Supporting the Emergent and Early Reader

You are sending your kindergartner off to school. You wonder what are they doing there? What are they learning? How can I help support their learning? Do you feel lost in how to help your child? Let’s see if I can help you.

Kindergarten and learning to read is such an important time in the foundation building of your child’s learning. Helping them without confusing them is important. There are many skills they need to work on to become a reader. Remember not everything needs to be done on every reading. Pick one or two things to work when you read to them. Remember to have times when you are just reading to them for pleasure. Loving to read and hear stories is so important, you cannot forget it.

Alphabet Learning:Work with your child on identifying the letters of the alphabet and learning the sound each letter makes. Begin with identifying the letters in there name. Work with your child on identifying the letters of the alphabet and learning the sound each letter makes. Begin with identifying the letters in there name. ( activities to help with alphabet identification and sounds.)

Rhyming and Playing with Sounds: Start by reciting nursery rhymes that you know (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Humpty Dumpty, Mary Had A Little Lamb, etc.) and talk about the words that rhyme in the poem. You can then say two words and they tell you if they rhyme or not (star/car, mouse/house, can/cat). Then you can try saying a word and have your child say a word that rhymes with it (you say: star; then they say: car). Read books that rhyme and say the words that rhyme. (games and activities to help with rhyming)

Concept of Print: Work with your child to hold a book properly. Talk to your child about the pictures and the print. Make sure to tell them that you are reading the print which is words made from the letters we are learning. As you are reading point to the words to show that you are reading the words and moving from left to right across the page and from the top of where the print begins to the bottom. Point out words in the sentence and talk about the word having a beginning and end with a space before and after it.

Concept of Word: When reading with your child, make sure to vary between longer read books and books with few words on the page. The books that have few words per page point to and count each word on the page and count the spaces on the page to reinforce words have a beginning and end. Choose 5-10 words from the book (some sight words and some that are not) and write them on index cards or strips of paper, have them match the words to the words in the book. Then see if they can read the words once they have matched it to the word in the book.

Sight Words: Sight words are words that your child should be able to read quickly when they come across them. There are many sight word lists you can find on the internet, but I recommend using words that are in the books you read to them and they read to you. It is best if the words they are learning are the words they are using in their reading. You can make many games to help with learning sight words. One that is easy to make is a Memory Game: make 2 sets of sight words on index cards mix them up and lay them out on the table. Your child picks up one card and reads it, then they pick up another card read it and say if they match. If they do they get to keep it. (Stay tuned for more posts with games and activities to help with sight word reading.)

Reading: Kindergarten children love to have stories read to them. Read to them just for the pleasure of it as often as you can. When you are reading stop and talk about the book; Who are the characters? What is the setting?What are the characters doing? Why do you think they are doing that? Ask them if they see any words they know in the book. Ask them to read with you as you point to the words and read the book. Many schools have levels for the books your child reads at school. If the teacher sends home books on their level or helps you with lists to find books on their level, listen to them read. Children love to show how well they can read. (Stay tuned for more posts on reading to and with your child.)

Most of all read to your child everyday!

Some Favorite Books for Kindergarten (to read to your child)

• The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
• Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes by Eric Litwin
• Wemberly Worries by Kevin Henkes
• A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon
• Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready For Kindergarten by Joseph Slate
• We Are In A Book by Mo Willems
• Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin
• If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Numeroff
• The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
• Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

And there are so many more! Share some of your favorites!