Great Find! Collection of Easy Reader Printable Books from Growing Book by Book

God bless Jodie from Growing Book by Book! She is always putting up quality information and her Facebook shares are great, too. But this time she must've really read my mind. My favorite thing is to find free printable books for beginning readers on all of the fantastic teaching blogs. Mostly because it is a) very hard to find books that are easy enough for beginning readers and b) way easier and cuter than me making them by myself. Plus, I have found that my early readers really respond well to thematic books connected to the seasons and holidays. She has saved you and me time and made a beautiful list all in one place. I love it! Be sure to check it out here if you have a young reader in your house. Thanks Jodie!

Great Article: Three easy ways to get your kids to read better and enjoy it

Love this article by Ryan Spencer that I saw go by on my Facebook feed recently. I love it because it's a concise way of telling parents how to help their kids right now. I also love that he used the term "instant word factory." Do you ever find yourself doing that? Spitting out each word that your child has trouble with? I've definitely had my moments. Sometimes it becomes necessary, when I notice that a child is in a book that's way harder than either of us anticipated. Most of the time, though, I notice the power in staying quiet and seeing what happens. Sometimes it's harder, but it really is the best thing.

Post Discovery: Great Struggling Reader Tips

A fabulously written post about helping your reader! Find it here on IThinkWeCouldBeFriends.com. I love the author's suggestions, especially having kids read to younger relatives or friends. It's great to have a baby around and have them read board books with simple words and pictures. They get the words solid in their learning memory while having a fun interaction with someone little. Great confidence builder! I know some libraries have programs where you can go read to dogs now, too!

What can you do before or instead of sounding it out?!?

Another great post from Anna over at The Measured Mom that you simply must check out if you've got a little person beginning to read or going in that direction. So often, as parents, all we remember as children was being told to "sound it out," so we tend to rely on that as our sole teaching strategy when helping our kids read. Anna does a great job in this post helping you understand all of the knowledge that has to come before they're ready to sound something out. Also, it's really important to use many reading strategies when a child gets stuck on a word. I need to do a longer post on this but, here's an example of a picture from Literacy Links that you can print out and use to encourage your child to try different things if they're stuck on a word. There are also lots of sheets like this available on Teachers Pay Teachers like this one for free or for a small cost.

Great Alphabet Resources!

You just can't miss some of the great resources from one of my favorite sites, The Measured Mom. This is your go-to source for anything you need letter by letter.

Great Idea for Books During the Holidays from Delightful Children's Books

I just read this great idea from the Delightful Children's Books blog about creating a book Advent Calendar this year. Love it! I hope you check it out. I had a friend who told me about something similar long ago where she would gift wrap all of the Christmas books and allow her boys to open one per night. But I like the idea of numbering them like an Advent calendar, too! I find myself looking for fun used holiday books all year round to add to our collection. It's great to get them from the library but it's extra fun to cultivate a collection of your own oldies but goodies. You could practically only collect Jan Brett books and you would be set. She has fabulous winter and Christmas themed books like The Hat, The Mitten, and Christmas Trolls.  My first graders always used to love to look for Hedgie the hedgehog in each of her books. She also has an outstanding author website at janbrett.com. Lots of coloring pages and info about her newest books. I hope that you are starting to collect at least a small amount of books to pull out for each major holiday. I keep mine in a file cabinet drawer and we pull out the new ones at the beginning of that holiday's month. That way, it keeps everything fresh and new while you provide another reason to learn new vocabulary and get excited about books. Happy Reading! 

The Measured Mom's Tips and Tricks for Teaching Emergent Readers + Great Battle Bunny Book Talk!!

To go along with the last post I did about finding those "easy" books for our earliest readers, I am thrilled to share an excellent explantation of emergent readers by The Measured Mom. She did a guest post about this on another great site, Teach Mama. Please go visit the post here and print out your free books! 

I think it's hardest for parents to understand the beginning reading process because when we think of reading, we picture a kid reading The Cat in the Hat or another kid's book. It's hard sometimes to see the value or interest kids will have in those teeny little boring books. Yes, I've had many a parent tell me those little books are boooorrrriiiiinnnnggggg. All I can tell you is that I have never thought those books were boring because I look at them as little treasure chests holding such great possibility for our little readers. Your attitude does play a huge part in your book choices and your child's attitude about books, so try to give the little easy books a chance. I must admit, they are getting better as educators realize that high interest subject matter is super helpful in engaging young children (especially boys!!). I also can honestly tell you that I have never had a child complain to me that those little books are boring. They get excited to actually be able to read a book and they don't seem to compare them to the bigger "real" books like adults do. So don't be afraid to show a little love to the emergent readers!

This also brings me to a new book I heard about over the weekend called Battle Bunny. 

The people on the radio station giving the review could not stop talking about how much they loved this book. It sounds hilarious and like a great idea to share with kids. What happens is that a child gets the somewhat lame book Birthday Bunny for his birthday and then he changes it all around to become Battle Bunny. It may be because I have a six-year-old boy who would completely love this book, but I can't wait to get it! Of course, the teacher and children's librarian in me cringes a teeny bit at encouraging children to color all over books, but in the right context it can be a great encouragement for imagination and writing. So, if you do end up wanting to change around some of those little books, you can always create your own versions! What is so genius about the author of Battle Bunny is that he actually has the whole Birthday Bunny book at mybirthdaybunny.com so you and your child can make your own version! So great!  For those of you who live close to me, I just ordered three copies. So the first two people to email me and tell me you read this post, I will give your child a copy for free!

New Way to Practice Sight Words from Frog Spot

I just discovered this fun blog from a teacher in Australia. She has a bunch of resources available on Teachers Pay Teachers as well as some freebies on her own website. Her Flip Flap Puzzle Paste worksheets are super appealing to kids (and to me!). Plus they're a great way for them to start to recognize words they need to know. She has super cute word family houses she's created and she even has them for numbers, too. If you visit her website, you can get the sight word sheet pictured below for free!

Great Handwriting Suggestions from Urth Mama

I just came across the Urth Mama blog's great post on handwriting apps. The only one I've tried is Wet-Dry-Try from Handwriting Without Tears, but they all look really good. Click here to check out her great reviews!

The other great find from her post is this stylus made for kids using the iPad! It's listed on Amazon here. I've been really wanting something like this so my son can practice his correct pencil grip while practicing handwriting.

Free Printable Books for Fall!

Happy Fall, dear blog readers!

No doubt school and children are keeping you as busy as they are keeping me. Here's a fun site I wandered around this week called Mrs.Wills Kindergarten. She is offering up some fun things for the fall season in including a free printable book that would be perfect for your very beginning readers. Check out her site here to enjoy the free printable!

Another site that I have loved this week is ReadingA-Z.com. It has lots of interesting sister sites and great info for teachers, but is very applicable to parents as well. They have some free downloads on the site itself, but you can have access to everything for a week for free if you sign up for their free trial. It is well worth it because you can print out a bunch of high interest books for your readers. I found a great Space book and another about sharks that my early reader will love. They even have printable worksheets for working with comprehension, word work(phonics), and vocabulary. If you're not sure what Guided Reading Level your child is reading at, you could take the assessment with them over at Pioneer Valley Books or start with Level A because that is the easiest and go from there. Remember, for a book to be "just right" for your child, they should know around 95% of the words. If you're struggling through the whole thing, it is TOO HARD.

Reading Ideas for Toddlers in Constant Motion

Thankfully, my son is now out of the phase where I couldn't even take a picture of him being still. There was always movement when he was a toddler. I've had many parents ask me how they are supposed to sit and read with their toddlers for any length of time. Here are my suggestions:

1. Embrace Reality (Adjust Your Expectations)

You are going to immediately be in trouble if you want your reading time to match a picture in your head of a child happily cuddled on a peaceful parent's lap with a pile of books. Close the door to the bedroom so you have your toddler in a confined space. Child door locks can be your friend in such instances. They may not look like they're listening to you read, but that's okay. They can get up and wander if they want. You can still try to engage them now and again with questions or show them a neat picture.

3. Embrace the short book

This is not time to prep your little cutie for Harvard by reading chapter books. Keep the books short and sweet. Some board books are just longer books for older children in board book form. Bypass those and go for the ones with a few words per page at most. Don't take it personal if your toddler wants to shove a book out of your hand halfway through. It's okay. You don't have to finish every book. When they're a little bit older, you can work on the follow-through skill. Right now, it's not important. If they're interested, they'll let you keep reading.

4. Embrace books with real pictures, flaps, smells, and different textures

Your child is in a state of constant exploration, so what a great way to get them interested in books by exploring. It keeps their attention and teaches them that books can be fascinating. Where else can you find little squares of shag rug and shiny mirror material in the same place other than a disco or roller rink?!? Bob the Builder has some super awesome Life-the-Flap board books. Below is our very favorite, Bob's Toolbox Mix-Up. Babies and toddlers are also extremely interested in books that mirror their lives and what they look like. Some of our favorites were simple real pictures of babies and things that babies play with.

5. Embrace books that involve songs and/or movement

The reason I decided to write this post is that I recently discovered an excellent series of books for toddlers involving yoga moves. I read the books while I was over babysitting one of my favorite toddlers, and he surprised me by doing every single yoga pose in the book. What surprised me more was how natural and perfect for toddlers each of the poses were. There's Sleepy Little Yoga and Little Yoga: A Toddler's First Book of Yoga. Other books like Little Bunny Foo Foo, where you can sing and do movements, can also be very entertaining for the little ones.

6. Embrace Humor

If you can find a book that's silly, you will have your child's attention. Anything that makes them giggle or laugh is one they will want to revisit over and over. Bob the Builder's Tool Mix-Up has some silly parts in it. What Shall We Do with the Boo-Hoo Baby is another fun one. Luckily, there are lots of board books out there that embrace fun. You also have to remember YOUR sense of humor. Don't ever get tense around books, as Mem Fox likes to say. Enjoy the craziness that is your toddler running around the room as you read. It won't last for long.

7. Embrace Repetition

Yes, you are going to find a few all-out favorite books that your toddler will want you to read over and over. That is a fantastic thing to do. It helps cement vocabulary, syntax, and the rhythm of language for your child. Plus, it's one of the very few times where they can feel like an expert. Children LOVE reading stories over and over again because they know what's going to come next. This happens so rarely in their little lives that this a great opportunity for them to feel some control and pride.

8. Embrace Your Toddler!

I can't resist mentioning this rule. Give lots of hugs and love when you have reading time (that is, if you can catch them!).  As long as they associate reading with fun and love and laughter, you've done your job!

Need some more ideas? Check out this article, "Reading Tips for Parents of Toddlers"  from ReadingRockets.org.

Playing with Plates

Okay people, I am getting down to the bare bones for you. You are a busy parent who has no time to plan out wonderfully enriching ideas for your youngster. Don't worry. I've got your back. All you need is a Sharpie marker and some paper plates. If you need some inspiration on what words to choose, you can check out http://dolch-words.com. If your kiddo isn't ready for sight words yet, use letters. By the way, the importance of sight words is that they are the tricky words you can't always sound out. It is hugely helpful as you learn to read if you can recognize these words by sight.

Option 1:  Go into a dark room and ask your kiddo to find a word with a flashlight. You know they all love using flashlights! Some creative Pinterest people have even mounted words on the ceiling for this!

Option 2: Use pennies or a soft ball to have your kids throw them onto the plates. Whichever ones they land on, they read.

Option 3: lay out a few p,ages while you're reading. Every time you come across one of the words, your child puts a paper clip or penny on the plate. In the spirit of competition, see which word "wins" by showing up the most times in the book.

Option 4: Frisbee time!  If they can read the word, they get to fling the plate. See which word gets the farthest!

Sharing Hilarious Parent Mistakes = Writing Motivation

Sometimes inspiration hits in the oddest of places. As there are many education blogs out there, I always get excited when I think of something quirky that you might not be able to find on ten other sites. Tonight while getting my son's bath ready, I was doing about ten things at once. I decided to fill the sink to soak a few things while filling up the bathtub while helping him clean up his unending Legos. The next thing we know, we're back in the bathroom and there is a flood going on. I had totally forgotten about filling the sink and/or had extremely underestimated how fast it would fill. Probably both. So water was flowing over the counter and spreading out along the floor. Joy of joys. What does this have to do with literacy, you ask?

My son's first question was, "Can I be the one to tell Dad?!?!" He assured me that he was not gleefully trying to get me in trouble but merely trying to transmit some information. Yeah, right. And so this became a great opportunity for using new vocabulary - flood, spilling, soaked, etc.- while practicing his skills of retelling a story in the correct order. Even if he just got to tell the story orally to his father, there would be some literacy merit. However, I would suggest taking it a step further and writing out a glorious and humorous tale of how mom almost flooded the bathroom. If your kiddo is too little to write out a whole story, have them dictate it to you or label and illustrate boxes with order words such as first, second, third, and finally. They just get so excited when we're the ones who mess up, don't they? I can see him being very engaged in this particular writing activity. Not to mention, what a great way to preserve these awesome family memories. He did say it was his favorite part of the day.  

Excellent and FREE Printable Packs for Learning

I may have mentioned these packs before because they are so great. Wonderful for parents who only have a few minutes but want to do something valuable with their children to keep those brains thinking. I love these packets because they are extremely high interest. There was one on Angry Birds that I did with my 5 year old and he practically begged to get started. Plus, it takes advantage of the prior knowledge kids already have on these subjects, so they are automatically more confident and motivated to learn. I especially like the kindergarten packs I have tried because she includes an easy reader and cut-and-paste activties so we're not just doing worksheets. There are Tot, Preschool, and Kindergarten packs depending on what level you need. Click here to see 1 Plus 1 Plus 1 Equals 1's blog about all of her printable packs. Enjoy! 

Great Early Reading Resources!

I've said it before and I will say it again. I am just astounded and humbled by the amount of amazing work that mom and teacher bloggers are sharing for free on their blogs. I honestly don't know where they find the time to do all of this! Just learned about this fantastic resource from This Reading Mama . It's a Reading the Alphabet Pre K curriculum. Now don't be scared off by the word "curriculum." It doesn't mean you have to put in tons of extra work and preparation time. It just means that someone else has thought about what would work best and in what order. You can pick and choose whatever works for you. Just glancing though it, I saw a cute song to teach the word "the" - grab that if nothing else! Perfect for those of you who want to start reading activities with your little learners but aren't sure where to start. If you click on this post here, you can download all of the files via a zipfile. Thank you, Reading Mama! 

This curriculum is also mentioned in one of my favorite blogs for learning, The Measured Mom. If you have not already subscribed to get her emails, I do not know what you are waiting for. They're perfect for the early learner set. She is starting to create these great, FREE emergent readers for sight words. As you probably know, sight words are those words we just have to learn by sight so we can read them automatically without thinking. When we do, it makes reading soooo much easier. Click here or on the picture for her newest books for the word the. 

Easy FREE Printable Books to Learn the Word "A" (Plus a Small Rant About Parent Attitudes)

Such a great way to practice a sight word and get some confidence with easy, printable readers from The Measured Mom. Print yours right now by clicking here! Go! Do it. Her post also gives very helpful instructions on how to read them with your child. Love how she brings up the point that parents are concerned their children will just guess their way through books forever if they don't learn to sound out words right away. So not true! The great children's author Mem Fox said it best when she said that children must almost see themselves as readers and have that confidence before they care to take the time to notice the letters and words. With these easy books, you are helping them see themselves as readers, which is a fabulous gift. 

While we're on this subject, I'd also like to warn you of the insidious poison that is an adult's secret thoughts about easy, simple books. I have had several parents say to me, "ugh, that book is so boring, why would my child ever be interested in that?!?" Sometimes it even includes eye-rolling. Please just compare it to the first toys your infant ever played with. Did you think back then, "Oh man, what a lame ball! It's only green and plastic. Boring. Why does she even care about that stupid ball anyway!?!" Obviously, I jest. But hopefully you get the idea. Babies are fascinated with simple toys because they are new and brilliant and exciting to them. It is the same thing for early readers and these books. They can access them and feel confident because those books are just right for them at this moment. So next time, when you see a super "easy" reader and you're tempted to roll your eyes, stop that thought and get just as excited to share this bright shiny new thing as you were to share a ball with your baby long ago.

Great Book Lists for Beginning Readers

Once again I stand in awe of the work and effort teacher and mom bloggers spend on their blogs. I just found two great lists of books that would be perfect for early readers in that 4-5-6 year old range. Depends on what your kiddo is ready for. Great books to check out of the library for sure! Did you know that most libraries will let you request and hold books for free? That means they pick them all out for you and you just pop in to check them out! In our area, the North Hollywood branch of the Los Angeles Public Library does that (they just charge you if you fail to pick up your holds). These lists are located on a new blog I just found that is fantastic. It's called DelightfulChildrensBooks.com. The first list is 20 Fantastic Books For Kids Learning to Read and the second is 15 More Fantastic Books for Kids Learning to Read. Enjoy and let me know how you like some of them! I myself can't wait to check out the one pictured above.

Reading Comprehension 101 Series: Making Connections

This is the second part in my series of Reading Comprehension 101 posts. If you missed the first one about good readers making pictures in their heads, you can check it out here. Making connections is one of my favorite comprehension strategies because it is so easy for kids to do and understand. Basically, if you make a connection to a story, you automatically have a deeper understanding because you have attached it to knowledge that already exisits in your brain. I like to imagine that we all have tons of little files in our brains. Each file contains what we know about a certain subject. For instance, you probably have an "apple" file. If you grew up on an apple farm, your file is huge. You have pictures of apple trees, all different kinds of apples, the taste of them, the feel of them, etc. If you grew up in Hawaii, your file on apples might not have as much, but your pineapple file is probably pretty big. So if I ask you to read a book about pineapples, you are probably going to do really well because it will make sense to you and you can access the knowledge that's already in your brain about pineapples. For instance, you could fill in the sentence, "Pineapples grow on the ________." without having to even read the word. Whereas maybe some inner city kid who has never seen a pineapple is going to struggle with that sentence because his pineapple file has nothing in it. Are you starting to follow why it's important to be able to connect what you know to the book?

The good news for those of you with even teeny little kids is that the more you expose them to life and experiences, the more their files will grow. If they have lots of thick files, then it will be that much easier for them to read all sorts of things and undestand them.  

 There are lots of fancy ways to say it - using your schema or prior knowledge to enhance your understanding. The easiest way we would refer to it in my first grade classroom was as a "Text-to-Me" connection. So, a super simple connection might be that if you're reading a book about Biscuit the dog, your child might say, "I have a dog like Biscuit!" or maybe she'll say, "Biscuit is way nicer than our cat." If your child isn't saying these things, you can say it and model it for them. It's a magical thing to see how much more a child connects with a book if they have lots of knowledge about the subject. After going to a farm, they can read a farm book with much more interest and confidence. They might make a connection like "oh that little lamb looks like the one we saw today!"

Do you have to freak out and run to give your child as many experiences as possible right away to make them a good reader? No, don't worry. You will be amazed at the amount of information they have collected already. You can just deepen their experience with books by helping them make connections. The easiest books to do this with are books that have to do with real subjects that are close to their daily experiences. Little Critter books are good for that and so are books by Jamie Lee Curtis.

                       

So, once you graduate from "Text-to-Me" connections and feel confident with those, you can also try "Text-to-Text" connections. My son did these really easily, so you might be surprised at how easy it comes or how your kids might already be doing it. It's as simple as saying, "Hey, that Kissing Hand book reminds me of Love You Forever because the mommy loves the kid very much in both of them." or you can compare and contrast a book with the same character, "The Little Critter is thinks he can do everything himself in All By Myself and this other Little Critter book. This one only has his sister but that one has his whole family." 

Finally, for those of us who are a little older, there are "Text-to-World" connections. That means, it might not be something that happened to you directly, but perhaps is of historical significance or currently news. Maybe I'm reading a story with a tornado in it and it makes me think of the tornadoes that recently hit Oklahoma. These connections tend to be bigger ideas or a little farther removed from your life. I would mainly focus on the first two with your little guys.

I challenge you to pay attention now when you're reading to how many "Text-to-Me" and "Text-to-Text" connections you're making. In this day and age, you might even have "Blog-to-Blog" connections. You'll be surprised!

Here is a great post on connections and prior knowledge from This Reading Mama - Before They Read - Connecting New Content to Prior Knowledge.

Who Doesn't Love a *FREE* Easy Reader Monster Book?

Once again an excellent post from The Measured Mom!! You have to print out this book and while you are doing it, read her description of what kind of books to pick out for your early readers. It's excellent! I think with my little guy we'll probably read it together the first few times, but then I bet he'll know it by heart and feel really good when he can read it by himself. Please don't get caught up on thinking reading is only about being able to sound out isolated words in any context. Reading is about creating meaning, using the context, and understanding what you've read. If you can help your child do that, you're golden!

Nursery Rhymes for Beginning Readers

 

I am so excited to find a new site that has great resources for early learners! It's called PreKinders. I just love, love, love when teachers and bloggers so generously make printables that all of us can use. As busy parents we all appreciate it so much! So, over at PreKinders, the author has made many printable nursery rhymes available. I love these because they are perfect to put in a three-hole punched folder. Hopefully your little learner already knows most of these rhymes by heart. If not, start there without any visual aids yet. Then you can share one rhyme at a time as they're learning to track print (touch their finger to each word while reading). They already know the words, so it's easier for their brain to concentrate on the actual letters and words. Help them through it the first few times if you need to and then they will be good to go! They will see themselves as readers in no time! Click here to get the printables. There's also a great game you can play with them, too!! Thanks PreKinders! If you need more reminders about why nursery rhymes are so helpful when teaching a child to read, click here.