Holiday Parent Newsletter

The Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI) is a statewide K-3 initiative committed to supporting the development of high-quality instruction that will prepare all students with the literacy skills needed to meet or exceed grade-level standards. The goal of the ARI is to significantly improve reading instruction and ultimately achieve 100% literacy among public school students.

Here's a great list of simple literacy activities to keep your child learning during the holiday break.

Check out the book Wintercake, by Lynne Rae Perkins. This holiday tale is full of humor and surprises and shares about holiday traditions. After reading the story, you can select a family recipe to make during the holiday season. If you don't have a copy of the book, you can check out the read aloud below to hear the story.

Phonics is instruction in the relationship between letters (graphemes) and the sounds (phonemes) they represent. It is an essential component of effective reading instruction and is necessary for decoding (reading) new words. Students need practice in reading text, spelling and writing in order to consolidate their learning for long term use.

Spending time with your child reading a favorite holiday song can be enjoyable for everyone involved! You might ask your child to highlight/underline all of the rhyming words, words that have inflectional endings (i.e. -ing, -ed, etc.), or possibly even specific parts of speech (i.e. nouns). Holiday songs also present a great opportunity to choral read with one another in order to build fluency. Lastly, you could even cut up the text into specific chunks and have your child put it back together again in order to discuss sequence of events. You can access additional resources here: Holiday Song Lyrics.pdf

Snowflake bowling is a fun, creative way to practice reading and spelling words, including holiday words. Here are the steps for the activity:

• Make your snowflakes by folding a square of white paper into a triangle. Repeat this step and then cut several triangles out of it. Open it up and you have a snowflake.
• Write a word on each snowflake.
• Spread the snowflakes around the floor.
• Have your child stand back and roll a ball of any kind onto one of the snowflakes.
• Have your child pick up the snowflake and read the word. You can take the snowflake away if read correctly. The goal is to read all the snowflakes correctly.
• You can play with one child or numerous children. The child with the most snowflakes wins the game.

Now that the holidays are upon us and your child will have a number of days at home, this is the perfect time to travel to your local library and select some holiday books that you can enjoy reading over the break. A fun engaging activity that supports comprehension is comparing characters. This activity involves using a graphic organizer to identify similarities and differences between characters in two different stories. This can lead to great discussion from your child as they closely examine the characters and what characteristics they share and those that stand alone. You can access this resource here: Compare -A - Character

Vocabulary is defined as knowledge of, and memory for oral word meanings. We can further define vocabulary as either receptive vocabulary (words whose meanings one can recognize when reading or listening to others speak) or expressive vocabulary (the words we use when speaking or writing). Extensive research has revealed that vocabulary is the biggest factor in understanding text once a person has learned to read the printed word. Activities that focus on vocabulary acquisition through understanding the various layers of words increase the likelihood that students will learn new words deeply. Vocabulary knowledge is important to a student’s ability to read and comprehend what is read.

https://www.playosmo.com/kids-learning/vocabulary-words-for-kids

Word maps are designed to help students see the relationships between words, knowledge and concepts by organizing the information in a visual form or framework.

A Word a Day can be done each day during the holiday season (or any time). Use the word map template (we suggest placing the template in a plastic sleeve, page protector, or gallon Ziploc bag and using a dry erase marker so that you can reuse it) to help your child think more deeply about vocabulary and the words we use to communicate meaning. Choose a word from the list provided (children are likely to see these words in texts and literature they see and read in school) and have your child write it in the top box. Then your child should fill in as much information about the word in each of the boxes. We encourage you to help your child think through each box and what information is needed to complete it. Once the template is complete, challenge your child (and yourself) to use the word throughout the holiday break until it is a part of your child's vocabulary. You can access the resource here: A Word A Day Vocab Activity.pdf

Holiday Vocabulary Fun

Place your children into groups of two or three randomly. Give each group ONE holiday vocabulary word and 5 minutes to create a skit that illustrates their vocabulary word in some way. Can this work with ANY vocabulary list? Yes, it can! This activity will allow your child to think outside the box and come up with things you never dreamed possible.

Allow your child to use accessible props like paper, tables, chairs, colored paper, and anything else that is readily available. Children then have one minute to present their skit to the family. The group cues everyone to listen by starting with the word “BEGIN” and alerts them to raise their hand to guess the vocabulary word by saying “END”. Allow everyone to have their vocabulary list sitting in front of them. This vocabulary game for home is so easy and fun that the children will love it!

Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. Fluency is "reading as we talk". In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately. Their reading is smooth and has expression.

• If your child can decode words well, help him or her build speed and accuracy by:
  • Reading aloud and having your child match his voice to yours.
  • Having your child practice reading the same list of words, phrases, or short passages several times.
  • Rereading is a GREAT way to build fluency.
  • Reminding your child to pause between sentences and phrases.

Parents can use this resource, Speedy Phrases, and allow their child to read the phrases to them while playing a race phrasing game. The child reads the phrases to their parent and the parent tells them YES, if they read it correctly and places the phrase in the YES pile. The parent tells them NO, if they did not read the phrase correctly using appropriate speed, accuracy, and expression. Then they can count how many phrases they read correctly in one minute.

"I SPY" First Sounds

Practice beginning sounds with this simple "I spy" game at home, on a walk, or at the grocery store. Choose words with distinctive, easy-to-hear beginning sounds. For example, if you're in the pantry, say "I spy something that begins with the "m" mmm sound (marshmallows). Then, together make hot cocoa with marshmallows.

Watch this quick video to see a fun activity you can do with your child to practice isolating phonemes (sounds) in words.

Isolating Phonemes Video (video below)

Picture Cards for Phonemic Awareness

Want a fun and engaging way to practice handwriting and sight words?

Shaving cream writing is an inexpensive and easy way to work on letter formation and spelling. Place a dollop of shaving cream in the center of a plastic plate or tray, spread the shaving cream out to create a writing surface and get started! Using their finger like a pencil, your child can work on letter formation and practice spelling sight words, too! Writing can be easily erased by smearing the shaving cream. For a tasty twist on this activity, substitute whipped cream and use a candy cane as the pencil!

This multisensory activity will help develop fine motor skills, build connections in the brain and it's fun, too!

ARI's Twelve Days of Literacy (smore.com) (2021)

ARI Holiday Family Newsletter (smore.com) (2022)

Check out ARI's holiday newsletters from the past two years. There are excellent activities in each addition.

Resources - Alabama Partnership for Children

The APC has compiled resources surrounding a FOCUS (Focus On Children Under Six) topic for all organizations that request the information for distribution in local communities. It is our hope that the FOCUS resources will provide more attention to birth-to-five topics statewide.

https://alabamafamilycentral.org/

The Alabama Family Central is a single platform for families to access services and programs. Its purpose is to help families easily navigate and find links to support their needs. State agency partners include Departments of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention, Early Childhood Education, Education, Human Resources, Medicaid, Mental Health, Public Health, Rehabilitation Services/Early Intervention, with support from the Office of Information Technology.

Family & Community Newsletter List-Serve Families and community supporters interested in receiving the Special Edition newsletters when released, please click on the link. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdCugKknAM8P5NsxxQ-3sDvb1MCk9i1hbJij7v4jbQgwY2xng/viewform?usp=sf_link

The information included in this document is done from the perspective of improving LITERACY instruction for students and is only intended to outline support that directly relates to literacy instruction. Please use any resource links with discretion, as their position statements are their own and not necessarily representative of ARI and the ALSDE. Usage of any materials should be with adherence to rules and regulations of the Alabama State Department of Education.