Summer (noun) Text: the season between spring and autumn
JMS Reading Department offers ideas to keep reading skills up this summer!
• Have a specific day and amount of time that is reading time. Keep the time short (30 minutes or less).
• Read together. Go to the library and check out a few good books together. Take turns reading pages, chapters, or paragraphs. Get two copies of the book and read it independently. Then plan a date to discuss the book over a frappachino!
• Get books on tape at the library. Children love being read to--even if it is with a tape. This helps with intonation and adds emotion to their reading. And it’s great for you to “read” together in the car!
• Get your child a magazine subscription. Go to a local bookstore and pick out a few to choose from.
• Merriam Webster online! www.m-w.com with word of the day and word games!
• Turn on the closed captioning of a TV show or movie, and then mute the TV. Watch the movie or show by only reading the closed captioning.
• Planning a summer vacation? Have your child plan a day of fun. Take them to the travel agent and let them gather some brochures. Search for information on the internet with your supervision, of course. Make sure they plan at least 3 events in the day, leaving time for lunch and time for rest.
• Encourage your student to read books that have been made into movies such as Ella Enchanted, Tuck Everlasting, Freak the Mighty, Because of Winn Dixie, Hoot. Check out the movie from your local movie store or at the local theater. Discuss the similarities and differences between the book and the film. Ask your student which he/she liked better and why.
• Get the daily newspaper. Let them read comics and the variety section. Does your child understand why the comic is funny? See if they can find what movie is playing at a theater near you and what time to go.
• Play word and vocabulary games: Scrabble, UpWords, Apples to Apples, Scattegories, Outburst, Boggle— even Trivial Pursuit! Anything that will get them to think about spelling and word meanings. Allow dictionary use for Scrabble and Up Words—that’s good practice, too!
• Get some puzzle books—Crosswords, Word Finds, Fill-ins. Anything that gets your student to interact with words
• Watch Wheel of Fortune to increase idioms and figurative language as well as how words are put together to increase spelling. Sometimes they ask for a letter that can’t possibly be in the puzzle if you know something about words.
• Play letter games in the car. I love the alphabet game where you have to find each letter of the alphabet in order on billboards and signs. You can do it out loud at first, but then each person finds them quietly until the winner announces a Z! This helps children pay attention to the world around them and supports consumer vocabulary. They will know what types of signs will have certain letters. Great for pre-driving exposure, too!