Activity CardsLauren Fallin

How to use Ready to Read Activity Cards

• Three activities are presented for each of the five reading skills areas.

• The activities for each area are tiered:– A turquoise background indicates an

easy activity.– A light purple background indicates a

moderately challenging activity.– A green background indicates a

challenging activity.

PHONEMIC AWARENESS

Listen Carefully!

• Introduction: The ability to listen closely and distinguish between sounds is critical to the development of phonemic awareness.

• Here’s How: During bath time or while waiting in line at the grocery store, instruct your child to close his or her eyes and listen for the three sounds you make. – Ex: Parent claps hands, snaps fingers, and stomps feet. Child opens his

or her eyes. Parent says, "First you heard ______. In the middle you heard_____. And last you heard ______.“ Ask your child to fill in the blanks.• As your child becomes more confident in his or her ability to correctly fill in the blank,

continue playing the game replacing claps, snaps, and stomps with animal sounds, color words, and letters of the alphabet.

• Let’s Learn how to pay attention to a sequence of sounds.

• Caution: Pay careful attention to your child’s progress. Provide additional opportunities for practice if your child demonstrates difficulty.

Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down!

• Introduction: Recognizing rhyming patterns in language is a critical skill for emergent readers.

• Here’s How: Start the game by saying. “If the words I say rhyme, give me a thumbs up. If they don’t rhyme, give me a thumbs down.” Examples should be very obvious for younger children.

• Let’s Learn: Awareness of rhyming words

• Caution: Make sure to avoid words that begin with the same letter (bat-bring) or belong in the same category (dog-cat). It is important that the child focuses in on the rhyme.

You’re Out of Here!

• Introduction: Children who can think about and manipulate phonemes (individual letter sounds) become better readers and spellers. 

• Here’s How: While in the car, ask your child what a word sounds like when a phoneme is deleted. – Example:

• Parent: “What is "cat" without the /k/?” • Child: “at”

• Let’s Learn: Phoneme deletion

• Caution: Begin this activity with CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words before moving on to more difficult words. Examples of CVC words include: cap, pet, hen, big, tan. If students demonstrate difficulty deleting phonemes in words, begin by asking them to delete syllables in compound words.

ALPHABETIC PRINCIPLE

Disappearing Letters

• Introduction: A child’s knowledge of letter names is one of the strongest predictors of their success in learning to read.

• Materials: plate, coffee filters, markers, eyedropper, water

• Here’s How: Start by writing letters on the coffee filter using the markers. Instruct your child to find a particular letter. When they have successfully identified the letter, allow them to use the eyedropper to place a drop of water on the letter. Your child will be amazed at what happens!

• Write both upper and lower-case letters on the coffee filter. Specify which letter you want your child to identify.

• Let’s Learn: Letter recognition

• Caution: Make sure to place the coffee filter on a plate before dropping water on the filter.

Spaghetti Night

• Introduction: A solid understanding of letter-sound relationships provides the foundation for reading and writing words.

• Here’s How: While preparing dinner one night, give your child a handful of cooked and cooled spaghetti noodles (Play-doh is another option.). Ask that your child form letters, both upper and lower-case, with the noodles or dough. Discuss the sound(s) each letter makes and words that begin with that letter.

• Let’s Learn: Letter-sound associations

• Caution: Make sure noodles are cooled completely before giving them to your child!

The Grocery List• Introduction: It is important for children to understand that there are

systematic and predictable relationships between letters and sounds.

• Here’s How: As you are making your grocery list, give your child paper and a pencil. Tell the child the grocery item needed and have them write it on their own paper. Begin with words that have phonetic spellings (can be easily sounded out).

• Let’s learn that words are composed of letters that represent sounds.

• Caution: While this activity can be easily modified based on the child’s ability, be careful not to give your child words that are too difficult and cause them to become discouraged!

READING FLUENCY

Become a Model!• Introduction: By reading effortlessly and with expression,

you are modeling for your students how a fluent reader sounds during reading.

• Here’s How: Choose a book your child will enjoy. Before bedtime or whenever you have a few free minutes, read to your child, paying close attention to accuracy and expression.

• Let’s learn how a reader’s voice helps written words/phrases make sense.

• Caution: Make sure you are excited about reading! If you demonstrate a negative attitude towards reading, your child will sense that.

Tic-Tac-Toe• Introduction: The most effective

strategy for developing reading fluency is to provide your child with many opportunities to read the same passage aloud several times. 

• Here’s How: At bedtime, use the tic-tac-toe board to read a page (or 2!) from your child’s library book. Tell your child they may choose any spaces they wish, but they must get three in a row! If your child tires of reading quickly, alternate turns with him or her (repeated reading).

• Let’s learn how to read with appropriate fluency and accuracy to support comprehension.

• Caution: Don’t choose pages from a book that are exceptionally long. This is meant to be a fun activity…not an activity that your child doesn’t enjoy!

Reader’s Theater

• Introduction: Reader’s theater helps promote fluency, helps children learn to read aloud with expression, and helps to build confidence.

• Here’s How: Choose an appropriate script from the following link: http://www.thebestclass.org/rtscripts.html. Host a family night where each family member is assigned a part of the play to read and act out. Help your child prepare for this event by giving them their script ahead of time so that they have time to practice.

• Let’s learn how to read a text accurately with appropriate expression.

• Caution: Make sure to begin with scripts that are easy and short to ensure your child isn’t overwhelmed.

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

Word Collection

• Introduction: Reading comprehension improves when word meanings are understood. Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading; therefore vocabulary development is critical.

• Here’s How: Encourage each family member to be on the lookout for interesting words heard during the day. At dinner or bedtime, have each family member share their words and what they think each word means. Challenge family members to use the words discussed in conversation!

• Let’s learn the meanings of unfamiliar words and use these words in conversation.

• Caution: If the child shares an incorrect meaning, be sure to

guide him/her to the correct meaning of the word.

Hot Potato!

• Introduction: Knowledge of vocabulary provides a solid foundation for decoding and comprehending text.

• Here’s How: Play Hot Potato! with categories. Choose a word, and then your child has to think of a word that belongs in the same category. Continue the game until someone is stumped!

When your child is ready, play Hot Potato! With synonyms! Choose a word, and then your child must come up with a synonym for that word!

• Let’s Learn how to develop word knowledge.

• Caution: Be sure you child has a solid understanding of the words they are producing.

Vocabulary Ball

• Introduction: Vocabulary development is a vital part of all content area learning.

• Here’s How: Write your child’s current vocabulary words for ANY subject area on an inflatable beach ball. After dinner, have the family toss the ball around. The person who catches the ball must act out the word (NO TALKING!) while others guess the word being portrayed.

• Let’s learn the meaning of words I must know in order to succeed in a particular content area (math, science, social studies, etc.).

• Caution: Make sure to use a dry-erase marker to write words so that your ball can be used again!

READING COMPREHENSION

An Alternate Ending• Introduction: Making predictions will keep your child actively

engaged in the reading process.

• Here’s How: As you are reading a book to your child, stop halfway through and ask your child to predict how the story will end.

• Let’s learn how to call on prior knowledge to make inferences.

• Caution: Encourage and guide your child to make reasonable predictions!

Spinner

Cut out the arrow and attach it to the center of the spinner with a brad.

• Introduction: Comprehension is the reason we read. If readers cannot connect to what they are reading,they are not really reading.

• Here’s How: Before reading a book with your child at bedtime, have them spin the arrow. Dictate the question to our child. Ask them to answer the question after reading. Make sure to encourage your child to answer in complete sentences!

• Let’s learn how to listen for specific information when we read and how to make text-to-self connections.

• Caution: Reiterate the importance of knowing what information to look for before reading.

What’s Cooking?• Introduction: Developing strong reading

comprehension skills is essential for a rich academic, professional, and personal life. 

• Here’s How: While preparing dinner, provide your child with a kid-friendly recipe and the required ingredients. Instruct your child to lead preparation of the food item by reading the recipe instructions.

• Let’s Learn: Literal and Applied Comprehension

• Caution: Make sure to supervise your child closely during this activity as many recipes call for the use of a stove/oven. Also be available to answer any questions your child may have about measuring or mixing ingredients.