Print Motivation: Loving Books

Parents and caregivers make the difference by just modeling the importance of reading, surrounding children with books, and engaging in the learning process. By doing these simple things, children have a better chance at succeeding in school and throughout each aspect of their lives. For the next couple of weeks, we will be posting the six literacy skills and strategies you can use to practice each skill at home with your family.

Today’s topic is PRINT MOTIVATION, or teaching your child to love books:

• Make book sharing time special!
• Don’t leave home without a book or magazine.
• Let your child choose a book to read each day.
• Visit the library often!

Just simply having books available is the first step in teaching your child about books and reading. Giving them time to explore the books and experience the different parts. Using vocabulary (something we talked about last time) like author, illustrator, spine, front cover, title, etc. expands your child’s word knowledge as well.

Acting out stories is also a great way to bring a book to life and make it more fun.

Here are some great books your child will love reading:

Wild About Books by Judy Sierra
Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae
The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! by Jon Scieszka

The New Ohio Kindergarten Readiness Assessment

If you have a child entering Kindergarten in Ohio this year or in the next couple of years, you have likely heard that schools are changing the assessment they use to determine a child’s school readiness. The original KRA-L only tested a child’s literacy and language development, but the new Kindergarten Readiness Assessment will look at the whole child.

The new assessment will provide more information on the areas of physical well-being and motor development, language and literacy, mathematics, science, social studies, and social skills. This is exciting because a child’s school readiness is more than just his knowledge of the ABCs or 123s. It also includes how well he can sit still for periods of time, talk with friends, share, verbalize his needs, etc.

This will be done through formal and informal observations of everyday activities and responses to questions or other activities. According to the Ohio Department of Education’s website, the assessment will not prevent a child from entering Kindergarten, but it will help the teachers provide a baseline so they can customize the learning experience for each child.

Click here for a checklist of the physical, emotional, and social skills you can use as a guide to determine where your child is. But keep in mind that every child develops at their own pace. It’s important to give them guidance to help learn these skills, but if they aren’t doing an activity quite yet, give it a week or so to see how they progress. This checklist does not include the academic skills children may need to know.

Physical, Emotional and Social Checklist: http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Early-Learning/Guidance-About-Kindergarten/Kindergarten-Readiness-Checklist