School is not the only arena in which children’s minds need to be nurtured and expanded. Equally vital is the kind of education and brain building that a student undergoes at home.
The goal of phonics instruction is to help children learn the alphabetic principle — the idea that letters represent the sounds of spoken language — and that there is an organized, logical, and predictable relationship between written letters and spoken sounds.
Building a large “word bank” is one of the best ways to help children with reading comprehension. Young readers use knowledge about words to help them make sense of what they’re reading. The more words a reader knows, the more they are able to comprehend what they’re reading or listening to.
Writing allows children to express their thoughts, creativity, and uniqueness. It is a fundamental way in which children learn to think critically, organize and communicate ideas, and make thinking visible and permanent. And learning to write well helps children to be better readers!
Good communication development starts in the first year of life and goes far beyond learning how to talk. Communication development has its roots in social interaction with parents and other caregivers during everyday activities. Here are a few tips for supporting your child’s social communication.
Print awareness is understanding that print carries meaning, that books contain letters and words, and how a book “works” — such as identifying the front and back covers, knowing that pages are turned, and that print in English reads from left to right.
Reading Rockets has packed a “virtual beach bag” of activities for teachers to help families get ready for summer and to launch students to fun, enriching summertime experiences. Educators will find materials to download and distribute as well as ideas and resources to offer to students and parents to help ensure summer learning gain rather than loss.
Pre-K children love to write — they’re always in search of a marker or crayon. Those early scribbles are an important step on the path to literacy and it’s never too early to start. When engaging in writing, young children often mirror what they see around them; adults and older children writing lists, notes, text messaging. They are observing the way writing is used in our everyday lives.
Establishing daily and weekly routines provides a helpful structure for learning at home. In this article, you’ll find a sample schedule for a typical day and suggestions for how to integrate a learning theme into the activities.
All students learn in different ways, and ELLs are no exception. Creating opportunities for hands-on learning in the classroom can provide another way for students to grasp difficult concepts.
Alphabet matching is an early literacy activity designed to help young learners recognize the uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet — a key skill for learning to read.
Writing allows children to express their thoughts, creativity, and uniqueness. It is a fundamental way in which children learn to think critically, organize and communicate ideas, and make thinking visible and permanent. And learning to write well helps children to be better readers!
Letter writing can be fun, help children learn to compose written text, and provide handwriting practice — and letters are valuable keepsakes. This article contains activities to help children ages 5–9 put pen to paper and make someone’s day with a handwritten letter.
A work system is an organizational system that gives students with ASD information about what is expected when they come to the classroom. Find out how to implement a work system in your classroom.
Research-based reading instruction allows children opportunities to both understand the building blocks and expand their use of language, oral and written. These opportunities are illustrated by classroom activities in these twelve components of reading instruction for grades one through three.
Get the basics on how to support the literacy achievement of your English language learners. You’ll find instructional strategies based on the five components of reading as well as oral language and the role of students’ home language.
Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages
Strong home-to-school connections are one of the best ways to support your child’s academic, social, and emotional growth. Get some tips on how to build and maintain meaningful communication and involvement with your child’s school.
Writing allows children to express their thoughts, creativity, and uniqueness. It is a fundamental way in which children learn to think critically, organize and communicate ideas, and make thinking visible and permanent. And learning to write well helps children to be better readers!
The best strategy for developing reading fluency is to provide your students with many opportunities to read the same passage orally several times. To do this, you should first know what to have your students read. Second, you should know how to have your students read aloud repeatedly.
Discover how to support your child’s growth as a young reader and writer. Here you’ll find our Reading 101 for Families guide, bilingual parent tips, ideas for building your child’s knowledge about the world, Q&A with experts, guidance on how to help a child who struggles, and ways to connect with your child’s school.
