Mrs. Holloway's 3rd Grade Class

Literacy Night at Pontchartrain Elementary School

Tips for Parents: Oral Language Development: Early Literacy

Why is oral language development so important?

Oral language development is the first step in children’s literacy development. Before they learn to speak, they need to listen to you talk to learn the rhythm of the language. It is through listening and using language that children learn. They later move on to understand print.

What can I do to help my children’s oral language development?

Talk to your children regularly to let them hear the rhythm of the language.

Encourage your children to join in:

 ●Rhymes.       

 ●Songs.        

 ●Finger plays.       

 ●Storytelling.         

 ●Nursery Rhymes.

Tell your children stories or ask your children to tell you stories. Reading and writing builds on children’s ability to tell stories orally.

Tips for Parents: Your Important Role

What is your role as a parent in your children’s learning?

As a parent, you have a major role in helping your children learn. You are your children’s “first” and most important teacher. Creating a safe and loving family environment lays the foundation for life-long learning and emotional well-being. Talking with your children and communicating feelings is one of the most important things you can do with them.

When you communicate with your children, they learn:

·      How to use language.

·      How to communicate.

·      How to have a conversation with others.

Communicating can happen any time and any place . . .

·      In the truck or car.

·      Outside in the yard.

·      While doing chores.

·      At mealtimes and bedtime.

·      Any time and any place!

By talking with and listening to your child, you are creating a foundation for good communication habits that will help make them more confident and more successful at school.

Tips for Parents: Reading

What can I do to help my children learn to read?

·      Let them see you reading.

·      Share books together.

·      Point out the print that is all around you. Look at street signs,     grocery store labels, posters.

·      Make scrapbooks from photos or old magazines.

·      Cook together.

Steps for reading with your children

·      Choose a book from the library or from your home. It’s even better if you let your child choose the book.

·      Take turns reading aloud, or tell the story by looking at the pictures.

·      Talk about what’s happening in the story.

·      Help your child with difficult words.

·      Praise your child.

Tips for Parents: Writing

What can I do to help my children learn to write?

Let your children watch when you:

·      Fill out forms or pay bills.

·      Write birthday cards.                                     

·      Write letters and notes.

·      Write shopping lists.

Let your children help when you are writing by:

·      Putting a scribble or tracing around their hand on a greeting card.

·      Helping with a shopping list.

·      Drawing a picture that goes with what you are writing.

What materials will I need to encourage writing at home?

Make sure you always have writing materials available:

·      Lots of paper.

·      Pens, pencils, crayons, and markers.

·      Scissors and glue.

·      Old envelopes or greeting cards for kids to copy.

·      Little blank books for children to make their stories.

·      A variety of pictures to help with ideas.

·      A box to keep all the materials in.

Tips for Parents: Games

Games are a great way to spend time with your children and a great way to help them learn. They can be used to teach all different kinds of skills.

Why are games an important way to learn?

·      Games make learning fun!

·      Board games, card games, and educational computer games help children learn to match pictures and words. This is an important reading skill.

·      Games teach visual skills. They can help your child recognize symbols, signs, letters, understand maps,

·      Even simple games, such as Chutes and Ladders, can help children with numbers.

·      Games, such as Scrabble, encourage your children to read.

·      Games help teach your children important social skills.

·      Games are easy to make. You can design some especially for your children. (Matching

games and “memory” games are great for learning vocabulary words, as well as synonyms, antonyms, homophones, contractions, etc.)

·      You can make and play games in any language.

Tips for Parents: Literacy Activities to Do at Home

·      Read to your children before bedtime every night.

·      Bake your favorite recipe.

·      Cook meals together.

·      Tell stories to your children about when you were growing up.

·      Tell stories to your children about when they were born.

·      Tell traditional stories about your culture.

·      Play cards together.

·      Talk to your children about their day.

·      Play board games together (Scrabble, Monopoly, Pictionary, etc.).

·      Look at family photos together and talk about them.

·      Make up stories together about family photos.

·      Take lots of pictures and make photo albums or scrapbooks.

Tips for Parents: What do children learn when we read to them?

·      New words.

·      Enjoyment of a story.

·      Focus, concentration.

·      How to use their imaginations.

·      How to predict.

·      The connections between words and pictures.

·      The relationship between words and sounds.

·      How to read from left to right.

·      How to follow a story from beginning to end.

·      Listening skills.

·      Communication skills.

·      Knowledge or information in the story.

·      Sharing and enjoyment of a special activity.

Family Story Bags

Family story bags are fun! Here’s how to make one:

·      Gather some objects that have special meaning for you and your child. This may include photos, toys, a favorite book, a souvenir, a piece of clothing. You want enough objects to be able to tell stories using the things in your bag. Children can draw pictures.

·      You can make a bag out of sturdy cloth or you can use a tote bag, gift bag, a box, or a basket.

·      Use the things in the bag to tell stories about your family.

Here are some things you can include in a family story bag:

·      Photos of different family members: parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, and so on.

·      Photos of different places – especially places where you do things as a family: home, camp, secret fishing spot, etc.

·      Things with special meaning for your family:

♦ Some of your child’s “firsts” - first tooth, first pair of shoes, first book read, a card with the first word said.

♦ Pictures of some things you like to do together as a family.

♦ A recipe for a favorite family meal.

♦A copy of a book you like to read together, or an audiotape of

   the family reading the book together.

♦A favorite toy or souvenir.

♦A tape you’ve made yourselves of a favorite family song.

·      ANYTHING that lets you tell stories.

***Copied and adapted from the NWT Literacy Council website. ***

Games

    Games are a great way to provide opportunities for review, reinforcement, and enrichment and an easy, fun way to encourage a child to learn at home. The immediate feedback provided by a learning game enables children to determine what they need to do in order to succeed, which results in acquisition of the information presented in the game, and then application of that knowledge. Parents can use an existing family favorite game and adapt it to meet specific academic needs to help children learn content, skills, vocabulary - just about anything.

    Two of my favorite learning games are “matching” and “memory” games because they are so easy to prepare, the children enjoy playing them, and they are effective. They are easily adaptable to acquiring an endless variety of skills and information, such as:

●Contractions

●Homophones

●Synonyms

●Antonyms

●Cause and Effect

●Prefixes

●Suffixes

●Vocabulary words and definitions

●Verb usage

●Alphabetical order

●Sequencing

    Please use the following word lists to create a “matching” or “memory” game. (You will need 12 pairs of cards for your game.) Index cards are an excellent, simple, inexpensive choice for making these games. These are some of the many possible categories and words to use for making matching or “memory” games. Matching games are also great for making self-checking vocabulary cards and for learning math facts.

Homophones

ant, aunt

ate, eight

beat, beet

been, bin

blue, blew

dear, deer

fair, fare

flea, flee

flour, flower

hair, hare

hall, haul

hear, here

hi, high

hole, whole

hour, our

I, eye

knight, night

knot, not

know, no

loan, lone

made, maid

pail, pale

pain, pane

pair, pear

plane, plain

read, red

right, write

road, rode

sale, sail

sea, see

son, sun

tail, tale

their, there

way, weigh

weak, week

wood, would

Synonyms

above, over

raise, lift

large, big

street, road

small, little

shut, close

near, close

happy, glad

ill, sick

under, below

shout, yell

fast, quick

speak, talk

sack, bag

alike, same

present, gift

listen, hear

father, dad

mother, mom

leap, jump

jog, run

pull, tug

tired, sleepy

bunny, rabbit

house, home

sad, unhappy

odd, strange

harm, hurt

stop, halt

smile, grin

pick, choose

center, middle

hard, difficult

shop, store

couch, sofa

hat, cap

Antonyms

before, after

end, begin

open, close

soft, hard

full, empty

true, false

first, last

frown, smile

cold, hot

low, high

more, less

few, many

dark, light

front, back

spend, save

float, sink

big, little

large, small

lost, found

clean, dirty

early, late

right, wrong

walk, run

fast, slow

over, under

easy, hard

thick, thin

narrow, wide

off, on

up, down

in, out

dawn, dusk

start, stop

stop, go

left, right

rough, smooth

Contractions

I'll, I will
I'm, I am
I've, I have
aren't, are not
can't, can not

couldn’t, could not
didn't, did not
doesn't, does not
don't, do not
hadn't, had not
haven't, have not
he'll, he will
he's, he is
isn't, is not
it's, it is
let's, let us
she'll, she will
she's, she is

shouldn’t, should not
that's, that is
there's, there is
they'll, they will
they're, they are
they've, they have
wasn't, was not
we'll, we will
we're, we are
we've, we have
weren't, were not
what's, what is
who's, who is
won't, will not
wouldn't, would not
you'll, you will
you're, you are
you've, you have

http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/index.html

This is a puzzle and games generation site where you can create and print customized word search and crossword puzzles using your child’s word lists - and much more!*

       Complete Dolch Word List