Reading Activities for Children at home or in school

About the Post:

During my professional Teaching Training course we are asked to conduct different activities of Pre-reading / reading and Pre-writing / writing to children , as I was doing this course for my children so it was the right time to implement all my learning and techniques on my child named Saadi who is 5 years old .

We have to answer "What" , "Why" and "How" about the specific activity that we are going to conduct and also mention the level or age group of child that can do this activity with ease and in the last we have to share our reflections. 

I am sharing my assignment on my blog so that other can get help too. especially ECE teachers and mothers of Prep classes.

Here is the first part which is Pre-reading and reading activities

1. Activity : Word building through phonics drills:

what	why	how	level
Use letter’s sounds to form a word	* to be able to read *can form different words *differentiate among meaningful and non meaningful words *increase vocabulary	*initiating with the one syllable word  like “bat” *keeping “at” constant and change the letter “b” with different letters to form words like cat, hat, fat, sat, mat and so on...	3-5 years

Activity material :

• any type of writable

Reflection:

• Saadi enjoyed this activity a lot
• he feel proud to be able to read different words
• these activities are being conducted in different days

possible variations:

• I make table on a paper and write different letters on a paper and ask saadi to cut letters and paste on a sheet to form words and also ask him to draw the pictures of those words
• He is fond of using scissor but first time Saadi cuts on a line, and had fun while doing so
• I write a short story about cat , with the help of all those words that Saadi can read, and alhamdulillah he read with great enthusiasm
• Story:
• This is a cat
• It is a fat cat
• The cat sat on the mat
• Cat likes to play with the rat and I like to play with my bat

2. Activity :Show the title of the book and ask children to guess the story

what	why	how	level
	*improves imagination *develops cognitive thinking *able to predict situation *help to observe keenly	*select any book *select any picture *ask to guess the story	5-6 :  only draw 7-8 :  draw ,write

Reflection:

• Saadi predict only one scene or a situation “ they (the characters of the story that was suffered by measles) all go to Doctor and doctor will inject them all”
• not very interested to guess the story , more curious to know what is inside the book.
• It was quite difficult for me to make him guess the story.

3&4: Activity 

library visits and book orientations

Have children choose a book from the library for reading:

what	why	how	level
exposure	*thinking *reasoning *understanding surroundings *aware of books *love of books *learn to select book *helpful in developing interest *inspired by model readers *know the importance of books and reading	*find out any kids library *manage to go there *make suspense to kids, “ we are going to a wonderful place” *You’ll find a lot of friends there *tell them that “Books are your FRIEND”	all ages

Reflection:

- library facility is not available in my younger kid’s school.

• that’s why I decided to take benefit from ERDC (training institute) library.
• we visited library and I showed Children’s book shelf and asked them to have a look of that corner.
• Saadi brought books on the table one by one. turned the pages and placed that back on the shelf
• finally he selected a story book “Ben can read but Zek can not” and I found it the window of opportunity .
• we started to read the book together, actually I was reading aloud and he was listening and looking at the pictures.
• that story was about a boy and and his dog, where boy can read all the signboards and notices while his dog can not.
• We all found the story really interesting
• It was the first time that my son took much interest to know what will happen next in the story
• and ask a lot of word by pointing on them, “What have been written here”
• That was a wonderful visit, and enjoyable activity too.
• we issue that book for one week and Saadi read that story book for all 7 days with his own interest.

5. Activity : sending flash cards of letters and word to children’s home

what	why	how	level
make flash cards of all the words that have been read by the child so that he can recognize those words	*sight reading *able to recognize different words *improves memorization *feels confident that “I can read” *helpful in developing interest	*i make flash cards of all those words that my child have been read in class or at home * we have made word wall on the door of our terrace  by pasting flash cards	simple words 3-5 (2 letter words to 4 letter words) complex words 6-8

Activity material:

• chart sheet / any pack of biscuits /  (cut it into rectangle shape and use its plain side)
• marker

Reflection:

- I give the folded sheet to my child to cut it into rectangles

• flash cards can also be made by any unused pack / or empty hard paper box( that are mostly used in packing)
• I told him all these cards are bricks  of your wall
• lets read cards one by one and we will build your wall
• when he reads at once I paste that card with the tape properly
• when he forgot any word or couldn't read that , I don’t use tape on one side of the rectangle and said that your wall is going to break, brick is not strong enough and we both read that word aloud 5,6 times and then I paste it properly.
• as he is able to read more words , wall is getting bigger
• That door is not attractive only for my child but all the guests children whenever visit our home  they all try to read it.
• this activity really boost my child to learn how to read with interest.
• Its fun and a meaningful learning too

6. Activity : sequence the strips and / or pictures of the story

what	why	how	level
learning sequences	*child will be able to sort *it helps him in remembering order *feels confident that “I can read” *helpful in developing interest	*make a photocopy of any book preferable a short story that child have been read before * display all the pages in random order on the floor *ask him to arrange the pictures and mark them numbers (if he can write) *retell the story	3-5

reflections:

• we were reading one story book for 3 days
• I make a photocopy of each page
• and spread all the papers on the floor
• saadi picked out all the pages one by one in a right sequence and retell the story in a correct order
• this activity make him able to comprehend well