Posts Tagged ‘phonemic awareness’

Storytime Standouts looks at wild west picture book, She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain

She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain created by Jonathan Emmett and Deborah Allwright
Wild West picture book published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon and Schuster’s Children’s Publishing Division

Every now and then a picture book crosses my desk that is impossible to resist. The cover art and/or the title draw my attention and I quickly make time to peak inside.

Earlier this week, She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain did just that. Bonnie Bandit, perched atop one of her six white horses, enthusiastically galloped to the fore. Playfully written by Jonathan Emmett and exuberantly illustrated by Deborah Allwright, this delightful rendition of the classic song is all one could hope for. With suggested actions for each verse, loads of extra details (Her pajamas are ‘flowery and frilly, and they make her look quite silly‘) and eye-popping illustrations, this gem will appeal to adults who fondly remember belting out the song while in the backseat of a car and youngsters who will love to ‘Slurp-slurp, Bish- Bosh, Toot-Toot‘ and ‘Yee-Ha‘

Perfect for bedtime or circle time, this is one bandit y’all should all go out to meet!

She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain at Amazon.com

She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain at Amazon.ca

She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain songsheet

  She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain

Lyrics for the traditional song

Yesterday was tough around here and by bedtime my youngest son was very ready to enjoy some snuggle time and some new picture books. Because it had been a rough day, we wanted something fun. I reached for Duck’s Tale by Harmen van Straaten, Smelly Bill by Daniel Postgate and Grill Pan Eddy by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross. All three picture books had very appealing cover art and looked as though they would fit the bill.

Duck’s Tale is a lovely story about the friendship between Toad and Duck. Duck finds a pen and takes it to Toad’s house. Toad is busy when Duck arrives. He is reading the newspaper while wearing his reading glasses. Duck concludes that Toad reads because he has glasses. Duck subsequently decides that possessing a pen should enable him to write.

He writes for an entire day and then invites Toad to ‘read’ his ‘story.’ Not one to disappoint his good friend, Toad ‘reads’ Duck’s Tale beautifully.

Recommended for children 3 and up. Older boys and girls will appreciate the subtleties and perhaps wonder whether Duck actually writes a story and if Toad is able read.

Duck’s Tale at Amazon.com

Duck’s Tale at Amazon.ca

Oh yuk, Smelly Bill is one mucky dog. He loves to roll in mud and rubbish. He steadfastly resists his family’s attempts to de-reek him! When Great Aunt Bleach arrives, she brings her disinfectant and scrub brush. Before long the house is sparkling from top to uh-oh – what is that smell? After a merry chase, Bill endures his bathie-wathie, and makes a mess of poor Great Aunt Bleach. With wonderful rhyming text and fun illustrations, Smelly Bill will be enjoyed by children of all ages.

Smelly Bill at Amazon.com

Smelly Bill at Amazon.ca

Grill Pan Eddy is one smart and daring mouse. Apparently fearless, he taunts his host family and their cat:

“No matter what we tried to do
No matter what we saidy.
There was no way of getting rid
Of that darn Grill Pan Eddy”

Eddy has a field day with the exterminator and makes regular appearances throughout the house. Finally beaten, the family grudgingly decides to let him stay.

Tony Ross’ great illustrations are perfect for this irreverent romp. Enjoy it with children 5 and up.

Grill Pan Eddy at Amazon.com

Grill Pan Eddy at Amazon.ca

When it comes to rhyming picture books, I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More! is a masterpiece

I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s and I remember, with great fondness, listening to my dad play the piano. It was one of his favourite leisure activities and we’d often sing along. One of the tunes he played was It Ain’t Gonna Rain No More.

I suppose my nostalgia is part of my joy in discovering I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More, written by Karen Beaumont and illustrated by David Catrow. Without hesitation, it makes my Top Ten list for preschool-aged children. It might even make my Top Five list.

With delightful, exuberant illustrations and equally fun text, you and your child will thoroughly enjoy this irresistible romp. Watch and sing along as a young child paints himself (and much of his home) from top to bottom.

If you’re not familiar with the tune, follow the link (above).

So I take some red
and I paint my…
Head!
Now I ain’t gonna paint no more.

Aw, what the heck!
Gonna paint my…
Neck!
Now I ain’t gonna paint no more.

The bonus with this terrific rhyming picture book is the wordplay; your youngster will be thinking of rhymes and anticipating the next word with no effort at all – just do yourself a favor and hide the paints and brushes in case your child is “inspired” to do a little painting herself!

Helping your child to gain phonemic awareness and preparing for formal reading instruction has never been more fun!

I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More at Amazon.com

I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More! at Amazon.ca

You won’t regret using wordplay to support your child’s phonemic awareness – good phonemic awareness will help a young child with reading readiness and spelling.

At one of my Parent Education programs at a preschool last Fall, I talked about the importance of helping children to develop phonemic awareness. I explained that, together with alphabet recognition, good phonemic awareness is critically important for young learners. We want children to understand that words are made up of sounds and we’d like them to learn to play with the sounds in words. Developing a good understanding of rhyming is one element of this. Children who ‘get’ the concept of rhyming are gaining phonemic awareness.

After my presentation, one of the moms in the audience told me that she’s been playing, “How’s Your Nose, Rose?” with her young son. The game begins with one of them asking, “How’s Your Nose, Rose?”   The other replies with, “How’s Your Back, Jack?”  and the game continues until every possible body part rhyme has been exploited;  “How’s your toe, Joe?”,  “”How’s your arm, Parm?”,  “How’s your leg, Peg?”, “How’s your brain, Jane?” etc.

What great fun and what a marvelous learning opportunity; it doesn’t cost a penny, it can be done anywhere, and asking, “How’s your nose, Rose?” just might make waiting in a long line a tiny bit easier.    If you have a great idea for an inexpensive, portable reading lesson, I hope you’ll share it with us.

So, how’s your tummy, Mommy?

Be sure to click to visit our Phonemic Awareness page and learn more about this important indicator of readiness for reading and writing

For more information, visit our page about phonemic awareness.

Learning to Read Fun with Rebus Chants!

The rebus chants are usually poems where several words are replaced with hand-drawn pictures. They are great for emergent readers because they usually include frequently repeated, predictable text AND rhyming words. The young child does not have to decode all the words – the rebus pictures fill-in-the-blanks.

In addition to giving children the satisfaction of “reading” (both text and illustrations), the poems will also support the development of phonemic awareness.

There are many sources of rebus chants. This is one that I created for you to download for free

  Counting Snowmen Rebus

Whether you checkout the Canadian Rainbow Horizons Publishing website or the American website, you’ll find free teaching units and detailed information including previews of the chant books.

Beginning to Read Day 5 included a delightful, rhyming picture book How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Mark Teague. The children enjoyed lots of laughs as they watched dinosaurs join a carpool, race through a school hallway, have fun at recess and try to behave properly in a classroom. This is a great book to read at this time of year. It provides gentle reminders about appropriate (and inappropriate) classroom behavior. Children love to watch enormous dinosaurs struggle to manage their manners – just as some children struggle in a classroom/school setting.

Day 5 also introduced the “Ot” word family – cot, dot, got, hot, lot, not, pot, rot plus three “tricky words” spot, slot and knot. Our Bingo game today reviewed all of the word families we’ve looked at this week.

How Do Dinosaurs Go to School at Amazon.com

How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? at Amazon.ca

The children who attended Beginning to Read today thoroughly enjoyed today’s story by William Steig, Pete’s a Pizza

When a sudden rainstorm spoil’s Pete’s plans, he is grumpy and sad. His dad decides that he ought to be made into a pizza! He kneeds Pete and stretches him, covers him with oil and adds tomatoes and cheese. Before long, the pizza is hot and ready to be sliced.

During today’s Beginning to Read class we talked quite alot about opposites. We began with ‘easy’ opposites (hot/cold, wet/dry/ big/small, happy/sad, inside/outside), moved onto slightly more challenging opposites (push/pull, empty/full, night/day, tall/short, true/false) and, finally, tried some ‘difficult’ opposites (warm/cool, always/never, man/woman).

Today’s Word Family was “ed” (Ed, Bed, fed, led, red, Ted). The tricky words were fled, newlywed and shred. We have many word family printables on this website, follow the link for more information.

We also looked for some easy Sight Words. Sight Words are also known as “Instant Word” and sometimes referred to as “Dolch Words.” They are high frequency words that beginning readers are encouraged to memorize (we, my, see, go, and, etc.) For the children who are already reading sight words, this was a reading activity. For the children who are not yet reading sight words, it was a matching activity. If you are interested, you can download sight word lists from our download page.

We played a mixed up alphabet game . Each child had two, three or four cards. Each card read, “I have ___. Who has ___?” The child with “I have A. Who has L?” started us off. The child with “I have L. Who has U?” read his/her card next. Basically, the children were listening for the letter names, checking to see if they had the letter and reading aloud when it was their turn. Very good fun – many of the children would like to play the game again.

Finally, we used Elkonin boxes. The children listened to words and decided whether a letter sound was at the beginning, middle or end of a word. As an example, I asked the children to listen for the /S/ sound. When I said, “Snake,” they should have identified that the /S/ sound was at the beginning of the word. When I said, “Pigs,” they should have noticed that the /S/ sound was at the end of the word. When I said, “Icicle,” they should have noticed that the /S/ sound was in the middle of the word. Note: this is a listening activity – whether the /S/ is made by a “S” or a “C” is unimportant. Children will normally hear the beginning sounds most easily, the middle sounds are the most difficult to hear. Children who learn to hear the sounds and notice when they occur will use this skill when spelling, writing and reading. This is a skill you can work on anytime, anywhere.

The focus of our last few posts has been phonemic awareness, an important element of readiness for reading and spelling. Here are 5 easy ways you can assess your child’s phonemic awareness. Be sure to explore our related posts for additional assessment tools and ways to enhance reading and writing readiness

#1 – Can your child break a word apart by syllable? If you say “carpet” can your child hear and say “car – pet”?

#2 – Can your child mush sounds together (to make a word)? If you say “r – a – t” can your child hear and say “rat”?

#3 – Could your child hear whether two words begin with the same sound? smile and sun vs moon and earth

#4 – When asked to listen for a sound, can your child distinguish whether the sound is at the beginning, middle or end of a word? For example, when asked to listen for the /S/ sound, can your child hear it at the beginning of “skunk”, in the middle of “listen” and at the end of “tents”?

#5 – Could your child tell you the sound at the beginning of a word? Could he say which sound is at the end of a word? And, most difficult of all, could your child correctly identify the sound in the middle of a word?

It is not difficult to understand why a child with above average phonemic awareness will probably be a very good speller. If he or she can hear the sounds in words, he or she is more likely to spell the words correctly. Likewise, a child with above average phonemic awareness will probably be a very good reader.

Here are some free printables that you can use to help your child notice the sounds in words

It is worthwhile to note that these printables can be used before a child is reading or writing or after he/she is a beginning reader.

  Match the Ending Consonant Sound

Another way to help children develop phonemic awareness. Matching the ending consonant sound is more difficult than matching the beginning consonant sound.

  Match the Beginning Consonant Sound

Cut the pictures apart and have children match the initial consonant sound - a great way to support the development of phonemic awareness.

For more ways to help your child develop phonemic awareness, follow this link to visit our Phonemic Awareness page.

Our recent posts have provided lots of ways to help your child gain phonemic awareness. Here are some informal ways you can assess your child

Keep in mind that phonemic awareness is not pencil-based and does not require letters or even books. Phonemic Awareness is an understanding that words are made up of sounds. We can enhance phonemic awareness by sharing songs and stories that feature rhyming, alliteration and other wordplay but when helping a child to develop phonemic awareness, we should not be having them do worksheets or work with letters. We want to do auditory activities that help children notice sounds and understand words are made up of sounds. As they become more proficient, we help them to understand that they can manipulate those sounds to create different words with different meanings.

Using empty Film Canisters , create a sound matching activity by putting dry rice in two containers, jingle bells in two containers, small pebbles in two containers and leaving two empty. Can your child match the containers based only on the sounds they make?

Willoughby Walliby wee
An elephant sat on me
Willoughby Walliby woo
An elephant sat on you
Willoughbly Walliby Wham
An elephant sat on Sam

So I take some red
and I paint my… ______!
Now I ain’t gonna paint no more.

Aw, what the heck!
Gonna paint my… ______!
Now I ain’t gonna paint no more.

Here are the solutions to yesterday’s Hink Pink riddles

an overweight kitten (fat cat)
a very large hog (big pig)
a damp dog (wet pet)
a large stick (big twig)
a disappointed father (sad dad)
being startled by a grizzly (bear scare)
a turquise sandle (blue shoe)
how rabbits pay for things (bunny money)
24 hours without any work (play day)
mama bear massages her baby (cub rub)
use one to catch your goldfish (pet net)
rosy sheets and blankets (red bed)
rockers at the beach (sand band)

Hink Pink Riddles at Amazon.com

Hink Pink Riddles at Amazon.ca

What do you call a rabbit who tells jokes?

If you are playing around with Hink Pinks, the answer is a funny bunny.

Solving and making up Hink Pink riddles will help your child to develop phonemic awareness and, since phonemic awareness is a key to reading success will bolster early reading and spelling.

So, here are some Hink Pinks for you to try…

an overweight kitten
a very large hog
a damp dog
a large stick
a disappointed father
being startled by a grizzly
a turquoise sandle
what rabbits use to pay for things
24 hours without any work
mama bear massages her baby
use one to catch your goldfish
crimson sheets and blankets
rockers at the beach

And here are the solutions

an overweight kitten (fat cat)
a very large hog (big pig)
a damp dog (wet pet)
a large stick (big twig)
a disappointed father (sad dad)
being startled by a grizzly (bear scare)
a turquise sandle (blue shoe)
how rabbits pay for things (bunny money)
24 hours without any work (play day)
mama bear massages her baby (cub rub)
use one to catch your goldfish (pet net)
rosy sheets and blankets (red bed)
rockers at the beach (sand band)

Hink Pink Riddles at Amazon.com

Hink Pink Riddles at Amazon.ca

Websites Featuring Hink Pinks

Hink Pinks online

Trotter Math’s Hink Pinks

For more ways to help your child develop phonemic awareness, follow this link to visit our Phonemic Awareness page.

Phonemic Awareness is a key to reading readiness and hearing rhyming is a measure of it. Use these sets of free printable rhyming words in your classroom or home to develop phonemic awareness and help prepare your child for reading.

Sound matching and learning about rhyming words will help your child to gain phonemic awareness and phonemic awareness is a key to learning to read. If you are unfamiliar with the term phonemic awareness and/or if you would like to learn more about it, we encourage you to follow this link to our page about phonemic awareness.

Here are some ways you could use these free rhyming word printables to promote phonemic awareness in children

1. Print off one set of rhyming word pictures and then cut the pictures apart. Make sure your child knows what each picture is. Talk about what rhyming sounds like. Ask your child to match the words that rhyme .
(ring, king
bee, tree
hat, cat)

2. Use one set of rhyming words to play a rhyming word memory game with your child. Turn all the pictures upside down and take turns trying to patch the pairs.

3. Make a file folder memory matching game – glue one half of the rhyming pictures to the inside of the file folder and leave the remaining pictures (loose) to be matched. You can make it a self correcting activity by putting a different symbol beside each of the pictures you glued to the folder and use the same symbols on the back of the matching pictures.

Our early learning printables, including our rhyming word printables are in PDF format, if you don’t already use Adobe Reader, you will need it to access the downloads.

Click here to view our selection of free printable alphabets and all of our early learning printables.

Rhyming Word Printables

  Match the Rhyming Words

24 Pictures of rhyming words (king, ring, bee, tree, hat, cat, mouse, house, bed, red, clock, lock, tire, fire, bear, chair, train, chain, skate, gate, fox, box, frog, dog)

  Match the Rhyming Words - Set 2

24 pictures of rhyming words (whale, sail, hook, book, wig, pig, stamp, lamp, wet, jet, five, hive, hair, stair, fish, dish, flower, tower, clip, hip, moose, goose, ghost, toast)

Splish, Splash Spring written by Jan Carr and illustrated by Dorothy Donohue
Spring theme picture book published by Holiday House

Bright, cheerful illustrations made from felt highlight this happy tribute to a blowy and showery spring. Splish, Splash, Spring includes all sorts of great details for young children to discover and explore: mother robin feeding her peeping babies, frogs swimming in a stream, spiders and ladybugs near the bright yellow crocuses. Would be a great tie-in to making and flying kites.

Best for preschool children

Kites are swooping
Loop-de-looping
Snapping, flapping
Look at me!

Be sure to visit the illustrator’s website (link above) for details on how she creates the eye-catching illustrations from felt.

Kite Making For Child Flyers from My Best Kite

Scholastic’s lesson plan for Splish Splash Spring

Splish, Splash, Spring at Amazon.com

Splish, Splash, Spring at Amazon.ca

Follow this link to our Spring and Easter theme printables for preschool and kindergarten

Five Little Ducks – illustrated by Ivan Bates
Published by Orchard Books an imprint of Scholastic

Perfect for celebrating Spring, Bates’ lovely, gentle illustrations capture this traditional children’s counting song beautifully. In addition to watching the young ducklings venture into the hills, young children will enjoy spotting a friendly beaver, a curious gull, a hungry rabbit and a grazing cow.

Mother Duck is filled with affection for her youngsters as they go forth, she is anxious when the ducklings are missing and overjoyed when they return.

Observant children will notice that each of the ducklings returns with a special gift for Mother Duck.

Endnotes include the music and additional verses for Five Little Ducks.

Best suited for toddlers or younger preschool-aged children

Five Little Ducks at Amazon.com

Five Little Ducks at Amazon.ca

Follow this link to our Spring and Easter theme printables for preschool and kindergarten

A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee – written and Illustrated by Chris Van Dusen

An absolutely irresistible adventure story for young children. A Camping Spree With Mr. Magee is one of my all-time favourite picture books. When Mr. Magee and his small dog begin their camping trip, they have no inkling that a near-sighted, marshmallow-fancying bear will soon have them staring down a fifty foot waterfall.

They were snoring and snoozing, enjoying a dream, When splash went the camper right into the stream! The splash shook the camper. They jumped out of bed. “Now what in the world was that?” Magee said.

Both adults and children will thoroughly enjoy the rich and dramatic illustrations as well as the delightful rhyming prose. Don’t miss it!

36 pages, Ages 4 to 7

Chris Van Dusen Website

A Camping Spree With Mr. Magee at Amazon.com

A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee at Amazon.ca

We invite you to extend your child’s learning with our Camping theme writing paper for kids

  Writing paper for kids - Camping

Camping theme interlined paper for beginning writers.

Our pictures of rhyming words have been very, very popular with visitors to Storytime Standouts so we are adding a second set.

Use these free PDF downloads to create a rhyming word matching activity for young children. Print the PDFs, cut the pictures apart and have your child match the rhyming words. For a trickier challenge, use the pictures to play a memory-matching game.

Our free early learning printables, including our rhyming word printables are in PDF format, if you don’t already have Adobe Reader, you will need to use it to access the rhyming word printables.

Some of our early learning printables are available to Storytime Standouts members only. To become a member of the website, please click on the “Members” tab and register as a user.

  Match the Rhyming Words

24 Pictures of rhyming words (king, ring, bee, tree, hat, cat, mouse, house, bed, red, clock, lock, tire, fire, bear, chair, train, chain, skate, gate, fox, box, frog, dog)

  Match the Rhyming Words - Set 2

24 pictures of rhyming words (whale, sail, hook, book, wig, pig, stamp, lamp, wet, jet, five, hive, hair, stair, fish, dish, flower, tower, clip, hip, moose, goose, ghost, toast)

You’ll find hundreds of Storytime Standouts early learning printables here.

For more ways to help your child learn about rhyming and to help develop your child’s phonemic awareness, follow this link to visit our Phonemic Awareness page.

As always, we hope that if you enjoy our large selection of free early learning downloads, you will support this site by linking to Amazon through Storytime Standouts.

Rhyming Games at Amazon.com

Rhyming Games at Amazon.ca

I’d Know You Anywhere – written by Hazel Hutchins and illustrated by Ruth Ohi
Picture book about a child’s relationship with his father published by Annick Press Ltd

Read our interview with Ruth Ohi

This story is especially suitable for a Dad’s Day at preschool or for celebrating Father’s Day. Young Jeremy attempts to hide amongst the toys in his bedroom. Daddy finds Jeremy and reassures him that he would know him anywhere and in any form. The father-son game continues as Jeremy imagines wonderful hiding places and disguises. He could disguise himself and hide near a creek or in the ocean or up in the sky…

If I became a sheep
upon a mountainside,
one of many thousand sheep,
a woolly, moving tide-
If I became a sheep,
would you know me then?

Daddy reassures his son that no matter where Jeremy might hide, he would find him.

Reminiscent of The Runaway Bunny, I’d Know You Anywhere concludes with Daddy and Jeremy disguising themselves and sneeking up on mom.

Ruth Ohi’s illustrations do a lovely job of depicting the playful relationship between father and son.

The story is best suited to very young children, aged two and up.

24 pages

I’d Know You Anywhere at Amazon.com

I’d Know You Anywhere at Amazon.ca

A Pod of Orcas: A Seaside Counting Book written by Sheryl McFarlane and illustrated by Kirsti Anne Wakelin
Counting, Rhyming Picture book published by Fitzhenry and Whiteside

Preschoolers will love counting the sailboats, harbor seals, sandcastles and magnificent orca whales. Written and illustrated by residents of British Columbia, the gentle rhymes and striking illustrations encourage closer examination of a beautiful day at the seaside.

Highly recommended

24 pages and suitable for children 2 to 5

A Pod of Orcas at Amazon.com

A Pod of Orcas at Amazon.ca

Two Shoes, Blue Shoes, New Shoes! -Written by Sally Fitz-Gibbon, Illustrated by Farida Zaman
Picture book published by Fitzhenry and Whiteside

Wearing new blue shoes to school, our happy heroine bounces through city streets with great enthusiasm. Delightful watercolor illustrations exude energy and compliment the simple, rhyming text beautifully.

Swinging from a rope, shoes,
With an antelope, shoes!
Riding on a whale shoes,
See him splash his tail, shoes!

Best for children aged three to six.

Two Shoes, Blue Shoes, New Shoes at Amazon.com

Two Shoes, Blue Shoes, New Shoes! at Amazon.ca

The Very Cranky Bear written and illustrated by Nick Bland
Picture book about friends and friendship published by Scholastic

What a delight! Four young animal friends decide a dry but dark cave is the perfect place to take shelter from a downpour. They have just settled into a sociable game of cards when a weary, bad-tempered bear chases them out of the cave and into the rain. Three of the pals decide that the bear’s misery must be due to his rather nondescript appearance. When their ill-advised makeover does nothing to improve the bear’s mood, it is left to a plain but thoughtful sheep to make the cantankerous bear comfortable.

Gigglepotz.com Teaching guide for The Very Cranky Bear

The Very Cranky Bear at Amazon.com

The Very Cranky Bear at Amazon.ca