations are ridiculous and will have you cracking up as
your child learns, imagines and explores!
Sing and dance along with this story as we search for dinosaur bones, then excavate, clean, and put the bones back together in a museum.
This book is sung to the tune of Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush, with added paragraphs explaining what the young scientists in the pictures are doing. This book is great for classroom reading!
Here We Go Digging for Dinosaur Bones will help kids practice singing, talking, and playing. It’ll build phonological awareness, vocabulary, and background knowledge.
Extend the book with homemade fossils!
Bury a small plastic dinosaur toy in a mixture of cornstarch and water. In a day or two the cornstarch will dry into a fossil that your child will be able to dig up!
You will need:
1 small plastic dinosaur toy
cornstarch
water
a small container
tools for excavating (for example, brushes, hammers, toothpicks)
Instructions:
Mix 1 part water with 2 parts cornstarch to make a thick mixture called oobleck. Let your child mix this with their hands so they can feel the interesting texture. Oobleck is lots of fun to play with so you may want to make extra!
Fill a small containter with the oobleck and drop your dinosaur inside. It should be completely buried.
Leave this to dry completely. Be patient, this could take a couple of days! You can tell it’s dry when it starts to crack along the surface.
Once it’s dry, gather tools scientists might use to excavate fossils. You can try brushes, hammers, toothpicks, and anything else you think might help you carefully excavate the dinosaur.
Take the hardened fossil out of the plastic container and let your child dig out the dinosaur!
(Note: There are a lot of book versions of The Wheels on the Bus! We used the one by Jane Cabrera. We like the illustrations, and it pairs nicely with our lion painting fine motor skills craft!)
This
adaptation of the familiar preschool song has the animals chattering,
snapping, roaring, and laughing all the way to the watering hole.
Sing
this song with your child while doing the actions and sounds of the
animals.
Your
child doesn’t care if you can’t sing on tune. Have fun singing along
with the story and playing the parts of the animals. Songs
tend to give each syllable in a word a different note. Hearing the
words being broken up into smaller parts helps children develop
phonological awareness (recognizing the smaller sounds that
make up words), which will later help them sound out words as they
learn to read.
Extend
the book and your child’s vocabulary by talking about
the different animals on each page. Ask your child what animal it is
and what sound it makes. As children learn to hear and make animal
sounds they are developing phonological awareness.
Small Motor Skills Craft
Have
even more fun by painting a lion like the one we saw in the book. We
found this craft on the blog Crafty Morning.
You only
need orange paint, yellow paper, a marker, and a plastic fork. It’s
fun for kids to paint with something other than the usual paintbrush
and aids in small motor skills, which helps when they begin to write.
Start
by drawing a circle for your lion’s face and add in eyes, nose, and a
mouth.
Then dip your fork in the paint and have fun creating a
beautiful lion mane.
This
adaptation of the familiar preschool song “The Wheels on the Bus”
has the animals making their own sounds as they ride through town.
Sing
this song with your children while doing the actions and sounds of
the animals. Songs tend to draw out the syllables in each word,
making it easier for children to recognize the smaller sounds that
make up words and helps them develop phonological
awareness.
As you read,
ask questions such as, “Do you ever ride a bus?” “How many
animals are on the bus?” “Would you like to ride a bus with so
many animals on it?” “What sounds do each animal make?” Talking
with your children about the story increases their vocabulary.
Now make it your own!
After
reading through the book once, read it again and have your children
try to remember the sound each animal makes, or which animal gets on
the bus next. This memory game increases their narrative
skills as
they learn to tell a story back to you.
Sing
the song yourselves and add in new animals and their sounds.
After
finishing the book, play
an
animal freeze game. Call out an animal and have your children pretend
to be that animal until you call “freeze!” They have to stay
frozen until you call out the next animal.
The
Giant Jumperee
by Julia Donaldson is a fun story about a rabbit who returns home to
his burrow only to find that the loud and scary Giant Jumperee is
inside.
Rabbit
is afraid to enter, so he enlists his friends to try to get the Giant
Jumperee to come out of the burrow, but each in turn is frightened
away.
The
main character speaks in rhymes, which helps to develop your child’s
phonological
awareness,
or hearing the smaller parts in words. He always
begins speaking with the phrase, “I’m the Giant Jumperee…”
Have your child chime in on this repeated phrase to involve them in
the reading of the
story, and make it more fun and enjoyable. This is called print
motivation or learning
to love books and reading. Print motivation is a component of
background knowledge,
or everything your child knows before starting school.
There
are many words in this story that your child may not be familiar
with, like “slink” and “swaggered”. After reading
the story, go back to those unfamiliar words and talk
about their meaning, then help your child act out the movements, a
form of playing,
which will help them remember what the words mean. This will increase
your child’s vocabulary.
Studies have shown that children with a large vocabulary do better
in school.
Extend the book with finger puppets and paper frogs!
Your
child can use the finger puppets to retell the story, adding to their
narrative
skills.
You can also make a handprint frog, as designed by the folks at Crafty-Crafted! You’ll need some green paper, a pencil, a bowl (or other circle to trace), white paper, and a black marker. Follow the link for step-by-step instructions!
In From
Head to Toe by Eric Carle, each two-page spread depicts a
different animal and child. Each animal names something that it can
do, then asks the child, ”Can you do it?” The child answers, “I
can do it!” The large collage illustrations show both the animal
and child performing the movement.
This
interactive book will have your child clapping and wiggling and
stomping right along with the animals! Be sure to encourage this
participation, as children learn a lot about language through play.
Also, when your child has fun being actively involved in a story,
they are experiencing print motivation – the enjoyment of
books and reading. Interactive books like this are especially great
for those children who simply cannot sit still – they get to listen
to a book and move at the same time!
You can
help build your child’s vocabulary with From Head to Toe.
The more words your child knows
before learning to read, the more chance for success she will have.
This book has a lot of information presented in a fun way - animal
names, parts of the body and action words are all illustrated.
Knowing what all these words mean will help build your child’s background knowledge,
everything she knows before starting school.
You
can also talk to
your child about what kinds of things he is capable of doing.
Remember, anything he says he can do feels like a big accomplishment
to him, and is. It is important to reinforce that feeling of
accomplishment in him. Also, ask him to think of other animals and
movements they make. Perhaps your child can gallop like a horse or
shuffle his feet like a penguin. The list of ways animals move is
endless! Talking
to your child in this way will add to his vocabulary
and background knowledge.
Try a Life-Sized Drawing!
Children of all ages enjoy this project, so it is something your
preschool and school age children can do together.
First
lay a large piece of paper on the floor – either weigh it down or
tape it to the floor.
Have
your child lay on the paper and trace around him with a pencil,
crayon or marker. An older sibling may wish to help with this part.
Have
your child move off the paper. Let her color in the picture any way
she chooses. The older the child, the more detailed the picture may
be. Young
children will simply scribble, but that’s OK! Scribbling, just like
coloring, helps to develop the muscles needed for writing when the
time comes.
Once the
picture is colored in, talk about the different parts of your child’s
body and let them point to them on the picture and on their body.
Cut out the picture (or help your child cut it out) and hang it up –
displaying your child’s artwork gives them a sense of achievement and
pride.
Build
your child’s vocabulary
and
letter
knowledge
with
Dr. Seuss’s Cat In The Hat! This beloved classic story is a
wonderful book to introduce your child to rhyming words. The rhythm
of the story will really make the rhymes stand out and you can
discuss how these words share the same sounds. Breaking words down
into smaller parts is a skill that will be important when your child
starts learning to Read.
After reading the story, head over to AtoZ Teacher Stuff and check out their cool, free Cat in the Hat printables. We recommend using the fill-in-the-blank one to help your child come up with rhyming words that end in -at. Write the letters together as you discuss the sounds that each letter makes!
Toys Meet Snow: Being the Wintertime Adventures of a Curious Stuffed Buffalo, a Sensitive Plush Stingray and a Book-loving Rubber Ball by Emily Jenkins
Ever wonder what your toys are doing while you’re away? While Little Girl is away on Winter Vacation, her toys, Lumphy, StingRay and Plastic, decide to go outside and learn more about snow. The illustrations in this book are amazing so take a Picture Book Walk! Without reading the words, point to the pictures on each page and ask questions such as “What is this”? And “What might happen next”?
This is a fun way to practice playing and talking which helps children develop oral language skills. When they think about what will happen next, they are putting their thoughts into words. Introducing new words to your child increases their Vocabulary. In the story Lumphy is curious and Plastic recognizes the branches of a tree.
Let your child turn the pages and tell you the story by looking at the pictures. They are building Print Motivation and learning that print has meaning.
Extend the book by making Puffy Paint Snowmen. This type of sensory play will help develop and improve your child’s gross and fine motor skills. We got this idea from Simple Fun for Kids. Head over there to learn how to make puffy paint!
While you are having messy fun, sing Snowflakes, Snowflakes to the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”:
Snowflakes falling One by one, Time to play and have some fun. Build a snowman Snowballs, too, Come and see what you can do. Snowflakes falling One by one, Time to play and have some fun.
The picture
book Fly Blanky Fly by Anne Margaret Lewis is a perfect
example of how you can help your child get ready to read through
Play. Throughout the book, a child plays pretend with a
blanket, imagining it as a flying jet, a bouncing kangaroo, a
slithering snake, and much more. Symbolic play like this helps
children understand that one thing can stand for another, which
will prepare them for understanding that printed letters on a page
can stand for spoken words.
As you read
this book together, use your finger (or encourage your child to use
theirs) to follow along with the words on the page as you read them.
You’ll notice that the phrases have been designed to mimic the action
described. Pointing this out to your child helps build their Print
Awareness, and reinforces the knowledge that the text stands for
the words you’re speaking.
Another great
way you and your child can engage with the book is to gather favorite
blankets (or scarves, etc.) to use to play with as you read it. Read
a page and then do the suggested activity together. Encourage your
child to join in and chant the repeating phrase pattern with you: Fly
Blanky Fly, Zoom Blanky Zoom, etc. This oral repetition also builds
print awareness.
Keep playing
when you’re done reading the book! Ask your child questions like:
What else should Blanky be? What else can Blanky do?
Popular
children’s musician/performer Laurie
Berkner
has a great song about going to the moon you may also want to check
out. It’s called “Rocketship
Run,”
and you can find it on several of her CDs or on Hoopla (all free with your library card!) If
you haven’t checked out her music before, we highly recommend it –
her songs are great for encouraging playful family fun!
Don’t
Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! is
a great interactive book to read with children. It begins with a bus
driver asking you to keep an eye on his bus and make sure that the
pigeon does not drive it. After he leaves, the Pigeon arrives and
tries everything in his power to persuade you to let him drive the
bus. All of it is written in dialogue form and, if you’re able to,
reading
it in different voices can add another element to the story. Before
or after reading the book, it is great to talk
about the word “no” and why it is important to listen.
Understanding the importance of this and how it applies to the story
provides background
knowledge that
will stay with children as they grow.
Make a “NO!” Sign!
This craft is inspired by one of the activities from Miss Meg’s Storytime Mo Willems Party! While
reading the book, you can have your child hold up the “no” sign
every time the pigeon asks to drive the bus or any other question he
asks where the answer is “no.” This introduces the practice of
play with the book because your child is interacting with the
story.
As you can see, this craft is very simple to make. All you need is paper, a marker, and a craft stick!
April is National Poetry Month! Daniel wants to figure out what poetry is, so he asks his animal friends in the park.
This colorful book’s illustrations will delight young children who can share their background knowledge about the featured animals. Adults can point to the pictures and ask children to identify the animals or ask follow up questions like “What does this animal eat?” Try talking about the animals you see on the pages or in your own yard or park.
Extend the Book by Writing a Poem!
Supplies Needed:
Paper
writing or coloring utensils
Ask your child to help you write a poem about an animal. You can take turns coming up with the words for the poem, or let your child dictate the whole thing.
Remember, just like Daniel’s poem in the book, not all poems need to rhyme!
Let your child practice their writing skills by drawing an illustration to go with your new poem.