Reading Skills

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Please find below some Beanie Baby Strategies that we have been using and practicing at school to help children figure out unknown words. These reading strategies are modeled after the Beanie Baby figures that were popular a few years ago. When your child is reading at home, it would be good to refer to these strategies as that keeps the language consistent between home and school.

Most of these strategies are fairly straightforward but the following provides a brief explanation of each. Eagle Eye tells you to Look at the Pictures: Have your child look at the pictures for clues to help figure out the word.

Lips the Fish tells you to Get your Lips Ready: Have your child say the first few sounds of the word out loud.

Stretchy Snake tells you to Stretch it Out: Have your child stretch the word out slowly and put the sounds together to figure out the word. As a further point, we prefer to use the phrase “say it slowly,” rather than “sound it out.”

Chunky Monkey tells you to Chunk the Word: Have your child look for a part or a “chunk” that they know (ex: -ing, -old, -and, etc.).

Skippy Frog tells you to Skip it, Skip it: Have your child skip the word, read to the end of the sentence, and then go back and try it again.

Tryin’ Lion tells you to Try it Again: Have your child reread the sentence and try a word that makes sense.

Helpful Kangaroo tells you to Ask for Help: After your child has tried applying some of the strategies as learned, he/she can ask someone else for help. Dot the Giraffe tells you to Watch the Punctuation: Have your child watch the punctuation (, . ? ! “”). Example: Read with expression when you see the talking/quotation marks.

Flippy Dolphin tells you to Flip the Vowel Sound: Have your child try another vowel sound if the first one did not sound right. In other words, try a long vowel sound if the short vowel sound does not work (example: a vowel will say its own name when an ‘e’ is added to the end as is bit to bite, hat to hate, not to note).

The children at school are becoming familiar with using these strategies to help solve unknown words. We hope that you will find them useful at home. Please do not hesitate to call your child’s teacher/school should you have any questions. Eagle Eye Lips the Stretchy Fish Snake Look at the Get Your Lips “S-t-r-e-t-ch” Pictures! Ready! it out!

- Look at the pictures - Say the first few - Stretch the word out for clues to help figure sounds of the word out slowly. out the word. loud. - Put the sounds - Read to the end of together to figure out the sentence and say the word. the sounds again. Chunky Skippy Frog Tryin’ Lion Monkey Skip It, Skip It! Try It Again! Chunk the Word!

- Look for a “chunk” - Skip the word (“skip - Try to reread the that you know (-ing, it, skip it”). sentence. -and, -art, -old, - Read to the end of - Try a word that etc.). the sentence. makes sense. - Look for a word part - “Hop back” and read (be-, -er, etc.). it, read it. Helpful Dot the Flippy Kangaroo Giraffe Dolphin Ask For Help! Punctuation! Flip the vowel sound!

- After you have tried - Look at the - Try the other vowel all of the other punctuation (, . ? ! ). sound if it doesn’t strategies, ask for - Read with expression sound right. help. when you see talking - Flip a short sound marks (“ “). into a long sound or vice versa.