Reading Resource

Nightly Reading Time!

Now that school is back in session, many grade levels have required nightly reading time.  It is essential that children read at home to continue to grow as a reader and practice the reading skills/strategies they've learned throughout the school year.  You might want to take advantage this year of the great deals offered by Scholastic through the book clubs.  Look in your child's Tuesday folder for these flyers as teachers send them home monthly.  Take your child/ren to the public library to get his/her own library card!  Stop in to one of the Charles County libraries for another source of books.  Beginning in the month of October, students are able to earn a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut by completing their required monthly reading.

Study Island/Raz Kids

Students are able to put their reading skills into practice while on these educational sites.  Each child in grades 3-5 has a paid subscription to Study Island, while many students in grades K-2 have a paid subscription to Raz Kids.  Contact your child's teacher for more information about these programs and how to log on.  This is another opportunity for students to continue learning while at home.

Sight Word Practice

Need ideas on how to practice sight words with your child?  Sight words are words that we must memorize, they do not follow phonetic patterns so they can't be sounded out.  Try having your child do multisensory activities like:  write the words in the dirt with a stick, write the words on your child's back and have them guess the word, type the words on the computer or have a word hunt by finding the words in the newspaper, in stories or on food boxes.

Tips to Help Make Your Child a More Successful Reader

Students in all grades can benefit from having discussions at home with you about the books they are reading.  Engage your child in a discussion about books they are reading at home.  Ask them about the characters, setting of the story, the main problem, main events and the solution to the problem.  Talk to them about other ways the problem could have been solved or other ways the book could have ended.  For informational texts, ask them about what was learned from the text, what were the big ideas and key details about the topic. 

Encourage your child to read a variety of texts.  If your child normally reads fiction (stories, plays, poems), have them check out non-fiction books from the library (How-to books, Factual Topics).  Picture books, chapter books, informational books, magazines, newspaper, recipes, instructions, etc. are all great materials to have your children read.  Remember that everyone loves to be read to, even our older students like to hear a good book – it sharpens their listening comprehension skills.