Spider and Pumpkin Books

The children can practice reading the little books, Spider on the Floor and Pumpkins for Sale, they are bringing home this week by reading them aloud with you.  As you (or your child) reads, please encourage them to point to one word at a time as it is read.  This helps them establish 1 to 1 correspondence, an understanding that the marks on the page represent the individual words that we say as we read.  This is helpful especially as children are just in the beginning stages of reading which include retelling the story through the use of the pictures and through memorization.  Even though they may not be “sounding out” the words on the page, they are learning more about reading and our language as they practice this skill.  Those that can already read many of the sight words in the story should use picture and first letter cues when they reach an unknown word.  When they attempt a word, usually in a questioning voice and looking at you for approval, ask them, “Does it make sense?”  Good readers use many types of cues to help them decipher an unknown word.