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Literary: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of details in text.
Activity 1: Ask questions
Read a story to your student or have your student read a story. Ask the following questions: Who was/were the character(s) in the story? What was the setting? Can you explain the problem to me? How did it get solved?
Activity 2: Beginning, Middle, and End Comprehension
Read a story to your child or have your child read a story. Give them a tri-folded piece of paper. Have them write/draw the main events from the book in the beginning, middle, and end format.
Activity 3: Check for Understanding
Have your student read any book from home or library and ask the following questions to check for understanding.
- Start the book by making predictions. Ask your student, “What do you think will happen in the story?”
- Ask questions and make comments while student is reading. Example: “How is the character feeling and why?” “What do you think will happen next?”
- After reading the book, have your student tell the events of the story in order (beginning, middle, end)
- What was the problem in the story?
- How did the character feel when……..?
- Encourage your student to make connections with the book. Example: “Does the story remind you if another book you read, an event in your life, or movie?”
- How did the character change from the beginning of the book to the end?
- What is the main idea or message from the story?
- Does the character learn a lesson?
- Does the main character go through changes?
- Does something unexpected happen?
- Does a character behave differently?
- What I learned from the pictures...
- What I learned from the text...
- How did the pictures help me understand the text better?
Literary: Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
Activity 1
Read a story with your child, then ask questions about a specific character and how they change from the beginning to the end. They could do a character web on a sheet of paper as well.
Informational: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of details in text.
Activity 1: Nonfiction Reading
Read a non-fiction book (true facts about something), then ask your child questions about the book. Then have your child give you facts from the book.
Activity 2: Prove It
After reading a non-fiction text (book, homework passage, etc.…). Ask a comprehension question. Help your student find evidence in the text to support their thinking. Your student shares their answer to the question, then looks through the text to find the words that support their answer. Sometimes the answer is right there in the text and other times you may have to “read between the lines” and get clues from that help justify their thinking.
Informational: Identify the main topic of a multi-paragraph text as well as the focus of specific paragraphs within the text.
Activity 1
Read a non-fiction book (true facts about something), then pick a paragraph from that book and have your child identify the main idea.
Decode words to fluently read grade level texts.
Activity 1: Fluently reading
Practice reading these sentences fluently and with expression.
- “How did the stone become rough?” asked Thad.
- “I’m too BUSY!” yelled the woman.
- “My daughter went through that tiny hole!” screamed Pop.
- Sometimes it is tough to measure things with a tape measure.
- “Josh can really make his father laugh!” said Quinn.
- “Are you sure we can both go to the Super Bowl game?” the old women asked shyly.
Activity 2: Fluency Tic Tac Toe
Play tic tac toe as you normally would, but read the fluency passage in your box before placing your “x” or “o” in the chart below. Read with accuracy, fluency, and expression. Read more than once if needed.
“What smells so wonderful?” I thought. I hurried to the kitchen and found my dad cooking my favorite food- Macaroni and Cheese! M-m-m.
Suki tried to yank the fishing pole out of the water. “I think I’ve caught a BIG one!” she screamed! But then the pole snapped in half!
Bam! Boom! “Did you hear that?” I asked. “Who could be banging on the door?” My little sister grew frightened, so we peeked outside. It was just our neighbor, Little Timmy.
Josh walked slowly outside to feed the chickens and take out the trash. He did NOT like to do his chores!
Last night I told my brother that I was sick. “My tummy hurts SO bad!” I cried. Maybe I’ll feel better in the morning.
The principal walked into the noisy lunchroom and thought “ITS TOO LOUD IN HERE!”
One summer my family was driving down a dark, lonely, road. “This is creepy!” whispered my baby sister.
It was raining outside so the students asked Coach Freeman “will we play outside today?” “Of course not!” he exclaimed.
WATCH OUT! That’s what the sign said to warn drivers of falling rock from the mountain.
Activity 3: Sentence Trees
Write the sentence trees starting at the very top of the index card to the bottom. Have students cover up the words so that only one word is showing from the sentence tree. Once the student reads that word correctly, he/she may reveal the next line of the sentence to read.
Examples:
I
I went
I went to
I went to the
I went to the playground.
My
My dog
My dog can
My dog can jump
My dog can jump high.
The
The car
The car goes
The car goes fast.
I
I know
I know that
I know that the
I know that the bug
I know that the bug bites.
You
You can
You can use
You can use the
You can use the toy
You can use the toy after
You can use the toy after I’m
You can use the toy after I’m done.
They
They went
They went into
They went into the
They went into the gate.
The
The sun
The sun is
The sun is very
The sun is very bright.
We
We all
We all must
We all must work
We all must work together.
I
I went
I went skating
I went skating at
I went skating at the
I went skating at the park.
I
I hit
I hit the
I hit the ball
I hit the ball over
I hit the ball over the
I hit the ball over the fence.
Activity 4: Word ladders
On a sheet of paper, draw a ladder with two long sides and up to 10 rungs. Write a word at the bottom of the ladder. Challenge your student to come up with new words by just changing one letter at the beginning, middle, or end of the word.
Example:
tape
cape
cake
lake
like
live
dive
five
fine
line
Activity 5: Basket Ball- High Frequency Words
Students need a clean trash can or large container and some paper.
Students write a sight word on a piece of paper, and then crumple the paper into a ball. Place all the crumpled papers in the container or trash can.
Students take turns reaching into the container to choose a paper ball with a sight word on it. Students then un-scrunch the paper ball and read aloud the word and then cover up the word and spell it.
If the student answers correctly, they crumple the paper up again, and try to shoot a “basket” in the trash can. For each basket scored, the player receives one point. Continue playing until all of the paper balls are in the basket, or take them out and start all over again.
Activity 6: Spell It
Students will need a sheet of paper and index cards with sight words written on them.
How to play:
Students will take turns picking up a card from the stack, then reading the word or covering it up and spelling it. If the answer is correct the player gets a point. The player with the most points wins.
Activity 7: Syllable Troll Talk
Objective: To reinforce students’ ability to synthesize words form their separate syllables
Activity: Read this story to your student.
Once upon a time there was a kind little troll who loved to give people presents. The only catch was that the troll always wanted people to know what their present was before giving it to them. The problem was that the little troll had a very strange way of talking. If he was going to tell a child that the present was a bicycle, he would say “bi-cy-cle.” Not until the child had guessed what the present was would he be completely happy.
Adult: Now you must pretend to be the troll and go around the room, presenting a “present” your student, pronouncing the name of the present syllable by syllable. When the child guesses the word, she or he is to name a present for somebody else.
Example gifts to pronounce:
Barbie
coconuts
rhinoceroses
Baseball
computer
roller skates
Basketball
fingerprints
spaghetti
bicycle
frisbee
television
boomerang
guitar
trampoline
broccoli
refrigerator
Nintendo
Produce writing for a variety of purposes.
Activity 1: Play “tell me how”
In this activity your student pretends he/she is writing to a space alien who doesn’t know anything about our culture. This alien does everything exactly as it’s said or written. Your student's job is to choose an everyday task, like brushing his/her teeth or making a sandwich. Then, he/she needs to write step-by-step directions about how to do the task for the alien. When he/she is done, you get to be the alien and try to follow the steps exactly as they wrote them. Your student may be surprised at what was left out!
Activity 2: Play a writing game
This turn-taking writing game is based on a classic kids’ book by Remy Charlip called Fortunately. In it, something lucky happens and then something unlucky happens. Each event is introduced by either the word “fortunately” or the word “unfortunately.” To play, take a piece of paper and write a sentence beginning with “Fortunately,” such as “Fortunately it was a sunny day. I wanted to play outside.” Pass the paper to the next player, who will add an “unfortunately” sentence, such as “Unfortunately, I had to clean my room.” Keep going until the story is too silly to continue.
Activity 3: Rewrite the ending to any story
Tell your student that the author of their favorite book has sent them a letter asking them to come up with an alternate ending to their favorite book. Please use complete sentences with capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.
Activity 4: Would you rather writing
Have your student come up with their own would you rather questions. Have them state their opinion and why. Please be sure they have complete sentences, capital letters, and punctuation.
Examples:
Would you rather have a pet snake or giant lizard?
Would you rather eat raw fish or broccoli?
Activity 5: The Ship is Loaded with…
Materials: something to toss (ball or beanbag)
Begin the game by saying, “The ship is loaded with ________ (i.e. cheese). Then toss the ball to the next person. They must repeat the original rhyme, then add an additional rhyming word. (i.e. The ship is loaded with cheese and peas.) Continue this way until you run out of rhymes. Have the student write the words they remember. Then begin the game again with new cargo.
Activity 6: Tongue Twisters
Tongue twisters are sentences in which all (or nearly all) the words begin with the same letter sound. Write a tongue twister like, “She sells seashells at the seashore.” Have your student underline the same beginning letter sound. Now help your student write their own tongue twisters. You may even give them the starting sound or let them decide for themselves.
Activity 7: Act It Out
Have your student act out what is happening in the story as you read.
Activity 8: Boomerang Journal
Grab a spiral notebook and write messages back and forth to each other.
Activity 9 : Family Trip Journals
Together write/create a family trip journal. Include events and even photos if desired. Even everyday trips to the store or the park are great things to write about.
Apply taught grammar skills into writing (capitalization, punctuation, spelling, etc.)
Activity 1: Write Silly Sentences
What you need: 20 index cards, 2 paper bags, markers and drawing paper
What to do: Write 10 nouns (person, place, animal, thing) on index cards. Write 10 verbs (action words) on index cards. Place each set in its own paper bag/stacks. Have your student pull out one card from each bag and write a sentence using the 2 cards. Make sure that it is a complete sentence with a capital letter and ending punctuation. Have your student draw his/her silly sentences. Encourage creativity and detailed sentences
Activity 2: Parts of Speech Popsicle Sort
Write the following words from the chart on popsicle sticks. Have student pull a stick out of a cup and sort them according to its part of speech.
Use the chart below to check your student's work.
Verbs:
Run
Jump
Dance
Sing
Drink
Adjectives:
Smelly
Red
Hot
Shiny
Beautiful
Nouns:
Teacher
Desk
Bed
Pencil
Target
Adverbs:
Yesterday
Quickly
Never
Happily
Here
Activity 3: Spin an End Mark
Print out or create your own punctuation spinner using a paper clip, piece of paper, and pencil. Have your student spin the paper clip and create a sentence that would end with that punctuation mark. Have student recite the sentence using the correct expression.
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