Teaching Children To Read – Need your suggestions…

Hi L.A,

I know what you mean..creating printables are like ocean..so many things to teach in so many ways!

For the reading skills, when you introduce it to children it’s a good idea to make easy sentences that the child can read first. At the start make the sentences easy using 3 to 4 words only. Then you can add more words for a double sentence. Also it’s always nice to include a picture. Adding a picture makes it more easier for children to understand and also recognize words in the sentence. When writing the sentences use different words. Instead of “the cat sat on the mat” you can say something like “the dog ran away”. This way the child needs to sound out the word instead of guessing cuz of recognizing the same phonic sounds in each word.

Hi again L.A, When I did a 'Support-A-Reader' program a my daughter's school and was teaching Grade 1 and 2 students to read I learned that in eary reading it is necessary, and not cheating, to encourage the child distiguish between a word and a picture because that is the first way they learn the connection between a word/s and what is happening in a picture. It is important to have a recall discussion with the child immediately after reading the story so you know that they are understanding the story and not just reading words from sight and memory. That's as far as I have in my experience, however I found this link which might help and interest you. http://www.reading-skills-pyramid.org/ My passion is in teaching children to read also. Sandi

In Montessori we have sandpaper letters (which can be made yourself)
http://www.infomontessori.com/language/written-language-sandpaper-letters.htm

The phonetic object box is also easily implemented into any classroom, Montessori or not and a hit with the kids
http://www.infomontessori.com/language/reading-phonetic-object-box.htm

These aren't printable as such though the phonetic object box can be changed to have pictures instead of objects

Sorry that my ideas are very Montessori based but I cannot see why they cannot work in a non Montessori setting, they are pretty easy to understand and set up

Hey Everyone!

Thanks for sharing your ideas with me... I have taken the information you guys have provided me and came up with a few reading categories which will focus on specific reading skills for each catergory. Now, I still don't know if I need to add or change anything but it's what I've come up with so far:

1) Sight Words - Worksheets will include reading simple sentences using sight words. Using pictures with sentences, flashcards etc.

2) Reading Classification - This is from the Montessori link Fefe provided. I like this idea but I don't know how exactly I am going to incorporate it in a worsheet format... It's to do with using labels and pictures to classify objects to a specific group. I was thinking of maybe using it to form a short story.

3) Nursery Rhymes - written nursery ryhmes for children to read with pictures. So, children are able to read something they may already know. I thought it will be a good introduction to reading.

4) Stories - Simple and complex stories with pictures for children to read. For example: My family - "I live with my mum, I live with my dad, I live with my brother" etc.

5) Comprehension - Short stories with questions and answers that the child will need to answer.

6) Punctuation - worksheets that focuses on grammatical punctuation (capital leeters, full stops, commas, exclamation marks, etc.

I'm still a little confused on whether to add comprehension and punctuation along with reading skills or add it to english worksheets. I know with english worksheets I need to focus on adjectives, verb, nouns, etc, but doesn't a child learn comprehension and punctuation while reading? What do you think?

I have a lot of work ahead of me and thank you for your support.

I just thought I'd share what ive been working on so far... Please let me know any suggesstions or feedback you may have!

It's great to collaborate with all of you!

Cheers ,
L.A

Hi L.A,

nice! I like the structure you have come up with and having the rhymes worksheets here will be quite helpful. Kids can easily start learning to read these rhymes since they may have already heard the rhymes when they were younger. Kool!

I'm still a little confused on whether to add comprehension and punctuation along with reading skills or add it to english worksheets.

I can understand why you are confused. I reckon its a grey line and you can put it under either section. But looking at the "Printables" structure in this site, I think its better if you put the Comprehensions and Punctuations under "Reading Skills" and like you said you have heaps more to do under "English Worksheets" like grammer, sentences, etc..etc..This is my opinion.

Over the last weekend, I was also trying to gather some materials you can use for these reading skills worksheets. I happened to discover that for sight words, there are some lists of
sight words that cannot be used since they are heavily copyrighted by some companies. For example: Oxford sight words list. Anyhow, out of the ones I have searched, I think the "Dolch word lists" are not copyrighted. This is what I think... I know this is something you look at while creating the worksheets. I will email you some materials I have gathered so far for this project.

I would guess that montessori materials may be copyrighted as well! I wonder - if they copyright their teaching methods, are we still not allowed to create worksheets based on their methods even though we design the worksheets ourselves? Not sure on this..I will keep looking. Fefe -> would you have any idea about this at all?

alright...I gotta go now..I took a long coffee break at work!

All i know is many of the montessori ideas are copied into things you can make and do at home using the montessori method. there are websites where u can buy and download and print off resources to use

I have never come across anything that has a copyright issue with Montessori word lists etc, you can very easily find them and make your own should you wish to

First of all – Thanks a lot guys you’ve given me a few materials to work with.

Catchmeifucan: I like your idea about the sentences. I will try and incorporate each sentence with a picture and use different words like you suggested. Also, got your materials for sight words and collection of traditional nursey rhymes.. I very much appreciate your input and effort.

Sandi :With your suggestion I was thinking of making up some questions at the end of the story based on the story. This way the child can learn to understand the story as well (like you said). The link was a great help too!

Fefe: I am trying to incorporate Montessori methods into the reading printables. I have had a look at the links and they really helped to get me started. So, thanks again!

Cheers ,
L.A

I've come in late to this but I will still put my 2c in. The picture cues are a big one - getting that relationship between the word and picture is a big concept. Rebus stories (where you substitute a picture for a word) would also be useful.

In my group of 3-5 year olds I probably wouldn't go down the path of worksheets at all. In the time I have been in this job so far I have read LOTS of stories and we've concentrated on enjoying the books. The book supply where I am is not good so I've been bringing in books that belong to my own boys. We look at the endpapers and the clues they might give about the book. We look at the front cover and sometimes I'll read them the blurb on the back. Another thing I do is to go through the book first just showing them the pictures and then go through it a second time reading the words. All these strategies encourage the children to make predictions which are then confirmed (or not) by our reading of the book. That "predicting" is a good thing to get them started on early because it is used in reading throughout our lives. If you were looking for a recipe for a cake and you saw a picture of a cake with 6 layers and decorated with shards of toffee you could predict that it would be a difficult cake to make. That's a simple example but we do a lot more complex predicting in our reading all the time.

The other thing that I've found with little kids is that I can read the same story over and over and over again and if it is a good quality one they never get tired of it. I've read "Scarface Claw" by Lynley Dodd at least 3-4 times a week for the past 7 weeks and they still ask for it almost every day. Thy just love the fact that they can say almost all of the text with me. They are not reading but they are making an important connection between the spoken and printed word. One of our favourite lines is, "Is he scared of the dark?

Not a jittery jot!"

The other day when I was reading it, a girl who particularly loves that part had gone to the toilet and the others made me wait until she got back so she didn't miss it!

We've also had the very important discussion about how "everyone" can read "something". There were a few that needed convincing until I drew a McDonalds logo and showed it to them. It may be reading in its simplest form but even recognizing and correctly naming a log is reading.

Hi, have you tried any children reading program? There are some good ones. One of them is Children Learning Reding it is basically based on phonics techniques. You should check it and see if it could help.

Aby_J wrote: #45975 Hi, have you tried any children reading program? There are some good ones. One of them is Children Learning Reding it is basically based on phonics techniques. You should check it and see if it could help.

Sorry, forgot to mention, Jim Yang is the creator of Children Learning Reading.

I used to print similar worksheets, I bought storybooks, the kids live it. But the main motivation for my older son to learn to read was that I didn't have much free time, and he wanted to read books.

There are some steps that an adult should follow if they want to teach their children to read methodically.

First of all, one needs to teach the sounds of individual letters

Followed by lesion regarding sound blends.

Then slowly the child will start to read the whole word.

After that, they need to get help for understanding the meanings.

Next, have to teach word parts.

Now put the words in context.

Finally, teach reading comprehension.

Now, this procedure has to follow continuously in a routine. As every child is different so they will learn slowly and gradually at their own pace.

Thanks

Nandita