You are here: Home / Archives for Reading

No Bake Dog Treats Book and Cook Activity

2013
12 Comments

This month’s Virtual Book Club for Kids author, David Shannon, was completely new to us so we went to the library to check out of bunch of his books.  Good Boy, Fergus! was the house favorite and we had a lot of fun doing a dog themed kids activity to go along with it.

Homemade Dog Treats: Good Boy Fergus! Book and Cook Activity

The kids really enjoyed Fergus, the canine main character, because he reminded them of our dogs and how they sometimes act…especially out in public!

We love book and cook activities and decided to make our dogs some homemade dog treats for when they are “good girls”!

Homemade No Bake Dog Treats Book and Cook Activity

No Bake Dog Treats Recipe:

1/2 cup of dry dog food

1 c of oats

1/2 c of creamy peanut butter

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

1 tablespoon of honey

Mix the first three ingredients together and then stir in the cinnamon and honey.  Once everything is blended roll into small balls and place in the refrigerator for an hour to chill.  Makes about 14.

The treats smelled so good that my three year old kept wanting to try one and the dogs loved them!  We’ll have to make some again soon!

What is your favorite David Shannon book?  Do you have a post about it?  Make sure to link up to the blog hop!

There are a few rules for this blog hop so make sure to read them:

  1. Link up only posts inspired by David Shannon that share children’s book inspired crafts, activities, recipes, etc. Any other posts will be deleted.
  2. Visit other blog posts on the linky and comment on or share the ones you love!
  3. Add our Virtual Book Club button to your post if you’d like.
Here’s the button you can grab if you are participating!

Linking to:
After-School-Link-Up

Filed Under: Food, Reading Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Gruffalo Party Food and Movie Night

2013
4 Comments

We have been having so much fun with The Gruffalo and the Virtual Book Club for Kids this month!  Our friends at The Gruffalo North America sent us a copy of The Gruffalo DVD (affiliate link) to watch so we decided to invite some friends over for a Gruffalo Movie Party!

Gruffalo Party Food: Cupcakes, Brownie Bites, and Popcorn Mix!

I came up with three Gruffalo themed snacks for the kids to try while they watched!

Gruffalo Cupcakes from Coffee Cups and Crayons

The Gruffalo cupcakes were just chocolate frosted cupcakes with candy on top.

The horns and teeth were cut up marshmallows
The eyes were orange M&Ms with gel icing
The ears were Raisinets
The nose was part of a Dot candy

Quick tip:  Use your kitchen scissors to cut your candy to shape.

Gruffalo Footprint Brownie Bites

To make the Gruffalo footprint brownie bites you can just make brownies in a mini muffin pan…or just buy them from the bakery section at the grocery store like I did!  Then just pipe white frosting onto the top to look like his footprint and they are ready to eat!

Gruffalo Popcorn Mix

And since it was a movie party I made a Gruffalo popcorn mix for the kids to munch on!  The mix was made of popcorn, orange M&Ms, Raisinets, mini-marshmallows, and peanuts.

Once all the food was ready it was time to watch The Gruffalo!  My kids had been waiting all week so were super excited and they were not disppointed–the movie was a hit!  The kids loved the narration and graphics and I appreciated how true to the book it was while still keeping us interested enough to see what would happen next.  We definitely recommend it and have already watched it twice!

Head on over to The Gruffalo YouTube channel to watch a sneak peak of the movie!

For even more Gruffalo party inspiration check out:

The Gruffalo Facebook page

The Gruffalo on Pinterest (there are TONS of fun ideas on their boards!)

Toddler Approved’s Gruffalo Crumble

Eats Amazing’s Gruffalo Themed Lunch

Mama Pea Pod’s Adorable Birthday Party

Linking to:

VirtualBookClub

Disclosure:  The Gruffalo sent us a copy of the DVD to review but did not sponsor this post in any other way.  All opinions are my own. :)

Filed Under: Birthday Parties, Reading Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Gruffalo Puppet Kids Book Activity

2013
13 Comments

We are quite excited to learn more about Julia Donaldson, March’s Virtual Book Club for Kids author.  We own and love her book The Gruffalo and came up with a fun kids activity to go with it…homemade Gruffalo puppets!

Make Your Own Gruffalo Puppets from Coffee Cups and Crayons

In The Gruffalo, a little mouse uses his wit to outsmart the many animals in the forest who are trying to eat him.  My kids love rooting for the underdog while listening to the lyrical writing.  Even my oldest, who can easily read it herself, enjoys hearing it read by her father or me.  Donaldson has also written wonderfully descriptive text that the mouse uses to describe the Gruffalo.  These vivid descriptions became the instructions for our book project.

The Gruffalo Book Activity

The kids raided the craft closet for puppet making supplies and came up with brown paper bags, scrap paper, glue, scissors, markers and googly eyes.  They reread parts of the description they couldn’t remember and used the illustrations to guide them.

The Gruffalo Book Puppets

Here are their Gruffalos!  They were perfect to use to retell the story.

Gruffalo Book Activity for Kids

After they used the story descriptions to make Gruffalo puppets they decided to make friends for their Gruffalos.  They used their puppets to create sequels to the story and acted out what they thought would happen if the Gruffalo had friends, or in my daughter’s case what would happen if the Gruffalo had a girlfriend.

While making their puppets the big kids were busy learning about:

  1. Story structure
  2. Reading comprehension strategies
  3. Characterization
  4. Descriptive writing
  5. Adjectives
  6. Authors and illustrators

…and more!

All while creating with some of their favorite art supplies and using their imaginations.  Book extension activities are a great way to develop reading and pre-reading skills.  I can’t wait to check out the rest of the Julia Donaldson book posts that are linked up to the Virtual Book Club for Kids this month, there are going to be so many fun new books to discover!

What fun activities have you done with Julia Donaldson books? Please add your posts to the blog hop linky below.  There are a few rules for this blog hop that we ask you to follow, so make sure to read them:

  1. Link up only posts inspired by Julia Donaldson that share children’s book inspired crafts, activities, recipes, etc. Any other posts will be deleted.
  2. Visit other blog posts on the linky and comment on or share the ones you love!
  3. Add our Virtual Book Club button to your post if you’d like.
Here’s the button you can grab if you are participating!
VirtualBookClub
Here are several of the bloggers that will be participating in this year’s Virtual Book Club for Kids:
Toddler Approved - Rainy Day Mum - Adventures in Reading with Kids - 3 Dinosaurs - Royal Baloo - The Educators’ Spin On It - Inspiration Laboratories - Pleasantest Thing - Edventures with Kids - Two Big Two Little - Playing With Words 365 - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Outlaw Mom - Crafty Moms Share - No Twiddle Twaddle - The Good Long Road - Ready. Set. Read 2 Me - Reading Confetti - Mama Smiles - Juggling with Kids- Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Creekside Learning - Creative Family Fun - The Usual Mayhem - Teach Preschool - PlayDrMom - CraftoArt - Here Come the Girls - Being a Conscious Parent - Smiling like Sunshine - Crayon Freckles - Train Up a Child - Growing Book By Book - This Reading Mama - Smile Play Learn – Enchanted Homeschooling Mom – Coffee Cups and Crayons – Having Fun at Chelle’s House- Love, Play, Learn – Juggling With Kids – Motherhood on a Dime

 

Filed Under: Reading Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Cat in the Hat Math Activities for Preschool

2013
2 Comments

 Happy Read Across America Day!!!  And an early Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss!  

We have been celebrating reading and Dr. Seuss in our family since my oldest was just a toddler.  When I was a teacher some of my favorite and most meaningful experiences occurred on or in preparation of Dr. Seuss’ birthday and I wanted to continue the excitement and love for reading with my own children.

Cat in the Hat Math Activities for Preschool

We have been busy playing, reading, and learning with Dr. Seuss books at our house over the last few weeks.  One of our favorites was the preschool math activities we did with The Cat in the Hat .

Cat in the Hat Measurement Activity

We read the story and then got out our Cat in the Hat hats.  The kids used them to measure how many hats tall different objects were.

Dr. Seuss Measurement Activity

Non-standard measurement is a great way for kids to practice counting, learn to estimate, and introduce children to the concepts of length, width and height.

Dr. Seuss Non Standard Measurement Math Activity

And lots of hands-on fun!

Cat in the Hat Math

After we were done measuring, we took a good look at the hats and discovered that the stripes had a pattern!  My 7 year old explained to the others that the stripes are an ABAB pattern.  The kids practiced saying ABAB as they touched the red and white stripes and then we were ready to go on a Hat Pattern Hunt!

Preschool Math Pattern ActivityWe went around the house and looked for things that also had an ABAB or, as we liked to call it, the Cat in the Hat pattern.  The kids had lots of fun finding patterns and every time they found one we would check the hat cut out to verify that it was an ABAB pattern.  Since doing this they have found Cat in the Hat patterns everywhere we go!

Join in the fun with Read Across America!

I love that Dr. Seuss has inspired so many to read and am so thankful that I have had the opportunity to experience it first hand.  I had never really loved his book, There’s a Wocket in My Pocket!, until one of my high school students, who had struggled with reading his whole life, rapped it for the elementary school kids at their school celebration!

This big, cool high schooler spent days practicing and totally rocked his performance!  That day not only fostered a love of reading in the little kids who were attending, it made him and the other kids in my class love and value reading as well.  Needless to say There’s a Wocket in My Pocket! now has a very special place in my heart!

For more fun with The Cat in the Hat check out:

Cat in the Hat Ice Cream!

 Cat-in-the-hat-game-WM

Filed Under: Math, Reading Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Green Eggs and Ham Dr. Seuss Activities

2013
16 Comments

We are still counting down the days until Dr. Seuss’ birthday with lots of fun Dr. Seuss books and activities!  The last couple of days we have been reading and playing with Green Eggs and Ham and have all been walking around the house quoting Sam-I-am!

Green Eggs and Ham Dr. Seuss Games and Activities

My kids love book extension activities that are simple and can be done again and again so the Green Eggs and Ham games I came up with were a big hit!  We played a Green Egg Relay game and made some Green Egg Word Chunk Spinners.

Green Eggs and Ham Relay Game

My preschoolers worked on developing their motor skills during the Green Egg Relay game.  I filled a plastic Easter egg with rice and the kids practiced carrying it across the room on a soup spoon.  When they got to the person on the other side they had to transfer it from their spoon to the other spoon.

Green Eggs and Ham Word Chunk Game

Then we turned some of the rhyming words in the story into a word chunk game!  I wrote some of the word chunks that my 4 year old is practicing on the bottom of the plastic egg and consonants on the top half.  He could then spin the egg parts around to form and read new words.  These are great for entertaining kids in the car too!

I have really enjoyed looking through all of the Dr. Seuss Virtual Book Club for Kids posts that have been linked up so far and found some really cool Green Eggs and Ham ones.

Check them out:

Linking to:

VirtualBookClub

AfterschoolButtonDraft4

 

 

 

 

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Filed Under: Reading Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Hop on Pop Dr. Seuss Games

2013
11 Comments

Dr. Seuss’ birthday is coming up at the end of the month and we have gone Seuss-crazy!  He is this month’s Virtual Book Club for Kids featured author and I cannot wait to see all of the Dr. Seuss games and activities that everyone comes up with.  We have a bunch of our favorite Dr. Seuss ideas to share over the next couple of weeks and have chosen Hop on Pop (Bright & Early Board Books(TM))as our book for today!

Hop on Pop Hopscotch: A Dr Seuss Game from Coffee Cups and Crayons

Hop on Pop is one of my kids’ favorites, they love the rhyming text.  So we used some of the rhyming words to play Hop on Pop Hopscotch!

How to Play Hop on Pop Hopscotch:

  • Instead of numbers I wrote some of the rhyming words in the squares for the kids to read as they played.
  • Then I used a permanent marker to draw Pop from the story on a rock.
  • The kids tossed the rock on one of the squares and then read the words as they hopped, making sure not to hop on Pop!

My 4 year old loves that he can sound out CVC words so we played a couple times with different sets of short vowel words.  My 3 year old is learning her letters so she pointed out the letters she knew as she jumped instead.

Dr. Seuss Math Game: Hop on Pop Counting Game from Coffee Cups and CrayonsThen we practiced identifying numbers and counting with a homemade Hop on Pop Dr. Seuss game.  We have been playing with an alphabet sticky wall after seeing it on Toddler Approved and the foam board with contact paper on it is perfect for creating your own board games.

How to Make a Hop on Pop Math Game:

  • Tape contact paper onto a large piece of foam board.  Make sure the sticky side it facing out.
  • Cut out 25 paper circles and number them with a marker.  I used a 2 inch hole punch.
  • Draw Pop from the story on three white circles.
  • Place the circles in order on the sticky board. Insert the 3 Pop circles into the line up wherever you choose.
  • Have each player grab a small toy or different colored Lego to use as a marker.
  • The kids roll the dice and take turns moving around the board.
  • If they land on Pop they have to go back and start at the beginning.  We had lots of fun yelling out, “Stop! You must not hop on Pop!” whenever this happened.

This Dr. Seuss math game was fun and full of learning.  The preschoolers got to practice taking turns, identifying numbers, counting, and adding.  And because we made it on the sticky board we can take everything off and switch it around as often as we would like.

What fun activities have you done with Dr. Seuss books?

If you’re a blogger, make sure to link them up to the Dr. Seuss blog hop!

There are a few rules for this blog hop that we ask you to follow:

  1. Link up only posts inspired by Dr. Seuss that share children’s book inspired crafts, activities, recipes, etc. Any other posts will be deleted.
  2. Visit other blog posts on the linky and comment on or share the ones you love!
  3. Add our Virtual Book Club button to your post if you’d like.

 

 

Check out the great Dr. Seuss ideas from the other hostesses!

Toddler Approved – Rainy Day Mum – Adventures in Reading with Kids – 3 Dinosaurs – Royal Baloo – The Educators’ Spin On It – Inspiration Laboratories – Pleasantest Thing – Edventures with Kids – Two Big Two Little – Playing With Words 365 – Kitchen Counter Chronicles – Outlaw Mom – Mommy and Me Book Club – Crafty Moms Share – No Twiddle Twaddle – The Good Long Road – Ready. Set. Read 2 Me – Reading Confetti – Mama Smiles – Juggling with Kids- Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas – Creekside Learning – Creative Family Fun – The Usual Mayhem – Teach Preschool – PlayDrMom – CraftoArt – Here Come the Girls – Being a Conscious Parent – Smiling like Sunshine – Crayon Freckles – Train Up a Child – Smile Play Learn – Enchanted Homeschooling Mom – Coffee Cups and Crayons – Having Fun at Chelle’s House- Love, Play, Learn – Juggling With Kids – Motherhood on a Dime
Linking to:

In Lieu of Preschool

AfterschoolButtonDraft4

 

 

 

 

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Filed Under: Reading Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

David McPhail Book Activities for Children

2013
8 Comments

This month’s Virtual Book Club for Kids author, David McPhail, was new to us so I am super excited to see all of the fun book activities for children featuring his work that everyone is linking up.  We checked out many of his books from the library, but the one we had the most fun with was Piggy’s Pancake Parlor (Action Packs).

Piggy’s Pancake Parlor is the story of a little pig who is taken in by a farmer family.  Mrs. Farmer teaches him how to make a pancake recipe with a special secret ingredient.  Piggy befriends Fox and they open a successful pancake parlor together in town.

Pig Book Activities for Children and the Virtual Book Club for KidsThe kids loved the idea of having a pancake parlor and decided to make their own.  They started talking about what they were going to do even before we had finished the book (it’s written in a chapter book style so we didn’t read it all in one sitting.)

They even designed costumes for their characters.  They created a pig nose for Piggy like we did during our Letter P Play Date and cut out cardboard ears for Fox and taped them onto a headband.  The customer carried a purse/wallet with play money in it to pay for the pancakes.

Piggy's Pancake Parlor Book Activities for ChildrenNot only was their pretend pancake parlor fun, it was also packed full of early literacy practice!

  • They used writing and prewriting skills while creating the sign, writing (and pretending to write) the orders, and filling out the bill.
  • They recalled and sequenced story events while planning and acting out the book.
  • They identified the main characters and were able to describe each the characteristics of each.
  • They made text to self connections and used their background knowledge of really going out to eat pancakes to help remember and understand what happened in the story.

It’s amazing how much learning takes place while kids are playing!

Now it’s time to check out all of the other David McPhail book activities for children that bloggers have linked up!

We’d love to see what you did this month so please link up your David McPhail inspired posts to the blog hop below.

There are a few rules for this blog hop that we ask you to follow, so make sure to read them:

  1. Link up only posts inspired by David McPhail that share children’s book inspired crafts, activities, recipes, etc. Any other posts will be deleted.
  2. Visit other blog posts on the linky and comment on or share the ones you love!
  3. Add our Virtual Book Club button to your post if you’d like.

Virtual Book Club for Kids

Here are all of the bloggers who are participating in the Virtual Book Club for Kids this year!  Be sure to visit to see all of the fun they have had!

Toddler Approved – Rainy Day Mum – Adventures in Reading with Kids – 3 Dinosaurs – Royal Baloo – The Educators’ Spin On It – Inspiration Laboratories – Pleasantest Thing – Edventures with Kids – Two Big Two Little – Playing With Words 365 – Kitchen Counter Chronicles – Outlaw Mom – Mommy and Me Book Club – Crafty Moms Share – No Twiddle Twaddle – The Good Long Road – Ready. Set. Read 2 Me – Reading Confetti – Mama Smiles – Juggling with Kids- Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas – Creekside Learning – Creative Family Fun – The Usual Mayhem – Teach Preschool – PlayDrMom – CraftoArt – Here Come the Girls – Being a Conscious Parent – Smiling like Sunshine – Crayon Freckles – Train Up a Child – Smile Play Learn – Enchanted Homeschooling Mom – Coffee Cups and Crayons – Having Fun at Chelle’s House- Love, Play, Learn – Juggling With Kids

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Filed Under: Reading Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Feature Blogger: No Twiddle Twaddle’s Free eBook Lists

2012
2 Comments

Today I am so excited to feature one of my favorite bloggers–Bethany from No Twiddle Twaddle!  Her blog is full of great children’s book and play ideas…and her famous list of the best free kids’ eBooks on Amazon! We have a huge collection kids’ books on our iPad thanks to her lists and we couldn’t be happier that’s she’s sharing it today with us! Woo hoo!

Hi! I’m Bethany from the kid lit and play blog No Twiddle Twaddle. One of my most popular features is my almost daily list of the best free kids’ eBooks available on Amazon. I try to read at least parts of each book on my list, so that I can exclude books with poor grammar and formatting problems. I’m so excited that some of my favorite bloggers are letting me share my list on their blogs today!

 Download the books today since they may only be free for a couple of hours and remember to check all prices before downloading.  International customers may be charged a surcharge. If you don’t own a Kindle, you can still download these books and read them using the free Kindle app.

Free EBooks for Toddlers and Young Preschoolers:
I Love . . . by Cindy Bracken
Little kids will love this sentimental picture book with its cute photos of babies and moms. Author Cindy Bracken is a former Kindergarten teacher and school librarian. This experience flows into her books which are free from grammatical errors and always have large, bright illustrations.
Seven Days in a Week by Dianne Miller
Miller, who is both a successful artist and mother, has published a number of delightful books that she wrote for her own daughters while they were young. Her book Seven Days a Week is a simple explanation of the days of the week illustrated with her popular Little Bunny. Most of her other books are short stories that help explain small life lessons to young children. I especially love that you can go to Miller’s website and download free printables to go with her books. In fact, I think I will be printing out her Seven Days a Week Coloring Sheet Mural myself!


Free EBooks for Young Elementary Age Children

Pequena the Burro by Jami Parkison
Pequena learns to take pride in her heritage and use her natural strengths to help others when she is chosen as a special burro for a birthday party.

This book is part of a series of twenty-five picture books that teach character traits through multicultural stories. The watercolor illustrations in this series are always nice, and these books feature a special tap-to-zoom text that allows you to double tap the text to enlarge it.

Today, you can also download from this same series:



Kylie’s Concert


Tessa on Her Own

 

Free EBooks for Tweens
Pibbin the Small by Gloria Repp
I used to read Gloria Repp’s chapter books when I was a kid, and I remember reading them over and over again. I’m delighted that Repp is now releasing books in the Kindle store and even occasionally promoting one for free. Her books also have black and white illustrations by artist Tim Davis.
True Betrayer by Robert Elmer
Successful author Robert Elmer has written several adventure series for children which are available in the Kindle Store and routinely promoted for free. With a bit of patience, you should be able to collect almost all of his books since a new one appears almost every week. This particular series originally was published by Bethany House and is currently out of print.


Free Books for Teenagers



Asking for Trouble by Sandra Byrd
In this first installment of the London Confidential series published by Tyndale Publishing House, American Savvy Smith learns to live out her Christian faith and personal goals while attending a new British school.

You can find more free eBooks for kids today via a Listamania list on my Amazon profile:

Free Kindle Picture Books and Novels

Today’s Kindle Deal for Kids

I also feature the Kindle Deal many days. The Kindle Deal is a highly discounted book that while not free is usually still a great price on a high quality book.


Tales from the Odyssey (Part One) by Mary Pope Osborne
Today priced at $1.99
I’m very excited about today’s deal since Tales from the Odyssey was the first chapter book series that my preschooler really listened to and enjoyed. Even my husband and I enjoyed Osborne’s storytelling skills in this wonderful series. Note: This book is Greek mythology and does have some graphic depictions of violence.

If you enjoyed this list, I hope that you will consider checking out my free kids’ eBook lists on No Twiddle Twaddle. I have several subscription options, and I try to publish a list almost every day to be sure that my readers don’t miss out on any books!

 

Filed Under: Reading Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Spoon Feelings Activity for Kids

2012
14 Comments

We have been having so much fun participating in the Virtual Book Club for Kids!  This month’s author, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, was new to us and we excited to see her book Spoon in the Scholastic book order last month.

 (affiliate link)

Spoon is the story of a little spoon who begins to fret that his friends, Knife, Fork, and Chopsticks, have it so much better than him.  His friends think he is the lucky one, but he can only see the things that they can do–until his mom reminds him of all of the things that make him special.

The kids LOVED the story and had no trouble picking up the theme or recalling story details.  It was easy to see how much they were able to identify with Spoon’s situation.

After reading the story we took turns looking into a spoon and talked about how you don’t see yourself correctly–you are upside down and misshapen.  Then we flipped the spoon around and noticed it was much easier to see youself clearly.

I pointed out how it was the same for Spoon in the story.  He couldn’t see all the great things about his life until his mom pointed them out, she was the one who “flipped the spoon over” for him.  We talked about times when we have felt the same way as little Spoon and what we could do about it next time it happened.  They decided that instead of complaining about what they didn’t have they could think of all the things they did have.

 We made a spoon for each kid to help them remember some of the great things about themselves.  The kids brainstormed special things about each other and I wrote them on a paper spoon.  They decorated their spoons and we hung them on their bedroom doors.

The best part is that the lesson didn’t end there.  Later, when we were running errands and one of the kids began to complain, we “spooned” her!  I said, “Uh oh!  You sound like little Spoon. Let’s flip this around and think about all of the great things you do have instead of worrying about what someone else is getting.” The other two joined in and before you know it everyone was smiling again.  (Did I mention how much we loved this book?!?)

This was our first Amy Krouse Rosenthal book and we were definitely impressed.  I can’t wait to read more!

Be sure to follow the Virtual Kids Book Club on facebook for all of the fun:

Filed Under: Learning Activities, Reading Tagged With: , , , , ,

Practice Questioning with a Question Ball

2012
6 Comments

Good readers need to be able to recall and make sense of, or comprehend, what they read.  One of the best ways to increase comprehension in readers of any age is with the Questioning Strategy.   In order to better understand the text kids learn how to create teacher-like questions about what they have read. Sounds simple, right?  All it takes is practice!

This is where the Question Ball comes in!

How to use a Question Ball to increase reading comprehension:

  1. Read a story together just as you normally would–make predictions, read with inflection, ask questions, discuss thoughts, etc.
  2. Bring out the Question Ball and let the kids look at it.  Talk about the question words written on it.
  3. Play catch! Whoever catches the ball gets to ask the question using the question word that his/her left thumb lands on.
  4. Answer the question and throw it back.

Don’t worry if at first all of the questions the child asks are very low level or ones you may have already said–it takes a lot of practice to be able to create good teacher-like questions.  New readers greatly benefit from having good reading models and in this case will be able to improve their questioning skills by watching you develop your teacher-like questions.

Younger readers can use the Question Ball too.  Little ones who may not be quite ready to start making up questions can play question ball catch to choose question words for you to use to ask them questions about the story you have read aloud.  This is a great way to learn about question words and to to build a sight word vocabulary.

Becoming a good reader and developing comprehension skills is a cumulative process that takes place over many, many years.  A Question Ball won’t increase reading comprehension overnight, but it will make learning the questioning strategy more fun!

Ready to make your own Question Ball?

It couldn’t be easier!

  1. Buy a cheap beach ball.
  2. Blow it up and set it on a bowl.
  3. Write a question word in each section.
  4. Let dry and get ready to play!

I made these for a bunch of my friends and I used 3D puffy paint to write the words for an extra sensory effect.  They are really cool and my 2 year old loves to trace the letters and the question mark, but it was hard to write the words neatly.  If that will bother you you may want to stick to markers.

  What fun reading games do you use to help increase comprehension skills?

 Linking up to:


 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Learning Activities, Reading Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
«Older Posts