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Archive for the ‘Reading and Writing’ Category

by Peg Baron

When the weather is nice, the kids (and Mom) are itching to get outside and play. I personally like the playing to learn approach. Did you know there’s an outdoor world of math and reading fun that awaits you, and all you need is sidewalk chalk, dice, and your imaginations? Anything we can do inside on paper can be done outside on the driveway or sidewalk, as long as we don’t care if it eventually gets “erased” by rain or sprinklers. Not only do the kids and I get to exercise our brains but we also get to exercise our bodies. I get to stretch my hamstrings and quads as I bend over to draw game boards or numbers, and the kids get to hop, skip, and jump around. Here are a few favorite sidewalk games I’d like to share. You can adapt any of them to the abilities of your children, and multiple ages can play together.

Numbered Ladder Game

Draw a long, long ladder with at least 25 rungs, each rung big enough for a kid to stand in. Number each rung starting with 1 and going to 25. You also need a dice. Rules – Grown-up throws the dice and the child hops up that many spaces on the ladder. If they land on an even number, they have to go back 1 space. Continue on until you have a winner.

Multiplication Ladder

Use the same ladder as above. Rules – The child rolls 2 dice and multiplies the 2 numbers together. He/she then totally covers in the answer square with chalk (their choice of color.) They continue until they’ve covered every square they possibly can, and then discuss why there are squares that won’t ever be covered.

Division Ladder

Again, use the same ladder as above. Rules – Hand the chalk to your child and ask them to put a yellow triangle around any numbers that can be divided by 2. Next have them put a blue circle around any numbers that can be divided by 5, a pink square around any numbers that can be divided by 10, etc.

Numbers Bingo

Draw out as many bingo boards as there are kids and put a number in each square. The kids can collect a pile of rocks or something for markers. Rules – Depending on the skill level, yell out an addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division problem for them to solve. They then cover the answer with a rock. The one who gets bingo is the winner. You can change the mathematic function with each game.

The Reading Trail

Make a trail of boxes and arrows down the sidewalk. Draw a box, then arrows directing them to the next box, about 10 feet away, and so on. At the end could be a beautiful drawing, if you’re artistically inclined, or a small prize, or a hug from you. In each box, depending on your child’s reading level, write a single word or a sentence. Rules – Your child starts at the beginning and can’t move on until he/she can read the word or sentence.

Reading Obstacle Course

Set up an obstacle course with a sentence or word chalked between each obstacle. For example; sentence, zig zag around cones, sentence, jump through the hula hoop, sentence, balance walk on a length of string, sentence, jump over the blue “river” chalked on the ground. If you want, all your obstacles can be drawn on the sidewalk instead of using real items. Rules – Read the sentence and go through the obstacle!

Color Me

Are you currently working on body parts, the circulatory system, or the heart? Let the kids chalk it out while narrating what they know. Themes like communities, animal lifecycles, wildlife, nature, your family tree, etc. are fun to draw out. Younger kids can work on color recognition.

The Alphabet Board

Make a giant game board with 25 squares. Put a letter of the alphabet on each square in random order, excluding the letter “x”. Rules – Each kid has to start at the beginning and take each square one at a time. They have to come up with 5 words that start with that letter/sound before they can move on. To make it harder for the older ones, ask them to also come up with a word or two that end with that letter.

As you can see, it’s fun to learn with a stick of sidewalk chalk in your hand. I hope these games get you outside and get your imagination working as you tweak them to fit your needs. Have a great time and may the rain stay far away from your creations!

Peggy Baron plays with her kids in Colorado, and runs http://cookinkids.com, a website devoted to helping parents and kids have fun together in the kitchen. Peggy is the editor of the popular Cookin’ Kids Newsletter, a bi-monthly newsletter with fun facts, recipes, jokes, games, cooking safety, and cooking terms wrapped around different themes.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peg_Baron

by Jeanette McLeod

Parents can often worry about whether their pre-school child is developing ‘at the right level’ for their age. One of the key areas that concerns parents is their child’s preparedness to read. This article highlights many of the commonly exhibited behaviours of pre-school children who are showing age appropriate signs of learning to read. It is important to remember that every child is different and not to push a child beyond what they are developmentally ready for. This list is not exhaustive and is open to challenge however is based on common findings from many years of research studies. It can be a useful benchmark of age appropriate development.

Ages 0-3

A child that has been exposed to books and reading will show an understanding that books are handled in a certain way, such as starting at the left and turning pages over from right to left. You may notice your child will look to the right hand page when they are expecting a page to be turned, or will turn the pages themselves.

A child will recognize specific books by their cover, perhaps making the sounds of characters or stating their name. A child will often demand/request that favourite books are read again and again. When books are part of a routine in the child’s life they will often go and get a book to be read at the same time of day e.g. bedtime. A child will also start to comment on characters in books for example ‘pretty’, ‘funny’, or ‘naughty’.

At this age it is common for children to pretend to read books. They may sit and turn the pages themselves and even vocalise words/sounds that they remember being associated with a particular page or image. This can be most readily seen in picture books that have labels to images e.g. a picture of a cow may elicit a ‘moo-ing’ sound or stating the word ‘cow’. Your child is beginning to make the association between objects in the real world and those images on the page.

Letter recognition can start at this age for example noticing that a characters name starts with the same letter as their own. In their own scribbling you may notice it becomes more purposeful, occasionally distinguishing between drawing and writing or they may produce some letter-like forms.

Ages 3 to 4

At this age it is usual that children will have an awareness of individual alphabet letters that can be individually named. Alphabet books, especially those with pictures of objects starting with that letter can help to develop this. It is common that a child can identify 10 alphabet letters, especially those from their own name.

A child of this age will start to demonstrate that they know that it is the print/words that are read in stories. This can be developed by following along with your finger when reading stories aloud.

A child at this age will pays attention to separate and repeating sounds in language (e.g. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty …).

Children at this age will also understand and follow oral directions, ‘go and fetch your coat’, ‘let’s put your toys away’.

Your child will show an interest in books and reading and request that you read to them. When being read a story, a child of this age connects information and events to life experiences e.g. ‘we went on a train’, ‘like my teddy’.

Often children will start to ask questions or make comments showing their understanding of the meaning of the story being told, e.g. ‘where has teddy gone?’, ‘Is Little Red Riding Hood scared?’.

At this age a child will often start to “write” (scribble) messages as part of playful activity for example putting an address on an envelop when playing ’shops’.

These are common developmental stages in young children on the journey towards reading. By exposing your child to books and stories you are helping them to develop the early pre-requisites to literacy.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeanette_McLeod