Friday, July 30, 2010

More Fun Summer Reading Learning for Nannies and Au Pairs

Make an Alphabet Book
You will need photos of the child and their family and friends, a photo album or scrap book, and some paper and markers.

In the scrapbook or photo album assign each page as a letter in the alphabet, and make sure the pages are in alphabetical order.

Then, have the child look through their photos to find pictures them doing an activity that starts with the same letter or a photo of something that starts with the letter of the page. Or, you set up photo shots together especially for this project. For example, for the letter "O" the child can include a picture of her visiting the ocean and a photo of an ostrich she saw at the zoo. For the letter "P" she might include a photo of herself playing piano and you can take a photo of her using a pen.

Story Smarts and Parts
Read children stories in which it is easy to tell what happens first, next, and last such as fairy tales like, "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." At the end of the story ask the child what happens at the very beginning of the story. Then ask what happened next. Then ask what happened at the end of the story.

Story Sprint
Have the child read a story as if they are in a race. Set a time for one minute. Say, "start." Begin timing for one minute. At the end of the minute say, "Stop." and count the number of words read correctly. Help her with words she doesn't know. Have her read the same story again for one minute. Count the number of words correctly again. Compare the numbers of words to the number read in the first reading. Praise her for reading accurately and quickly.

Your Own Story Ending
An important part of reading and listening to stories is learning that they have endings. Read a story to the child that he does not already know. When you are close to the end of the story, stop reading. Ask the child how he would complete the story. Let your charge say the words to you as you write the ending. Then finish reading the story's ending and your charge's ending of the story are the same and different.

These fun reading activities come from 365 Reading Activities

2 comments:

Tara said...

Love the alphabet book! I made one nine years ago as a going away gift for a former charge. He was 2 1/2 and LOVED the album with pictures of him and his favorite things/places/people throughout. I did it scrapboook style...each page was one letter, with at least one photo and a title of whatever it was..."J is for Jumping!" then in small letters around the picture I put other words that started with that letter...and really tried to include words/names that were important to him. And I put stickers on each page, labeled, of things that started with that letter as well. It was so fun to make, and he carried it around for months!

Anonymous said...

Using the alphabet for a scrapbook for the kids works well too! Such great ideas again, thanks! Maria L Miami FL