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!

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!

Finding Books for Beginning Readers

One of my own personal struggles as a teacher was to find easy books for my beginning readers. Even books that usually say "Level 1 - Beginning Reader" are way too hard for actual beginning readers. I just found this great post from www.123homeschool4me.com that has a good list of books for our young readers. Some of these books are not necessarily so easy that you could just hand them over to your reader and expect her to be able to read it on her own, but after a few readings together she could easily manage it.

Though parents are sometimes worried kids have just "memorized" the book, it is not something to be concerned about. They need to see themselves as readers and see and say those words over and over again before they are cemented in their minds.

Anna over at The Measured Mom has solved the problem of finding easy books by creating a ton of fabulous FREE printable books for beginning readers.You can find those here.

Happy Reading!

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!

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.

Lazy Summer Reading Ideas

Sometimes we all need a little help to get moving with summer learning. Here are some great (mostly free) ideas I've come across recently. 

Motivation! 
One of the favorite things I've found so far comes from Plenty of Picnics. They're called Summer Brain Time punch cards. I love them because I can say to my son, "Let's do some brain time!" and our reward for that is a punch on our Summer Brain Time card. I say "our" because I need a little motivation to focus on learning, too! Then when we fill out a card, we get to have a treat together like popcorn and a movie or ice cream. Here's the link to print out your very own Summer Brain Time cards! 

Summer Online Resources:
Summer Reading Resources for Kids 2012 from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas is an amazing compilation of summer reading programs!!

A Mom with a Lesson Plan: idea for collecting book reports and rewarding with money towards Scholastic book orders in the fall!

Help for Struggling Readers :great compilation of ideas

The Measured Mom: Can You Read 100 Books This Summer? 

Education.com: Do-It-Yourself Summer Reading and printouts

3 Dinosaurs Summer Printable Round Up: Lots of great ideas!

Growing Book by Book Table talk cards - topics to talk about at the dinner table or on a road trip!

Small Types: Alphabet Summer and Reading and Writing on the Road

Games for Summer:

* Lots more on my Pinterest boards!

Good for all levels:

PirateAttack (readingresource.net): Students discover pirates and treasure by identifying sounds/letters, reading sight words, or defining vocabulary words 

PlayingWith Plates:  Write sight words, word families, vocab words, or letters on small paper plates. Put them on the ceiling or floor and search for them in the dark with a flashlight. Fling them like Frisbees. Throw balls or balloons in them and read the words they land on. Sort the word family plates into words that rhyme (-at family = cat, bat, sat, mat, that).

                                                

MuffinTin Games: From one of my new favorite sites, Growing Book by Book. They are similar to the plate games but using a muffin tin and post-its or paper muffin cups. Use pennies or hard candy to toss into the cups or play a tic-tac-toe type game. 

Treasure Hunt: Hide short phrases around the house so kids can read and follow the clues. You can purchase the game Ukloo to do the same thing.

Pre-Readers:

Memory or matching games with Letters/Pictures/Rhymes

Readinga-z.com and reading-tutors.com have lots of resources for letters, rhyming, and sight words - print out the free samples!

Beginning Readers:

Word Family Mats from The Measured Mom

Flip-It Down Basic 

Zingo Sight Words bingo game:

Advanced:

Flip-It Down Advanced 

Hockey 

Great Sites for Free Printable Games and Word Lists:

·        Mrs. Perkin’s Dolch Words:  Lists of all levels of sight words plus much more!

·     Flocabulary.com:  Vocabulary word lists, SAT vocab lists, rapping program

·        Teachers Pay Teachers: just search for free items and the grade level you want – don’t be afraid to sign up, it’s easy and free

·        Primary Inspiration

·        Reading Resources

·        The Measured Mom: - sight word easy readers, word family mats, all sorts of good stuff

·        1 Plus 1Plus 1 Equals 1:  Lots of printables, especially for packets with popular themes from toddler to kindergarten level

·        Reading Tutors and Reading A-Z: Many free samples for learning letters and sight words

·        Reading Rockets printable family packets and parent articles

Books to Inspire You:

Games for Reading by Peggy Kaye

Book Love by Melissa Taylor

I Can Teach My Child to Read by Jenae Jacobson

The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease

Reading Magic by Mem Fox

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.

Reading Comprehension 101 Series - Mental Images

Today, I am starting a series of posts on the reading comprehension strategies that good readers use. Many of us do these things when we are reading, but you may not be aware of what you're doing or why. That's what I'm here for! I want to help you to understand how to refer to these strategies when you are already reading. It doesn't take much extra effort on your part to squeeze in a reference here or there about what good readers do. You'll be surprised once you start paying attention at how many things your good readers already do naturally! A few teacher books that will help you if you want to delve into comprehension strategies further are:

Reading With Meaning by Debbie Miller

Mosaic of Thought by Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmerman

Strategies That Work by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis

How do you "teach" something that good readers do? You become the good model first. You can model reading a book and think aloud. I know some people feel goofy thinking aloud, but it seriously helps the kids to understand your thought process.

                                                         

An example of modeling my mental images from Cynthia Rylant's The Relatives Came might be for me to say, "Wow, this page where she describes all of the sounds of everyone sleeping makes me really picture in my head all of these old and young family members lying all over each other sound asleep. It's dark and there's lots of snoring, but since it's in the country I think I can hear some crickets in the background too." Ideally, we might be listening to this book on CD so that we couldn't see any images in the first place.

So I am starting with visualization (some people know it as mental images) because it is a pretty easy concept to grasp. Good thinkers in general use this technique to help them understand what they are hearing. Imagine driving in the car listening to a baseball game. You are visualizing the game in your head to make it more real and understandable. For readers, being able to visualize what you read helps them to connect and remember. It's much easier to remember that in the book they visited a farm with cows if you had a picture in your head of that farm with cows. It's even easier to remember if you use your five senses to make that image come alive. In our adult lives, we check for comprehension by visualizing the book. If we realize that we can't see the picture in our head anymore, we go back to reread. It's really important when people are giving us directions, too. It helps to visualize turning left, then going around the fountain, and then stopping by the bike rack.

How to encourage your child to use the reading strategy of visualization:

*Teach them their five senses and help them to describe pictures with all of them. For instance, if they drew a picture of a flower, you might encourage them to describe how the flower feels, smells, looks, sounds, and tastes - if applicable. Then encourage them to use their five senses to create really vivid images in their minds.

*Talk with them when you are reading or listening to something on the radio. Ask them what they picture in their heads. Tell them what you picture in yours. It's important to note that there is not a "right" image for them to picture. Everyone's looks a little different and that's okay.

*Read a chapter book and have them describe certain scenes to you by what they see in their head. Explicitly say that good readers make pictures in their heads. If they're interested in sharing that image, they can draw you a picture.

*Play a "let's make pictures in our mind" game. You can do this on a walk, or in the car, or in the bath. Describe a silly picture and have your child practice picturing it in their head. If you have an older child, you can have them experiment with listening to you describe a scene one time without visualizing and one time with visualizing. Then see which one they remember better!

*Poetry is great for practicing visualization. Most of the time, each poem comes with little to no illustrations, so they are forced to create their own. The blog Fabulous in First has some great free worksheets and description to help with this. If you have more than one child, it's fun to have them each draw their mental images for the same poem. Amazing how different they can be!

*You can help your children discover that our mental images can change. I once read a poem that talked about a doctor who fixed broken things...so at first my mental images were in a doctor's office. As the poem ended, it talked about wooden legs and wobbly tables, so then my images changed to some kind of antique furniture store. 

Our friend from Fabulous in First also shared this excellent list of book suggestions for creating mental images. Usually they are books or poems with more descriptive flavor. My favorites are Cynthia Rylant books, Georgia Heard poems, and Rosemary Wells' Night Sounds, Morning Colors.

Some Picture Books from the list that I like for Modeling/Practicing Visualization
Aliki, Marianthe’s Story: Painted Words/Spoken Memories
Baylor, Byrd, I’m in Charge of Celebrations
Brinckloe, Julie Fireflies!: Story and Pictures
Brown, Margaret Wise The Sailor Dog
Bouchard, D. Voices from the Wild
Bunting, Eve Smoky Night
Carlstrom, Nancy White What Does the Rain Play?
Carlstrom, Nancy White Wild, Wild Sunflower Child Anna
Condra, Estelle See the Ocean
Cooney, Barbara Miss Rumphius
Fletcher, Ralph Twilight Comes Twice
Heard, Georgia Creatures of Earth, Sea, and Sky
Howard, Jane When I’m Sleepy
London, Jonathan Hurricane
London, Jonathan Into this Night We Are Rising
London, Jonathan Like Butter on Pancakes
London, Jonathan Puddles
Lovell, Patty Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon
MacLachlan, Patricia Through Grandpa’s Eyes
MacLachlan, Patricia Journey
Marshak, Suzanna I Am the Ocean
Marzollo, Jean City Sounds
Marzollo, Jean Close Your Eyes
Mazer, Anne The Salamander Room
McCloskey, Robert Time of Wonder
Merriam, Eve Quiet, Please
Munoz, Pam Ryan Hello, Ocean! Hola Mar
Murphy, Jim The Call of the Wolves
Navasky, Bruno Festival in My Heart: Poems by Japanese Children
Ryder, Joanne Winter Whale
Rylant, Cynthia Night in the Country
Rylant, Cynthia Let’s Go Home
Schertle, Alice A Lucky Thing
Shannon, David A Bad Case of Stripes
Thomas, Shelley Moore Putting the World to Sleep
Wells, Rosemary Night Sounds, Morning Colors
Williams, Vera A Chair for My Mother
Wood, Audrey The Napping House
Worth, Valerie All the Small Poems and Fourteen More
Wyeth, Sharon Dennis Something Beautiful
Yolen, Jane Greyling
Yolen, Jane Color Me a Rhyme
Zolotow, Charlotte The Seashore Book

Top Ten Wordless Picture Books by Kristen Remenar

I am just so impressed with the content I am seeing on websites lately about helping your child to read! Saves me a lot of work:) So, The Nerdy Book Club blog has brought us an excellent article about using wordless picture books. Please check it out here. It would be a great goal to check some of these out the next time you visit the library. They are such interesting books that they get the kids excited about looking at all of the pictures and developing the story in their heads.

These books are especially great for your early readers because you can help give them the confidence that they need by "reading" these books! I had one parent share that she struggled immensely with reading until someone shared a wordless picture book with her in third grade. I will also add some personal wordless picture book favorites - Tuesday by David Wiesner (there are frogs everywhere!) and Good Dog, Carl by Alexandra Day (who couldn't love a sweet story about a dog?). There is a slightly longer recommendation list at Children's Books and Reading if you get really excited about wordless picture books.

                 

Great Resource for Parents - Especially for Reluctant Readers

  

Wow! I found another great resource site today. It's called Imagination Soup by Melissa Taylor. She has the same goal that I have - helping parents learn and grow so they can help their kids. She's also written what looks like a fabulous book (pictured here). I love her post on Guerrilla Tactics to Get Your Child to Love Reading.