I'm ending back-to-school month with a bang! With the help of my wonderful dad, I've been working hard to get some more of the materials I made for my daughter converted to pdf so they can be posted online. I'm calling it my Mega Ready-to-Read Bundle. It includes 5 books, 6 worksheets, 52 print-n-cut Word Builder cards, and a template for printing custom Words I Know cards. There is one 8 page book for each short vowel. I wrote the books so that, unlike many store bought beginning reader books, children just learning to sound out words can actually read the entire book themselves. There are no difficult words in these books. Each book has a review sheet which requires the child to match words from the book with their corresponding picture, and there is one final review sheet that covers all 5 books. The books are formatted to either be read as ebooks or printed & assembled. The print-n-cut Word Builder cards allow children to take the words learned in these books and use them build other words containing the same base sound. For example, in "A Man, a Cat, and a Rat" children read the words "cat", "mat", "rat", "sat". Take the "at" base, then add different letters to the beginning of the base to build new words such as "bat, "fat", "hat", and "pat". There are 26 bases and 26 individual letter cards. After you child sounds out all of those words, open the Words I Know template and print out each word your child can read. Cut them apart and let your child use them to build his own sentences and stories. There are so many ways to store these cards. Punch a hole in each one and put them on a key ring, attach a magnet to each one and put them on the fridge (or print them on magnet paper), or create a Words I Know wall in your house so everyone can share in his accomplishment. The purpose is to build your child's confidence while making reading interactive and fun.
I have posted this entire bundle for sale in my CurrClick store for the very affordable price of $1.43. $.43 goes to CurrClick for hosting my store, and I make $1 from every sale. I have really tried to make my materials as affordable as possible. However, I know that sometimes each and every dollar counts, so I will be giving away one completely printed, and assembled set. Minus the template; that will be emailed to you. The giveaway will run for one week, ending at midnight on Friday, August 30th. The winner will be announced in my post next Saturday, the 31st. The more you spread the word, the more entries you can earn, so be sure to share about the giveaway on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter! Even if you do not have ready-to-read aged children, this bundle makes a great gift. I truly hope your family (or friends) enjoy these materials as much as mine has.
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Karissa
Although Reading Month is coming to an end, that doesn't mean it's time to stop reading. Quite the opposite, actually. This week's Mid-week Morsel features three websites to keep your youngsters excited about reading all year long. Starfall has online games and activities for children learning their abc's all the way up to reading short stories. Reading Rockets is more of a website for you, to give you information about ways to help your child become a better reader. They have book lists, FAQ about reading, articles, and many other reading resources. If you would like to do more research on your own, the Florida Reading Association has a long list of reading websites for you to check out. As usual, the sites I've recommended above are free resources. However, there are several good subscription based websites and paid programs out there for helping your child read, ReadingA-Z, All About Reading, Reading Eggs, and Click-N-Read to name a few.
As I've mentioned already, March is reading month. The first step in reading is learning to recognize each letter and the sounds it makes. When my daughter was learning to read, I had trouble finding materials that were both useful and affordable. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on materials. After all, as soon as my daughter mastered one concept, she lost interest in the material teaching it as she was already working hard on learning the next concept. I sat down at my computer and, using Microsoft Word & Microsoft Picture It, I began writing my own books and creating my own manipulatives for her. Here is the first book on the way to reading, Letter Sounds and Letter Signs. I made up a song (sung to the tune of Where is Thumbkin?) using the primary sound each letter makes (which means all vowels are short), and included the American Sign Language sign for each letter to make the book more fun and interactive. Each page also includes a picture of both the upper and lower case letter, and a picture of something that begins with that letter sound. Please note that when your child sings the song, the red and blue letters represent letter sounds, not letter names. Finally, I have to say a special thanks to my dad for helping me get this converted from Word to PDF. Thanks, Daddio! You're the best! I hope you all enjoy it. Let me know what you think.
Karissa
