Summer Time
Reading Adventures
Growing A Reader…..
Children acquire skills throughout the school year, but they can lose ground if learning stops during the summer break. Fortunately, learning never has to stop. Children who read throughout the summer gain skills, can start a new school year with a better understanding of language and the world around them, and discover the joy of reading. The more they like to read, the more they will read.
It’s not hard to help your children keep their interest in reading and learning. Children learn through a variety of activities and almost everything we do presents an opportunity to read. When you’re eating breakfast, read the cereal box; or if you’re in a restaurant, read the menu. Read the newspaper with your children and discuss what’s happening in the world.
Make the most of those long summer days and warm summer nights. Relax, spend time outside, visit friends and enjoy your time as a family. But don’t stop reading. Make it part of your family’s summer fun! Let the adventure begin………Start by going to your public library!
Digging for Treasures……………..
Once you arrive at the library help your child choose a “just right” book. Here are some helpful tips on how to choose a “just right” book.
Besides just being able to access books at the library, the library also offers a variety of on-line resources that would be fun for your child to access right from your own home. You must have a LoudounCounty library card in order to access Book Flix.
Book Flix: Watch the Story! Read the Book! BookFlix is an online literacy resource that pairs classic video storybooks with related nonfiction eBooks to build a love of reading and learning. BookFlix reinforces early reading skills and introduces children to a world of knowledge and exploration.
Tumble Book: An online collection of animated talking picture books which teach children the joy of reading in a format they'll love. There are also games, puzzles and quizzes and a language learning section with books in French and Spanish.
username: lcpsepassword: elem
Other Useful WEBSITES………….
This website is part of PBS. It has tons of articles and activities to help parents help their children.
Lots of your children’s favorite PBS show characters have activities to reinforce reading skills.
This is the web site for the Children’s Book Council-a great resource to find quality books for your children.
This is a database of Award Winning Children’s Literature.
This site has interactive stories, on-line activities and activities to do at home. These are all based on themes, such as music, color, or firefighters. This site has both pre-school and elementary themes and includes stories and activities in English and Spanish.
This site includes activities for letter and sound recognition, word families and reading skill enhancements for grades K-2.
This site offers great nature videos, activities, games and stories.
This is an interactive exploration that engages student in real science and engineering. Topics include robots, helicopters, lunar exploration and designing your own human-friendly planet.
http: //
View and listen to traditional and contemporary stories and poetry for children while engaging in fun activities.
Growing Your Reader……………….
Once you’ve found a collection of books that your child can read, listen to your child read every day. Be patient-new readers often read slowly! Offer help when your child gets stuck and always give lots of praise and encouragement. Here are a few tips on how to help your child read an unfamiliar word. What should you do?
Read it again! Encourage your child to reread favorite books, and make it fun! Repeated readings improve your child’s fluency and comprehension. They also provide opportunities to practice reading with expression. Children enjoy giving the wolf a scary growl or using a squeaky little voice for a mouse. When your child reads fluently, it’s easier for them to understand what they’re reading. Needless, to say this makes reading a lot more enjoyable. These summer months provide a great opportunity for you to help your child continue to develop their reading fluency.
Read to your child everyday. Model your own fluent reading as you read and reread books with your child. Even though your child may be able to read on their own, continue to find time each day to read books that are just beyond their reading level. Your child will enjoy listening to more advanced stories, and will hear a great example of fluent reading.
Discussions During Read Aloud that Develops Comprehension………….
Keep Growing Your reader………….
Often times it is hard for parents to find ways to engage their child in writing activities over the summer. Children are often more motivated to write when they find a real reason to do so. Help your child find a buddy, relative, or neighbor who would like to be his e-pal for the summer. Through typing e-mail messages your child will enhance their written communication skills, including sentence formation, spelling and appropriate punctuation. Typing on the computer will likely be a way to entice your child and receiving e-mail messages back from their buddy, relative or neighbor will keep them motivated. If you do not have access to e-mail please encourage your child to send letters or postcards.
Another way to motivate your child to write would be to have your child write in a reading response journal. As your child reads have your child write a personal response in his journal. Your child can state his feelings, thoughts, reactions and questions about situations, ideas, action, characters, settings, symbols, plot, theme, and any other element of the book. Your child’s responses can’t be wrong, so have your child take some risks. Have your child write about what he liked or disliked, what seems confusing or unusual. Tell what you think something means or make predictions about what might happen later. Have your child relate personal experiences to the setting or characters in the story. Here are some sample sentence starters to help your child respond to his reading.
10 Weeks of Fun………….
Please visit the Reading Is Fundamental website for a list of activities that you can do over the summer with your child. The website is
A BEAutiful Garden………
We hope you will use the information provided in this summer issue. Your child will benefit greatly from the authentic use of language concepts during the summer break. We have worked so hard this year to develop a love of reading and writing. By reading with or to your child over the summer will help keep your child’s reading skills alive and prevent the loss of those skills over the summer. Keep growing those skills as a reader and you will be blooming toward the future!
The First Grade Team