Every Child Ready to Read-Letter Knowledge

Letter knowledge is when children understand that letters of the alphabet are different from each other and  that the same letter can be written different ways.Knowing the names and sounds of letters helps children figure out how to say written words.

Some tips on practicing letter knowledge with your child:

• Sing the alphabet song together and play with rhymes.
•  Let your child play with blocks or puzzles with letters on them and/ or have them make letters with clay, crayons, etc.
• Read alphabet books. (Note: For children ages 0-3, reading the whole book might be a bit much. You might want to just focus on a few letters, such as the letters in their name.)

Here are some recommended books with letter knowledge ( for more, please see 
http://www.lcplin.org/children/ecrr-letter.htm )

• ABC Doctor-Liz Murphy
• Kipper's A to Z-Mick Inkpen
• Bad Kitty- Nick Bruel

Every Child Ready to Read-Print Awareness

Print awareness is noticing that  the printed word is all around us. This skill focuses on how print is used,how to handle a book and  knowing how to follow the words on a page. We know that every book has a cover, a title page, and a spine, and that we read from left to right, from front to back. Becoming familiar with the printed word helps children become comfortable with books and that print is useful.

To help develop print awareness, here are some tips:

• Show children that print is all around them. Point it out in signs, on menus, and in books and newspapers. 
• Point to some words as you say them, especially words that are repeated.
• Turn the book upside down and see if child notices and corrects you; if not, do it yourself.

Some recommended books on Print Awareness (see
http://www.lcplin.org/children/ecrr-Pr-Aware.htm for titles):

• Hurry! Hurry!-Eve Bunting
• Wiggle-Doreen Cronin
• Book!-Kristine George

Every Child Ready to Read-Print Motivation

Print Motivation is perhaps the easiest and ( sometimes challenging) skill of Every Child Ready to Read. It is simply about a child's interest and enjoyment of books. Children who enjoy books at an early age will want to read more.  Children who see Mom or Dad enjoying a book will want to read more. Families who make frequent, enjoyable trips to the library will motivate the child to read more.


Some tips for print motivation:

• Read often and make it enjoyable.
• Read when you and your child are in a good mood, so the experience is a positive one.  Stop reading if they tire or lose interest.
• Let your child see you enjoying a book

We do have list of recommended books for print motivation at our website,  here are a few of my favorite books:

• There are Cats in this Book -Viviane Schwarz
• BowWow Bugs a Bug-  Mark Newgarden
• I Love You Through and Through- Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak
• Where Does Thursday Go?-Janeen Brian

 

Every Child Ready to Read-Narrative Skills

Narrative Skills is the ability to describe events and tell stories. Being able to talk about what happens in a story helps a child understand what they read. Every book has a story, even wordless picture books "tell" a story by pictures.  From stories, we learn that an action or event has a start, a middle, and an ending. We learn that actions can also repeat ( this can found it a lot of stories or songs that have sequences, such as " There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Spider").

Some tips for practicing Narrative Skills at home:

• Ask your child about their day, encourage then to add detail to their story.
• Read wordless picture books and have your child tell the story.
• Act out the story with dolls or puppets

Some books that are good for Narrative Skills ( see more at  http://www.lcplin.org/children/ecrr-narrative.htm):

 Good Night, Gorilla- Peggy Rathmann
  There was An Old Lady who Swallowed a Bat- Lucille Colandro
   First the Egg- Laura Seeger
   The Snowman- Raymond Briggs

Every Child Read to Read-Vocabulary

Vocabulary is knowing the names of things. This is a important pre-reading skill because learning the more words a child hears, the more they will able to understand what they are reading.  In reading, they will learn names of animals, things around the house, ways of moving, and so on.

Some tips for practicing vocabulary at home-

• Talk to your child about what is going on around you. Talk about how things work, feelings and ideas. Listen when your child talks to you. 
• Read to your child every day. Picture books are a good place to start ( they introduce a lot of " rare" words not used in every day conversation). Nonfiction books are good too, as way expanding a child's interest.

Here are some recommended books that are good for this skill ( please see  
http://www.lcplin.org/children/ecrr-vocab.htm )

Fancy Nancy- Jane O'Connor
Wiggle- Doreen Cronin
Edward the Emu- Sheena Knowles
Dinosnores- Kelly DiPucchio

Every Child Ready to Read: Phonological Awareness

At the programs we librarians do for the babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, we try to focus on one of the six pre-literacy  skills of Every Child to Read. Pre-literacy is what children know about reading and writing before they actually can read and write. For next Monday's 2- and 3-year old program, we will be focusing on Phonological Awareness, which is the ability to hear and play with the sounds of smaller words to sound out the words on the page. Obviously, the easiest  way is through rhyming. Rhymes, particulary nursery rhymes and songs present sounds or syllable in each word.

Two Little Blackbirds

Two little blackbirds

Sitting on a hill

One named Jack and one named Jill

Fly away Jack. Fly away Jill

Come back Jack. Come back Jill.

Notice the "ill" in " hill" and " Jill" have the same sound.

Another place children learn about sounding out words in the syllables in their name. In our infant program, we do a game called " Rum-Tum-Tum" where we ask the children to tap out their name on the drum. This is easy to do at home by using an empty can ( such as a Quacker Oats can) and the following rhyme:

Rum-Tum Tum

This is my drum

Rum Tum Tum

This is my drum

My name is ( tap out name)

What your's? ( child taps out name.)

Again, you could also just play with the sounds in your child's name or find words that have the same rhyming pattern.

Here are  some recommended books ( for more information, visit http://www.lcplin.org/children/ecrr-Phono.htm)

• Llama Llama Mad at Mama  -Anna  Dewdney
•  Ten in the Den- John Bulter
• Bless this Mouse-Dianna Hutts Aston
• Goodnight Moon- Margaret W. Brown