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Perhaps you and your child can create your own cards for this matching game, the bingo, or the puzzle game...

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Children need lots of opportunities to work with letters and sounds in a variety of contexts. Using concrete manipulatives is a good way for children to make connections between sounds and the abstract idea of symbols representing those sounds: letters.

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Try these games, if you can't find them at your local library or bookstore, try making your own versions. Its not hard!!

Rhyming Bingo

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"Books, songs and poems with strong rhymes, such as Raffi's Down by the Bay, promote phonological awareness."

Songs are a great way to develop all sorts of language skills - possibly especially important for English Language Learners.

Try Classics such as:

- Raffi, Sharon Louis and Bram, Pete Seeger, Kathy Reid-Naiman, Ken and Chris Whitely.

Please tell me of other great children's music if you and your child discover some!

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There are some excellent titles on this site. See if your library or local bookstore has a copy!

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/wordless-picture-books

*Please be aware that this site contains advertising.

Wordless books offer a great deal to young readers. This is a chance to tell your own story. Let the pictures guide you. What happens next? Why? What was the person thinking?

Practice telling stories with your children. Use wordless books to inspire your own storytelling and try one out on the kids next time you are putting them to bed or sitting around a campfire!

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High interest reading material can be an important motivator for young readers to practice the art and science of literacy!

Check out this list of recommendations:

https://www.cbc.ca/parents/learning/view/librarians-share-their-15-favourite-nonfiction-books-for-kids

What does your child really care about? love? Think about all the time?

Non fiction books about; animals, vehicles, popular movies and sports or any other topic your child is interested in offer you a chance to engage your child in some of the more difficult parts of learning to read and write. If they are motivated to want to know what a word says, they will work hard trying to figure it out!

Strategies for solving the puzzle:
- Try chunking the word into smaller parts
- Look for smaller familiar words and sounds in the larger word
- Look at the pictures for clues about what the sentence and word might be about
- Read the sentence and skip the word you don't know, can you guess what the word might be?
- Ok, you think you know what the word is, now read the whole sentence, does it make sense?

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More play!

Robert Sabuda & Matthew Reinhart are masters of their craft.

Their books will intrigue anyone! For the love of reading, check them out!!

For inspiration, watch this video of them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PE4CpqAYa8
*Please be aware that this site contains advertising.

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Its hard. After a long day at work - its hard. After a late night on the weekend - its hard.

Playing is how baby animals learn to survive in the world. Our children learn the same way. Play.

Luckily, there is a collection of books that may help you play with your child while sitting and reading with them.

PRESS HERE, MIX IT UP!, LET'S PLAY! and now SAY ZOOP!

Four interactive books by Hervé Tullet!

"Press the yellow dot on the cover of this book, follow the instructions within, and embark upon a magical journey! Each page of this surprising book instructs the reader to press the dots, shake the pages, tilt the book, and who knows what will happen next!"

The advantages these books offer is they easily engage readers, you can sit and relax while reading them to your child, and they may lead into other activities your child might like to do, like making their own dot story.

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Is this a good movie/book/story? I don't have time to review it, how can I know?

Whose opinion do I trust?
Whose opinion should I trust?
Whose opinion is informed?

Online reviews are difficult to read! Is the advice they are offering biased in some way? If five people love the movie and five people hate the movie, should I let my child watch the movie/book/story?

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/

Common Sense Media is a useful tool for answering some of the questions you might have about the age appropriateness and content appropriateness of your child's literacy activities.

*Please be aware that this site contains advertising.

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Its a proven fact:

"In dramatic play, children try out new ways of combining thought and language; for example, by using language to represent new ideas not tied to reality. Since dramatic play is symbolic in nature it can provide a 'bridge' to printed language." (Pelletier, 2011)

"the general benefits of play...are well documented...showing that a literacy-enriched play environment exposes children to valuable print experiences and lets them practice narrative skills...play also illustrates the value of tangible play plans for helping children to self-regulate their behavior, to remember on purpose, and to deliberately focus their attention on play activity - foundational cognitive skills of reading and writing" (Roskos et al, 2003)

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Look in the Digital Library tab of the library website and follow the link to e-books and audio books. You will then scroll down to the bottom of the screen to find the Tumblebook collection.

TumbleBookLibrary  has over 1100 titles for grades K-6, and includes our unique animated, talking picture books, read-along chapter books, national geographic videos, non-fiction books, playlists, as well as books in Spanish and French. Plus, the collection features Graphic Novels – a student favorite! As well as Math Stories!

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This site offers a collection of stories read aloud. There is a wide variety of titles to choose from and a diverse cultural mix.

Listening to stories will help your child build their cognitive skills in following plot, sequencing, vocabulary, and character. These skills are important for all types of literacy comprehension.

Vocabulary and listening skills are essential to oral language. Speaking is an important early literacy skill. Experts note that "young children need writing to help them learn about reading, and they need reading to help them learn about writing; and they need oral language to help them learn about both." (Roskos et al, 2003)

Its always a good reminder to consider how closely linked all literacy skills are!

* This site does contain advertising

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It is hard to spend as much time with your child as you might like. We are always so busy!

Try to think about your child's screen time as valuable reading, writing, talking, and listening time.

"Digital tools can serve to enhance early literacy development, when used strategically and thoughtfully." (Semingson 2017)

TVO has an excellent web site that a wide array of games and videos for your child to enjoy. I would recommend your child use the games more than the videos. Explore them!

See if your child can find the game "Alphabet Goop". Did they enjoy playing it?

Was it too easy? Too hard? I'm sure there is a game that will suit their learning needs!

https://tvokids.com/

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Another great way to get out into your community and help your child see language in the real world is by giving them a chance to become photographers.

Some ideas:

Give them a list of things to take pictures of (like a scavenger hunt):
- take a picture of each letter of the alphabet
- take a picture of something that starts with each letter of the alphabet (example; car for C, or tree for T)
- your imagination is the limit!

Allow your child to send the pictures they take to friends and family, but encourage them to title their pictures first using the letters and sounds that they know

Ask your child to take pictures of objects and scenes that show their mood, and then take time to look at the pictures with your child and discuss.

By giving your children opportunities to label their photos and talk about them, you are building on the important "role of talk in emergent literacy development and the importance of creating contexts that lead young children to their discoveries." (Tolentino, 2013)

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Have you heard the following expression? "the environment is the third teacher".

You, as your child's primary caregiver are the 'first' and most influential teacher. I, and other classroom educators, are your child's 'second' teacher. The 'third' teacher is the environment that surrounds your child.

The library has a wealth of books, e-books, programs and services to offer you and your child and makes an excellent destination for a family outing or place to get some relief from the hot sun or cold wind

When you take your child out into the world they "develop considerable knowledge about the communicative functions and formats of a variety of texts, both oral and written (Tolentino, 2013).

Finding inviting text rich environments like the library "is a motivating and animating force in creating spaces for relations, options, and emotional and cognitive situations that produce a sense of well-being and security" (Tolentino, 2013).

This link will take you to the library home page. Please explore it and think about how much your child would enjoy having their own library card and borrowing books!!

http://sudburylibraries.ca/en/

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We hope that children will develop a love for reading. One way of fostering this pleasure is to have your family and friends read to your child, or to have your child 'read' or 'pretend to read' to your family and friends.

There are plenty of digital programs that can help make this happen.

Family and friends can exchange video messages with your child, or read with your child in real time.

Experts argue that this type of activity is of great value because "as children read aloud to or listen to stories read by grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other family members, they begin to associate the support and interaction of family with literacy activities" (Semingson, 2017)

Children will value what those around them value, and if they can see people they love enjoying books, they too are likely to adopt this attitude towards reading!

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Shel Silverstein stories and poems are always fun and surprising. There are many titles to get to know! The illustrations that accompany the text will fascinate your children.

According to researchers Hornsby and Wilson (2014) "rhyming texts repeat particular sounds and thus provide a rich resource for learning not only the sounds of language, but also the letters which represent those sounds"

After reading a rhyming text you may want to:
- ask your child if they can think of other words that rhyme with words in the poem
- ask your child if they want to try reading the poem
- ask your child if they can figure out which letters in each word represent the rhyming sound. After they answer you, ask them to explain how they know.