Back to School Literacy Activities

The Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI) is a statewide K-3 initiative committed to supporting the development of high-quality instruction that will prepare all students with the literacy skills needed to meet or exceed grade-level standards. The goal of the ARI is to significantly improve reading instruction and ultimately achieve 100% literacy among public school students.

We hope this newsletter finds you well and excited for a new school year! As we prepare to start the school year, we want to extend a warm welcome to all of you! Whether you are returning or new to our Family Literacy Newsletter, please know that we are thrilled to have you with us! This edition is filled with activities and ideas that will help your young student be a successful reader. We hope that you enjoy them!

Phonological Awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate the spoken parts of sentences and words. The activity below includes phonological awareness practice.

Practice rhyming words with this simple “I spy” game at home, on a walk, or at the grocery store.

For example, if you’re in the bathroom you can say, “I spy something white that rhymes with rope." (soap)

On a walk outside, you can say, "I spy something green that rhymes with pass." (grass)

Counting syllables is an important skill that beginning readers need to master. One way to practice this skill would be to say a word with one or more syllables (ex. ta-ble = 2 syllables, com-pu-ter = 3 syllables) and then ask your student to first, "Clap" the syllables, then "Slap" the syllables on their leg and finally "Count" the syllables using their fingers. For example, when you say "microwave" your student would first "clap" each syllable (3), then "slap" each syllable on their leg and lastly, "count" each syllable using their fingers.

Phonics is instruction in the relationship between letters (graphemes) and the sounds (phonemes) they represent. It is an essential component of effective reading instruction and is necessary for decoding (reading) new words. Students need practice in reading text, spelling, and writing in order to consolidate their learning for long term use.

This Phonics Sensory Bin activity allows your child to practice identifying initial sounds and matching those sounds to the corresponding letters.

Materials

• container filled with rice or beans
• assortment of small toys or other child-friendly items whose names begin with a variety of sounds
• blank paper
• pencil, pen or marker

Activity

1. Gather a variety of small toys or other child-friendly items.

2. On the paper, write the letter that corresponds to the initial sound of each item you have collected. (For example: If you have a dinosaur, write the letter D or d on the paper. If you

have a ball, you would write the letter B or b.)

3. Once the letters are written on the paper, place the found items in the container filled with rice or beans.

4. Ask your student to choose an item from the sensory bin.

5. Then the student will say the name of the item and identify the initial sound.

(For example, if the dinosaur is selected, the student says (dinosaur), and then identifies that the word dinosaur begins with /d/.)

6. Have the student locate the letter that corresponds to the initial sound of the item and place it on the corresponding letter on the paper. (For example - D corresponds with /d/ which is the initial sound in dinosaur.)

7. Continue until all items have been removed from the sensory bin and placed on the corresponding letter.

On a piece of paper or on small dry erase board, write a word such as (pot). One by one, let your student erase one of the existing letters and replace it with a new letter to form a new, real word.

For example:

1. (pot) could become (cot, pit, or pod).

2. (cot) could become (cat)

3. (pit) could become (sit)

4. (pod) could become (nod)

Continue until your learner is unable to form new words.

To increase the level of complexity, challenge your student to add or delete letters, for example, (pot) could become (spot) or (post).

Vocabulary is defined as knowledge of, and memory for oral word meanings. We can further define vocabulary as either receptive vocabulary (words whose meanings one can recognize when reading or listening to others speak) or expressive vocabulary (the words we use when speaking or writing). Extensive research has revealed that vocabulary is the biggest factor in understanding text once a person has learned to read the printed word. Activities that focus on vocabulary acquisition through understanding the various layers of words increase the likelihood that students will learn new words deeply. Vocabulary knowledge is important to a student’s ability to read and comprehend what is read.

One way to stretch your young student's use of new words is to play ‘Word/Not Word’. This works by choosing a word (for example, ‘delightful’), and seeing what ideas your student associates with it. For instance, you could say to your student, ‘If I say something that you love, say “delightful”. If you don’t love it, say “not delightful”.’ Then ask your young student why they responded as they did.

For example, you could try asking your student if these activities are delightful or not delightful: opening presents on your birthday; eating brussel sprouts; laughing at the puppy; eating ice cream; going to bed early; reading a book; riding your bike. Be sure to ask them why they responded the way they did! "What is delightful about eating ice cream?"

Now you can vary the game, using ‘beautiful/not beautiful’, ‘hilarious/not hilarious’, ‘exciting/not exciting’, and so on.

This activity not only builds vocabulary, but also strengthens oral language, encourages conversation, and develops reasoning skills!

Included are some additional words to get you started: pleasant, scrumptious, loyal, murmur, diverse, disappointed, popular, shabby, suspicious, babble, ferocious, furious, determination

Find new words and add them daily or weekly!

Talking to and reading with your student are two terrific ways to help them hear and read new words. Conversations and questions about interesting words are easy ways to get new words into everyday talk. “The book says, ‘The boy tumbled down the hill,’ and look at the picture! How do you think he went down the hill?”

Sharing a new word with your student doesn’t have to take a long time: just a few minutes to talk about the word and then focus back on the book or conversation. Choose which words to talk about carefully — choosing every new word might make reading seem like a chore. The best words to explore are ones that are less commonly seen in the books your student might read. When introducing new words to your young student, keep the following four helpful hints in mind:

1. Provide a simple, student -friendly definition for the new word: Enormous means that something is really, really big.
2. Offer a simple, student friendly example that makes sense within their daily life: Remember that really big watermelon we got at the grocery store? That was an enormous watermelon!
3. Encourage your young learner to develop their own example: What enormous thing can you think of? Can you think of something really big that you saw today? That’s right! The bulldozer near the park was enormous! Those tires were huge.
4. Keep your new words active at home. Over the next few days and weeks, take advantage of opportunities to use each new vocabulary word in conversation. Young learners often need to hear a new word in context ten times or more before they “know” that word.

The video below will provide some additional information for helping your student grow their vocabulary.

Comprehension is understanding what you read. It is the goal of reading. It is the thinking process readers use to understand what they read. Strong vocabulary, background knowledge, and an understanding of how language works are keys to comprehension.

Reading comprehension is a very important skill for our students to grasp during their daily reading instruction. Try this activity at home as your young learner returns back to school.

This activity only requires fun and a great imagination.

1. Use the link below to access the story "Back to School Blues". Before sharing the story with your student, read the story and identify words that may be a challenge to your student.

back-to-school-blues-third-grade-reading-comprehension-worksheet.pdf

2. With your student, read the title and look at the picture, together. Ask your student what they think the story will be about.

3. Plan to read the story 3 times with your student to build comprehension.

4. The first time you read the story, have your student follow along with you. Stop at various places in the story and ask questions such as:

• Who are the characters in the story?
• What do you think will happen next?
• Where do you think this story takes place?
• What is the problem so far?
• What do you think will be a good solution?

5. The next day, read the story again, taking turns with your student as you read a section of the story. Focus on vocabulary words in the story that may have been challenging to your student. Have discussions about the words and talk about where you may hear the word(s) again.

6. The following day, read the story a third time and have your student make a connection about how they feel about going back to school. Try changing the ending to the story to make it fun and exciting.

Try this activity with other stories throughout the school year to build reading comprehension.

Good reading comprehension requires rewording and storing ideas in our memory as we read. We can help our students learn this skill by asking them to retell stories. Thinking about the letters in the word SCOOP will help your young learner remember the important parts of a story.

S- setting (Where and when does the story take place?)

C - characters (Who are the main characters in the story?)

O - Oh no! (What is the problem in the story?)

O - Order of events (What happened first? Next? Last?)
P - Problem solved (What was the solution to the problem?)

Be sure to use a story that has a clear problem / solution. One story example is A Bad Case of Stripes, by David Shannon. After listening to this story, have your student retell the story using S.C.O.O.P. to guide their thinking!

Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. Fluency is "reading as we talk". In order to understand what they read, students must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately. Their reading is smooth and has expression.

You, as the caregiver, can develop your student's fluency with this strategy. All you need is a text that your student can read with some support. It can be a book at home, from school, or even a text sent home for homework. Then follow these steps:

Me- Read the text to the student. Stop and talk about any new vocabulary that may be confusing to the student. It is important to be expressive with your reading. Your model reading will help the student with fluency.

We - Read the text together. You can help your student with any unknown words, if necessary. If your student needs more support, focus on a page or two each night rather than the whole text. If you break the text into pages each night, have your student start over each night from the beginning and add new pages.

You - Have your student read the text to you. Listen for expression and ease of reading. Most importantly, enjoy this time together!

This activity allows students to practice reading with expression and appropriate phrasing using the alphabet!

Materials

• paper or notecards
• pencils or markers

1. Write the letters of the alphabet on individual notecards or in a line on a piece of paper. You can start with a few letters and build up to the entire alphabet, if needed.
2. Insert punctuation marks after each letter. Practice reading the first few letters together with expression based on the punctuation. (ex: A! B. C? D! E. F? G.)
3. Have your student practice reading the alphabet to you with expression! You can change the punctuation each time you do the activity together.
4. Once your student is successful with this activity, you can then practice phrasing and expression by writing the alphabet in "letter phrases" separated by punctuation. Practice reading the phrases together with expression, then have your student read the phrases to you. (ex: ABC. DEF? GH! IJK. LM! NOP. QRS? TUV? WX. YZ!)

According to the Reading Rockets website, "...writing is an essential skill that can help students become stronger readers; it can provide the means to enhance vocabulary, comprehension and spelling abilities."

Small movements of the hand are called fine motor skills and are important for successful writing! Below are some ideas you can use to develop and strengthen your student's fine motor skills.

1. Gather small objects from around the house (small buttons, beads, beans, etc.). Have your student use tweezers to pick up each object and place them into a container, then take them back out and place them on the table.
2. Use mini marshmallows and toothpicks to form letters of the alphabet.
3. Fill a spray bottle with water and squirt the water outdoors on the sidewalk.
4. Have you student cut pictures from a newspaper or magazine. You can draw a line around the picture using a marker or crayon to provide a guideline for cutting.

The ability to accurately and automatically form letters is important to the writing process. The following ideas are easy and fun to do! Be sure to model the letter for your student first!

1. Take turns tracing letters on each other's back and guess the letter.
2. Write letters on the sidewalk with chalk.
3. Form letters using French fries!
4. Spread shaving cream on a baking pan or paper plate. Practice writing letters in the shaving cream.

Give your student a piece of paper and a pencil, pen, marker, or crayon. Send them to look for words around the house. Have them copy down any words they can read. They might find their name written on their backpack tag, or maybe the word the written in a magazine. Challenge them to find 10 words and write them down. Then they can read them to you. Older students may need a more challenging activity. Have them look around the house for words that fit into these categories:

• nouns
• adjectives
• verbs

For example, they may look out the window and see a bird flying. Flying is a verb and can go on that list. In the kitchen, they may see a green cup. Green is an adjective, so it can go on that list.

Students are at different levels, so adjust the challenge to meet them where they are!

Scan the QR code to access additional literacy resources.

Back to School Literacy Newsletter (2024)

Check out ARI's back to school newsletter from last year. There are excellent activities in this edition.

Resources - Alabama Partnership for Children

The APC has compiled resources surrounding a FOCUS (Focus On Children Under Six) topic for all organizations that request the information for distribution in local communities. It is our hope that the FOCUS resources will provide more attention to birth-to-five topics statewide.

https://alabamafamilycentral.org/

The Alabama Family Central is a single platform for families to access services and programs. Its purpose is to help families easily navigate and find links to support their needs. State agency partners include Departments of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention, Early Childhood Education, Education, Human Resources, Medicaid, Mental Health, Public Health, and Rehabilitation Services/Early Intervention, with support from the Office of Information Technology.

Check Availability - Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library was established by the famous country singer to instill a love of reading in children throughout the world. Each child who participates receives one free, age-appropriate book through the mail each month until they turn five.

Family & Community Newsletter List-Serve Families and community supporters interested in receiving the Special Edition newsletters when released, please click on the link. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdCugKknAM8P5NsxxQ-3sDvb1MCk9i1hbJij7v4jbQgwY2xng/viewform?usp=sf_link

The information included in this document is done from the perspective of improving LITERACY instruction for students and is only intended to outline support that directly relates to literacy instruction. Please use any resource links with discretion, as their position statements are their own and not necessarily representative of ARI and the ALSDE. Usage of any materials should be with adherence to the rules and regulations of the Alabama State Department of Education.