Reading is a multifaceted process involving word recognition, comprehension, fluency, and motivation.

• Step one is identifying the words in print – a process called word recognition
• Step two is constructing an understanding from them – a process called comprehension
• Step three is the coordination of identifying words and making meaning so that reading is automatic and accurate – an achievement called fluency

How do I know what level my child should be at?

New York State has very clear standards for each elementary grade level.  They can be a huge help to parents who want to prepare their children prior to entering school, work with their child during the school year, and/or help struggling readers.  Below are links to these standards:

http://www.thinkfinityny.org/NYSS_ELA_kindergarten.htm

From this site you can view the kindergarten standards and you'll find links to other grade levels.

http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/ela/pub/read.pdf

Kind of wordy, but scroll through and you'll find expectations for elementary grade levels.

Where do we start?

Most people think children learn how to read through their eyes. But reading is actually learned through the ears. We lay a foundation for success in reading by talking to a child, reading books to them, and playing auditory games such as rhyming. 

These efforts build a knowledge of how spoken language works, called "phonemic awareness".  

http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/Foundation/nurseryrhymes/default.htm   Sing-a-long, read-a-long and sequence rhymes.  Has a bit of an English accent, but fun!

http://www.littlekidsgamesonline.com/nursery-rhyme-party.html   Great ideas for parties and games that encourage playful rhyming and use of the spoken language. 

http://www.shirleys-preschool-activities.com/rhymes.html  Great access to more great rhyme ideas.

http://www.first-school.ws/theme/cp_nursery_rhymes.htm  Rhymes and coloring pages.

http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/mother_goose.htm  Lots of links to Mother Goose and more.

http://www.webcrawler.com/webcrawler300/ws/results/Web/preschool+nursery+rhymes/1/417/TopNavigation/Relevance/iq=true/zoom=off/_iceUrlFlag=7?_IceUrl=true    A very complete list of available sites.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pfa/dreamhouse/nursery/rhymes.html   More Mother Goose!

http://www.mothergoose.com/index.htm  Fun, interactive Mother Goose activities!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/menu.shtml  A variety of activities, including rhyming!

http://pbskids.org/sesame/elmosworld/index.html  Cute rhyming game starring Elmo!

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/month2month.htm   This site has interactive games and activities especially geared towards preparing kindergarteners to read!  Awesome!

http://www2.cambridge.org/interchangearcade/launch.do? activityID=503&sortbytype=a&level=0&unit=1&type=Cup_word_up    Interesting listening activity that helps children differentiate sounds.

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=sound1f  Fun sight where children match sounds and pictures.  Great listening activity!

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bll/reggie/home/index.htm  Cute site where children match the rhyming words.

http://tv.disney.go.com/playhouse/shanna/game/rhymetime.html  A little difficult, but great sound and visuals for rhyming!

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bll/reggie/index.htm  Good sight for beginning rhyming!

http://www.exploratorium.edu/listen/online_try.php   Great site for listening activities...some are hard and may need parental assistance!

http://www.professorgarfield.org/Phonemics/introCharacters.html Perfect site to teach rhyming!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTvnxluSwmc  This has a couple of great Sesame Street videos on rhyming!

What Next?

Alphabet recognition!!! 

 Most children enter school being able to say their "ABC's", however being able to say the names of the letters is not the same as "knowing" the letters.  In order to learn to read, children must be able to rapidly identify the printed form of letters in and out of sequence and learn the most frequent sound that is attached to each letter. 

They also need to understand that words have parts, ie: syllables and that those parts are made up of individual letters which each have their own sounds

Again, the key to helping children master this aspect of reading development is practice. 

The following are sites that provide interactive activities, printables and ideas that can be used at home:

http://www.juliasrainbowcorner.com/html/a2z.html  Terrific site with letters, letter names and cute animation!

http://www.readinglesson.com/abc.htm  Great interactive site that combines letter name and the sound it makes.

http://www.picadome.fcps.net/Lab/currl/abc/online.htm  Lots of links to alphabet

http://www.picadome.fcps.net/lab/currl/Kindergarten/la.htm#Beginning%20Phonics   More links!

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/coloring-pages/interactive-alphabet/index.html  Printable alphabet coloring pages

http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_en.htm   Basic letter identification

http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/web/alphabet.html  A long list of links related to alphabet activities.

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_1st.htm     Scroll down on this page and you'll find great activities related to letters and sounds.

http://www.starfall.com/    A fantastic, interactive website that we also use at school!http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/alphabet/sounds3.html A great interactive place to practice letter sounds.

http://www.daycareresource.com/freegames.html    Great links to free online games.

http://www.boowakwala.com/alphabet/online-alphabet-game.html   Cute, online alphabet game (uses the english Z = Zed)

http://funschool.kaboose.com/preschool/learn-abcs/index.html   More fun alphabet games!

http://www.riley.d21.k12.il.us/online_classrooms/classrooms_k.html   Many fun activities related to ABC's and more!

http://www.kinderplanet.com/alphlett.htm  Good game that matches upper case letters to lower case letters.

http://www.scholastic.com/clifford/play/roundup/index.htm  Matching letter game with good audio!

http://www.abcya.com/kindergarten_computers.htm  Many games, including matching upper and lower case letters.

http://www.saintambrosebarlow.wigan.sch.uk/activities1.htm  Good sight for letter sounds.

http://www.ictgames.com/sky_writing.html   Very cool sight where children can practice tracing the letters.

http://www.ictgames.com/phonemePopLS_v2.html  Great games (a variety of levels) to practice letter sounds!

http://atv.disney.go.com/playhouse/jojoscircus/games/lettersounddash.html    Great sight to match letter sounds with words!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/spelling/soundandspell/syllables/game.shtml   Fun game to practice syllables.

http://www.sesamestreet.org/game_player?p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_id=gamePlayer_WAR_sesameportlets4369&p_p_uid=bf02fb88-163e-11dd-98c7-b9f43dcf5330   Fun game where children match letters to initial sounds in words.

http://www.primarygames.com/theabcgame/question_3.htm  Match pictures and initial letters!

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bll/leo/home/index.htm   Excellent game where children match initial letters in words to sounds!

http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/flash/concentration/index.htm   Fun game where children match the middle sounds in words.

http://www.quia.com/pages/havemorefun.html    Matching, concentration and hangman games using initial, medial and end sounds.  Also has rhyming.

http://www.yourchildlearns.com/letters/lettersounds.htm  Free game to match initial letter sounds.

http://www.yourchildlearns.com/lettersounds.htm    More games from the same company as above....these include initial blends and short and long vowel sounds.

http://www.professorgarfield.org/Phonemics/greenhouse/greenhouse.html   Very cute game where children work on changing the initial sounds to make new words.

http://www.professorgarfield.org/Phonemics/pumpkin_patch/pumpkin_patch.html   This games teaches children how to take away the initial consonant.  Good for children only hearing the first sound in words.

http://www.professorgarfield.org/Phonemics/pig_waller/pig_waller.html   Neat game that has children match individual sounds in words to words said as a whole. 

http://www.newton.k12.ks.us/tech/first_grade_internet2.htm   A variety of online game links.

http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Tower/1217/reading.html  Extensive list of links to interactive activites on a variety of levels.

http://www.scholastic.com/clifford/play/roundup/index.htm   Excellent site to help children learn letters and sounds.

http://www.getreadytoread.org/content/view/101/317/    Letter sounds, rhyming and more!

http://www.boardman.k12.oh.us/bdms/golubic/onlineliteracy.htm  Very cool new site I found with links to a variety of levels of activities!

http://funschool.kaboose.com/preschool/learn-abcs/games/game_teach_me_abcs.html   Has a couple of very good ABC games.

http://www.kids-fun-and-games.com/online-toddler-games.html  Don't be fooled by the "toddler", this has excellent links!

Now what?

Once children have learned the sounds the letters most commonly make, they need to learn how letters work together:  blends, digraphs (2 letters that appear togther but make one sound), clusters (2 letters that appear together but keep their own sound) and they need to learn special rules (like the silent "E"). 

These phonics based skills are taught in conjunction with sight word lists that you will get weekly from your classroom teacher!

Here are some sites that you may wish to use to help your child with some of the phonetic combinations:

http://www.lancaster.k12.oh.us/nslinks/online_interactive_language_arts.htm  Some good phonics based links.

http://www.beenleigss.eq.edu.au/requested_sites/sounds/index.html#ALPHABET  Great site with some fun, interactive phonics activities.

http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Dell/4678/indexpublish.html  More links to interactive activities.

http://www.softschools.com/language_arts/phonics/   Excellent interactive activities for all levels of phonics...including digraphs, diphthongs and more!

http://www.sadlier-oxford.com/phonics/grade2_3/name_pict/name_pic1.htm  Practice short vowel words

http://www.storyit.com/wgames/wgames.htm  Fun games where kids make their own words...A little more difficult!

http://pbskids.org/lions/games/ears.html  Identify missing beginning, middle and ending letters.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/clusters/blender/game.shtml  Great site to help children identify beginning and ending sounds in words and show them how they blend!

http://www.firstschoolyears.com/literacy/word/word.htm  Excellent site for phonics...including some more advanced concepts.

Sight Words

There are so many words in the English language that don't follow the rules...these are known as "sight words" or "Dolch words.".  You can access a list of these  by clicking on the "Classroom News" icon on my home page.  The following are some interactive sites you can also go to:

http://www.mrcpl.org/literacy/lessons/sight/index.html  Good games on this site!

http://www.gamequarium.com/readquarium/sightgames.html  Several good games.

http://www.quiz-tree.com/Sight-Words_main.html  I couldn't download this at school, but it looks like  a great free sight if you can access it.

http://www.brentwood.k12.ca.us/brentwood/Links/DolchProject/index.html   Cute sight created for kids, by kids!

http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/sightword/dolchgames.htm  Excellent sight, links to lots of games!

Practice Reading

Here are some sites that have sentences and books for children to practice reading on line!

http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/games/monkey/monkey.html    Fun sight to correctly sequence sentences.

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-b/me/load.htm?f  Cute books where children put in information about themselves.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/flash/story_2.htm  Interactive "Clifford" story.

http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic93.htm#1  Extensive list of books online!

http://www.quiz-tree.com/Sight-Words_main.html   Good lists of sight words to practice with at home!

http://www.pitara.com/games/wordmatch/  Match words to pictures.

Grammar

Here are some sites that will help with the grammar skills our kindergarten and first graders learn!

http://www.funbrain.com/grammar/   Interactive games on 2 levels. - children will need help reading!

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/basketball/index.html    Cute game to help with nouns and proper nouns.  Children will need it read to them!

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/adventure/grammar1.htm  Great, kid friendly,sight for grammar!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize/literacy/index.shtml  A variety of grammar games.

EG Reading Program

http://macmillanmh.com/reading/2005/student/  This site gives you online access to our McGraw-Hill reading program.

Watch for more information on the next steps related to Reading as the year progresses!