Help At Home 

I hope you will find this page useful!

  Letter/Sound Identification

Letter and sound identification proficiency is one of the earliest indicators of literacy success so the sooner you get involved, the better!

Letter Identification

Write the letters of the alphabet on index cards.

• Use them as flash cards

• Play "Go Fish" with them

• Mix them up and have your child pick up one card at a time.  If identified correctly, s/he gets to keep the card.  If not, the card must go back in the pile.  Continue until all cards have been identified.

Have your child identify letters in the newspaper, magazines, books, etc. while you are reading with him/her.

Create a Letter Bingo Game.  Play the game and have your child identify the letters on his/her game board.

Sound Identification

Sing songs or rhymes that have specific sounds in them.  Humpty Dumpty is a great nursery rhyme to teach the /h/ sound.

Associate the sounds with an action.  For the sound /f/, flap your arms as if you are flying.  Tap your toes for the /t/ sound.

Create a Sound Bingo Game.  Instead of calling the letters, say the sounds and have your child search for the matching letter.

    
Reading

There are many ways to help your child in the earliest stages of reading.  I have included some suggestions for you to try at home!

• Read to your child every day!

• While reading to your child, have him/her practice pointing to each word.  This reinforces the concept of one-to-one correspondence and is crucial to beginning reading.

• Talk about the features of all books.  Front cover, back cover, title, author, illustrator, title page, etc.

• Show your child the difference between words and letters in some of their favorite books.

• Point out sight words in familiar books.  Sight words are words that occur frequently in written materials.

• Take your child on a "picture walk" before reading a new book.  Have him/her tell you what they think the book will be about.

• Teach your child to look at the pictures for clues to unfamiliar words.

• Help your student identify "chunks" of familiar words.  For example: your student encounters the unknown word "candy."  Show him/her that the word "and" is part of the word candy.  Help him/her decode the rest of the word.

• Teach your child to get his/her mouth ready to say the first sound in an unknown word.  Help him/her decode it further.

• Label familiar items in the home and have your child "read the room."