Looking for ways to build reading and writing skills over the summer? Poetry is the answer! Children of all ages love the magic, rhyme and silliness that often accompany poems written for children. Many of my favorite children’s poems are written by Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstein.Prelutsky books include A Pizza the Size of the Sun and The Dragons Are Singing Tonight. Both are perfect for all ages of elementary school aged children. Silverstein’s Falling Up, The Missing Piece, and Where the Sidewalk Ends, include many classics.
The best place to begin is by joining your child in reading poems aloud together. Once your child has developed an ear for poetry through listening, encourage him to write his own poetry. Poetry requires the writer to look at everyday things in new imaginative ways. Purchase a poet’s notebook and for older children, a calligraphy marker to add to the fun. Encourage them to experiment with line breaks, punctuation and describing ordinary objects in extraordinary ways.
Two good websites for kids are: wwwgigglepoetry.com and www.poetry4kids.com/index.php
Children that don’t read over the summer usually regress and return to school at a lower reading level in the fall. Here are 10 easy ways to keep your child reading.
1. Go to the library once a week and let your child pick out a pile of books that will last a week.
2. Let them read almost anything they like. Comic books for example can be relaxing and fun for a change.
3. Let your child subscribe to one or more age and subject appropriate magazines that interest him or her. Among the many that are written for specific ages include Sports Illustrated Kids, Ranger Rick, Nickelodeon, American Girl, and Highlights.
4. Let them use the computer/library to research topics of interest to them.
5. Find mystery or puzzle books which encourage children to solve a mystery through clues in the text. THE ELEVENTH HOUR, A CURIOUS MYSTERY: An elephant’s 11th birthday party is marked by 11 games before the banquet to be eaten at the 11th hour, but when the time to eat arrives, the b-day feast has disappeared. Reader is invited to guess the thief.
6. Let them stay up an extra hour to read before going to bed.
7. Hook them on a good book series. They’ll be anxious to finish one story and begin another.
8. Put a time limit on video game use.
9. Be a good role model, let your children see you reading.
10. Read a book before attending summer movies and compare and contrast them.
Guest Post by Julie Niles Petersen:
Fresh out of the master’s program in reading, I created a list of things good readers do. The list was to be used with my students in my new reading specialist position. This list included:
Now reading this list, you might be thinking, “That is some list!!!” which it is. It’s a great list of things good readers do while they are reading to help them understand. However, it is loaded with jargon that struggling readers often do not understand, isn’t it? That’s what I thought, too. So I decided to think up some kind of mantra that would help struggling readers. This is what I came up with:
You get out of reading what you put into it. Good readers do MORE than just read the words. Good readers think, wonder, reflect, and connect while they read.”
Julie Niles Petersen is a Reading Specialist and blogs about literacy at www.TWRCtank.com .
