“ The Grouchy Ladybug” – First Grade – Lesson Plan

Fluency in reading is the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. One of the most effective ways to build fluency is through repeated readings of the same text. Some researchers hold that text should be reread at least four times in order to build on fluency. Often, it’s a difficult task to get early readers to get enthusiastic about rereading the same text. This is why stories that repeat the same sentences throughout the text provide both building fluency and reading motivation.

Grade Level : First Grade Lesson Plan

Benchmark Description :

LA.1.1.1.1 – Locate the title, names of author and illustrator.

LA.1.1.5.1 – Apply letter-sound knowledge to decode phonetically regular words quickly and accurately in isolation and in context.

LA.1.1.5.2 – Recognize high frequency and familiar words in isolation and in context.

LA.1.1.5.3 – Adjust reading rate based on purpose, text difficulty, form, and style.

Objectives:

Students will build reading fluency through repeated readings of the text.

Students will apply letter-sound knowledge to decode phonetically regular words quickly and accurately in isolation and in context.

Students will learn new vocabulary (aphids, insist, suggest).

Materials:

“The Grouchy Ladybug Story” by Eric Carle

Journals

Sentence strips.

Procedures:

1. Teacher reads “The Grouchy Ladybug Story” by Eric Carle, aloud.

2. Teacher and students reread the story aloud together.

3. Have the student practice reading a passage with emotion, to emphasize expression and      intonation.

4. Students are grouped together for paired reading.

5. Students are given a sentence strips with text on it. Students then cut apart the words in    sentences and reconstruct the sentences again.

Assessment:

Teacher will informally assess student’s progress on fluency.

Teacher will informally assess student’s ability to reconstruct the story sentence.

Students will write and illustrate a new ending to the story in their journals.

Extension Activities:

Students prepare “The Grouchy Ladybug” performance during which every student takes a part and rehearses his/her lines(s).

Reading Fluency K-2

Once children know their letters and can read simple CVC words, such as cat, dog, hat, they are ready to take a next step. But this next step can cause frustration in both children and parents.

Students come out of kindergarten reading letter by letter. And if they are not taught word families, they continue to read letter by letter even when words get bigger. This impedes decoding, fluency, and comprehension, and causes great stress.

To address this, students should be taught word families, as I noted in one of my previous posts. Word family study is often referred as “chunking”. Students learn to “chunk words” by learning rhyme patterns/word families. For example…

-ash

dash

smash

rash

trash

Hooked on Phonics books are great for learning and teaching word families and chunking. Hooked on Phonics books progress in difficulty and each story reviews words/word families prior to child’s reading. As with other phonics material, stories don’t offer much of a story line, but they are good practice of word families/chunking.

More on High Frequency Words…

Here is a bit more about high frequency words. Being able to automatically recognize high frequency words will help your child read more fluently. High frequency words have to be memorized, for the most part, since their spelling often does not make sense.

According to Edward Fry, the following 25 words make up one third of all text in English.

I     a     and   he    to

is    are   have    that   of

in    you     it   was     for

on     as   with    his    they

at       be     this     have   from

How to help Kindergartner memorize words?

How to help Kindergartner memorize words?

Kids in kindergarten will have to memorize a lot of new words. These words will be sight words (they are also called red words, or high frequency words, etc). Kids should memorize them so they can recognize them right away in text, since these are the most used words in the language. Anyhow, how do we get our kids to learn them?

Here are some suggestions:

*  Make sentences with new words. Make the sentences personal to kids. Include their names in it or activities that they do. Write it down for your child and show him/her how the new word fits into a sentence.

* Take any easy to read book. It could be Dr. Seuss books, Dora book, Blues Clues, Harold, Biscuit, Fancy Nancy, or any other that they like. Have your child look for his/her new word in it. These books are full of sight words that are learned in Kindergarten and First Grade.

* Write them out on cards. Get a box, and keep the word cards in it, so that you can go back to it and review them often. Kindergarten and First Grade kids learn an enormous amount of words every day.

It takes six or more times of exposure to the word in different concepts before a child has a full knowledge of how to use the word and what it means. English is complex, and even if our children know the word by memory, their understanding of it is still only partial. With exposure, they gain understanding and confidence, as well as, the ability to learn more words and grow larger vocabulary.

Happy Reading!

Giftedness in Children- Development

I believe that all children are gifted, and I agree with Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory. But I also know that not all children are made the same.  And what is a norm for one child can be completely unknown to another. We really only know what are own children are like. I ran across a wonderful website about giftedness and if you have one of these children or you teach one of them, who from an early age

can reason well

have large vocabulary

are never tired

have excellent memory

have long attention span

are perfectionist

are always specific about how things should be

are really funny

stubborn

sensitive

are good with puzzles, etc.

you’ll find this site helpful.

http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/Visual_Spatial_Learner/vsl.htm

The Empty Pot – by Demi

The Empty Pot- by Demi

I remember this story from when I was a child, and being able to share it with children again is a pleasure. This is a timeless story of honesty and the importance of doing the right thing even if it means that you might lose or be embarrassed. Ping a little boy is able to grow the most beautiful flowers, but when given seeds from the Emperor, his seeds don’t grow. Get the story from your library and find out what happens next. You and your child will love it!

Happy Reading!

High Frequency Words – Kindergarten

In Kindergarten, your child will be introduced to high frequency words, which are sometimes called tricky words, red words, or sight words.

High frequency words are the most common used words in written English, and by memorizing them, children are better able to process text.

I, see, like, my, to, go, a , and, he, she, the, is , here, are, have, play, said, for, do, saw, out, them, was, help, too, that, be, you, me, they, good, of, his, her, has, all, put, this, we, look, want.

To help children memorize these words, introduce these words slowly. One word every couple of weeks. Have your child write out the words and say it out loud at the same time. Look for the word, which your child is learning at the time, in print. For instance, let your child find and circle every “the” that he/she finds in the book, magazine, catalog. Later, once your child can write few words, help him/her make sentence using high frequency words. Look for high frequency words outside the home on billboards, signs, etc.

children's books online

On a rainy day when you feel like reading some new books but don’t want to go to the library…  Here are some good sites with children’s books online.

Kids love this site. A lots of books read aloud by actors. http://www.storylineonline.net/

Between the Lions – PBS – stories online

http://pbskids.org/lions/stories/

International Children’s Digital Library from the University of Maryland

This site has books from all over the world. It’s a good way to introduce your child to different cultures.

http://www.icdlbooks.org/

Check www.biguniverse.com books online