What's the Message

Read a fable, folktale, or myth from diverse cultures. Identify the central message, lesson, or moral. Explain how it is supported using key details from the text.

Five Finger Retell

Retell a story with the reader, having each finger represent a story element. Your thumb is the characters, pointer finger is the setting (where the story took place), middle finger is the beginning, ring finger is the middle events, and pinkie is the solution ending. After the reader retells, ask them their favorite part of the story.

Just the Facts

Support the reader as they read informational text. Look for facts about the topic, utilizing academic and topic specific vocabulary. Children are expected to refer to the text to support what they have read about the topic.

Read to Me

Pick a book to read to your child. Model how to read the book fluently by reading with expression and changing your voice to match the punctuation.

Additional Resource: You can have your child listen to a book being read to them from Storyline Online.

Poetry Reading

Read a poem or prose with your child. You read the poem aloud first to model to your child how to read with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression. Then, have your child practice reading the poem or prose fluently. Reread the poem or prose until your child reads it fluently.

Fry Word Reading

Create flashcards to build accuracy and fluency using Fry Words. You can start on the list that you think is most appropriate for your child. Create a flashcard for no more than 25 words. Flash the word to your child, if they say the word within three seconds put the word into your “accuracy and fluent” pile. If it takes your child more than three seconds put that in the “needs more work” pile. After you have reviewed all your words. Put a star on all the words read accurately and fluently. The goal is to get five stars on the word cards. Once they have five stars they can be put into a box/container to use as review words. Add more words to your practice pile remember to have only 25 words.

Additional activities: You can use your flashcards to create a tic-tac-toe board. You will need several of the same objects to use as markers for your X’s or O’s. Some suggestions might be colored fuzz balls, coins, colored counters, etc. When it is your turn, you have to say the word accurately and fluently to put your marker in that spot. The object of the game is to get a tic-tac-toe.

Looking for the Smaller Words

Help look for smaller words the reader may know when they encounter an unfamiliar. This can help the reader decode the unfamiliar word. For example, if the child comes to the word "protection," help them cover parts of the word. Once they know each part, put the word back together and read.

Making New Words

Use small pieces of paper or index cards to jot down a collection of base words (words in their simplest form) and common prefixes and suffixes. Take turns selecting a base word and then a prefix or suffix to create a word. See how many different combinations you can make. Discuss the meaning of each word as they are made.

Sharing Our Writing

Consider connecting your child with a relative, friend or pen-pal as a meaningful opportunity to practice their writing skills. This could be through email or handwritten letters.

Playing with Sounds

Try one of the following activities to help your child manipulate sounds in words:

• Substituting the first sound, splitting blends: Say blue. Now say blue, but instead of /b/ say /k/. Clue. Or say blue. Now say it again, but instead of /b/ say /k/. Clue.

• Deleting second sound in an initial blend: Say sling. Now say sling, but don't say /l/. Sing. Or say sling. Now say it again, but don't say /l/. Sing.

• Reversing the sounds in a single syllable word: Say eat. Now say eat backwards. Tea. Or say: Say eat backwards. Tea.

Bean bag toss

Child stands in front of three rings (such as hula hoops) or circles (chalk) marked 1, 2, 3, which represent the number of syllables in words. Call out a word and the child will throw a bean bag into the hoop that corresponds with the number of syllables the word represents.

Pig Latin

The primary purpose of this activity is to build adeptness with sound play and manipulation. Words in Pig Latin are formed by removing the onset, saying the rhyme followed by the onset + ay. So, the phrase Pig Latin would become igpay atinlay.

Kitchen Chaos

You will use antonyms (opposites) to describe your favorite foods. For example, you might say milk is your favorite food. Your sentence might be "I like to have black, hot milk on my soggy cereal." (The highlighted words are the antonyms. You can have your child share what would be an antonym to the words you used to describe your favorite foods.)

Prefix Wall

For this activity you will need either index cards, slips of paper, or post it notes. Each person will pick a different prefix from the resource provided. Each person writes their prefix on their index card. The prefix card will be at the bottom of their wall. As you think of words with this prefix, add it to another index card and lay it above your prefix index card. Continue adding words until you cannot think of any more words. The activity's purpose is to produce as many words as possible with that prefix to create the tallest wall. The person with the tallest wall wins. For this example, the person who wrote all the words with the prefix dis- would win.

Adaptation: You can play the same game but use suffixes.

Animal Idioms

You will identify the nonliteral meaning (idiom) of a saying about animals. For example, you might say "It's raining cats and dogs outside." Does this saying really mean that dogs and cats are falling from the sky like rain? No. This would be the sentence's literal meaning. What it means is it is raining hard outside. Another example of an idiom is "Something smells a little fishy around here." This saying might be said when someone has done something sneaky and lied about it. The "Article about Idioms" includes more examples of animal Idioms that you can use to identify the nonliteral meaning.

Article about Idioms