Literacy Seminar for Kindergarten Parents

St. Hilda School, April 8, 1999

1.       Children need to see that "print" is part of our society - that it is important to all of us. You need to show them that you read and write every day - at home, driving, at work, on the bus, in the stores, phoning, banking, signing up for swimming lessons, …

a.      Let them see you balancing your cheque book.

b.     Read the newspaper and talk about something you've read.

c.      Get them to help you make the shopping list.

2.     Read to them as much as you can.  Children at-risk for reading have a "deficit" lag, not a developmental lag.  One reading expert said that children should have heard 1,000 stories before they can even begin to learn how to read.

a.      Start out by having you name the items in the pictures of the stories.

b.     Try and figure out the story before you read it by looking at the pictures.

c.      Read the story to them.

d.      Ask them to retell the story to you.

e.  Talk about wonderful words in the story.

f. Talk about who wrote the story, who did the pictures.

g.      Help them relate their experiences to the story.  Remember when?

3.     Favourite stories are very important.  Read and reread and reread them.

a.      Buy some books for their own library. Garage sales, used book stores, birthday presents, Christmas, Easter, Scholastic book orders.

b.     Read your favourites - from when you were a child.

c.      Pick stories of things they are interested in. (cars, babies, animals…)

d.      Avoid the "trendy" stories  (like Rug Rats) and get good literature.

e.      Go to the library once a week, every other week, …, as often as possible.  Let your child have their own library card.  Ask the librarian to show you how the library is organized in the children's section.  Find out where the non-fiction books are. Ask about how to find books on the computer system.

4.     Watch less TV, play less video games. TV is a passive activity that does not require any response from your child. Nintendo reinforces rapid-fire stimulation and hand-eye coordination, but does nothing to help your child interact with books.  Children need time, time to get bored so they can think of new ways to play, time to explore and be curious, time to play.

a.      Imagination games

b.     Dress-up games

c.      Play outside

d.      Craft and drawing materials

e.      Paper and crayons/markers

f.      Writing books, scribblers

5.     Read and learn rhymes and little poems.  Try to get a Nursery Rhyme book for your child and learn the favourites.

a.      Start a favourite rhyme book to write and keep rhymes your child likes.

b.     Ask for the rhymes that children are learning in school to add in to this book.

c.      Teach them the rhymes you learned as a child.

d.      Use rhymes by categories, so you can remember to say them. For example, when it starts to rain, you can say, "Rain, rain…", or "Eency Weency …", or "It's raining…"

6.     Help children become aware of the sounds in the language. 

a.      Rhyming words is the first stage.  Make up silly rhymes just for fun.

b.     Stretch out words, "MMMMMM Mom"; "D-D-D-D-D-Dad". Talk about the sounds you can hear.

c.      Initial sounds are the easiest to hear.  Play little games to help your child hear those sounds.

d.      Onset and rimes are new words for ways to break up words for children to hear.  Onset is the group of consonants in the first part of the word, like in Mom, /M/ is the onset, or in chair, /ch/ is the onset.  The rime is the next part of the syllable, like in Mom, om is the rime, and in chair, air is the rime. Work with one syllable words and practise breaking them into onsets/rimes.

e.      Make "sound" books out of old scribblers, scrapbooks, computer paper.

Start with the consonants and other onsets.  Leave the vowels alone for now.  B, C (2 sounds), D, F, G (2 sounds), H, J, K, L, M, N, P, QU, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z.   Add in new pages as you come across new sounds like CH, SH, WH, ST, CL, SL, …

f.      Play games when you're driving, walking, or on the bus. Can you think of any words that start with /b/? What's the first sound in Mom?

g.      The sound games can be in any language. Use the sounds from Tagalog, Polish, Chinese, …  You are training the ear. It is a hearing and listening skill, not an English skill.

7.     Help children become aware of the letters of the alphabet.  They need to know the names of the letters and their sounds. 

a.      Read alphabet books from the library.

b.     Make an alphabet book of their own. (e.g. alphabet book of cars, or cats, or teddy bears,….)  Cut out pictures or draw them.  Make sure you have the capital letter and the lower case letter on each page.  Practise this book often with your child. 

c.      Play alphabet games with premade materials like magnetic letters, blocks, alphabet cards, puzzles, computer games, ... 

d.      Make your own materials and games.  Bingo, hopscotch, …

e.      Set small goals: learn these 3 letters today, and then we'll go to the park.

8.     Help them with writing.  They need to see you writing, to know that it is an important skill. They will need to practise using markers and writing tools, so you will need paper, or scribblers, …, and writing things.  They love markers, but get a couple of pencils, maybe a colourful pen,… anything that will motivate them to write.

a.      Encourage them to make signs for their play things.

b.     Let them decorate their name for their room.

c.      Encourage them to write to Grandma, or their cousins…

d.      Have them guess at spelling words, "What sounds can you hear?"

Let them learn how to write the words that are important to them, like the names of family members, their favourite toys, their phone number and address, their birthday, …