Reading Comprehension Activities and Strategies

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Reading Comprehension Activities

Learning to read begins at an early age and reading comprehension activities that you can do at home with your child are so important for improving their reading skills. Developing a child's reading strategies and comprehension begins a long time before a child starts school or kindergarten. Children learn so much about books and the world during the early years of childhood. Children learn to read by being read to.

Some parents find everything's an argument with reading. Reading is an enjoyable experience and children should feel it is always that way. Children love bedtime stories, that special quiet time with mom or dad. Once your child has started school they often bring home books to read.  

Do you want a reading strategy that works? Effective reading strategies will assist your child when reading and improve their reading comprehension.

Here is some simple reading comprehension activities to help you read any book with your child.

1. Start with a book talk. Look at the front cover. What is the title? Look at the picture on the cover. Who wrote the book? Discuss the picture; is it an illustration or a photo? This is a pre reading strategy.

2. Be interested in what the book is about. Talk about the story before, during and after reading. Try to relate it to something in the child's life.

3. Listen patiently. Even if the child can read the book, there may be challenging parts for them. Give the child plenty of time to have a go at any difficult words, before you jump in and correct or tell them the word.

4. Let your child know you are pleased with their reading. Give them plenty of encouragement and praise for solving difficult words, self correcting, fluent reading or just trying their best,

5. Do not to teach your child to 'sound out' every difficult word. Some words you just can't sound out. There are many more effective strategies in learning the alphabet, to help a child when they come across a word they don't know. See below for more information.

6.If the child is struggling, share the reading with your child by reading alternate pages. If the book becomes too difficult, read it to your child and talk about the story. Do the Five Finger Test. If your child make 5 mistakes on the first page of the book then it is too difficult for them.

7. Keep a reading log of your child's books. They love to see how many books have been read. Give a reward for reading a certain number of books.

8. It is very important to read to and with your child even as they get older.

Reading Strategy - What's this word? 

Strategies to help when your child gets stuck on a word.

When your child is stuck on an unfamiliar word here are some strategies to teach them to use.
1. Look at the picture for clues.
2. Get your mouth ready to say the word.
3. Does it make sense? Does the sentence make sense?
4. Does it look right? Does the size of the word match?
5. Re read the sentence.
6. Does it sound right? Do the letters in the word match what you have said? Is the initial sound the same?
7. Chunks, letter patterns look for small words inside bigger words.
8. Still stuck them ask someone and keep reading

Did you know that phonics, the sounds letter make individually and together, make up 62% of how we read. The other two strategies we use are the shape of the word and the meaning or context in which the word is used. There 3 strategies are the most important when teaching a child to read. Hope you have found this helpful.
Don't forget to read to your child every day!

Preschool lessons and ideas 

You are your child's first teacher and in the early years before they go to school, you have a great opportunity to develop so much of their early learning.
You can teach and provides your preschool child with quality, essential educational early learning skills, preschool learning activities, preschool games & more.

I have found a complete educational curriculum that covers a huge assortment of learning areas & essentials for teaching your preschool kids including:

* complete alphabet (+ letter recognition)
* reading & word recognition
* spelling & pronunciation of common words
* learning numbers
* counting
* simple math
* shapes and how to draw them
* colors
* expanding vocabulary skills
* developing co-ordination, cognitive skills
* creativity
Have a look at the Preschool Learning Pack

Comprehension Skills 

Terrific for reluctant readers! Students are sure to enjoy the high-interest, factual newspaper articles featured in this book. Each article is presented in a realistic and appealing format complete with dateline and picture. Follow-up questions require the reader to respond to the Five W's - who, what, when, where, and why. A great way to boost comprehension skills! Reading levels are achieved through the use of controlled vocabulary, simple sentence structure, and appropriate illustrations.

The Five Ws (Rdg. Level 1) - High Interest Reading Reproducible Worksheets (Five W's)

Read Well, Think Well, Build Your Child's Reading, Comprehension, and Critical Thinking Skills 

One of the best books on improving Children's Reading Comprehension

The author set out to write a readable,user-friendly book on reading-one that would provide useful information for parents whose children are of all ages. This book is easy to read for teacher and parents and is a great resource for both. It goes into detail about how to work with children on their reading skills.

Here is what you will learn in this book:
How to prepare your child to become a reader in early childhood
How to build your child´s vocabulary
How to recognize possible reading disabilities
How to make reading exciting for your child
How to get older kids interested in reading

Here is a great tip from the author.
How do you know if a book is at you child level, a challenge or just too difficult?
The easiest test you can do to find if your child is ready for a particular book , is the 5 finger test. Your child opens the book at any page and reads aloud. Ask them to put up a finger every time they come across an unfamiliar word. If they put up no more than one or two fingers, the book is on their level. If they put up three or four fingers, then this is a book you should read along with your child. If, however, your child puts up five or more finger, then this book is too hard for them and you should encourage them to choose another.
Get your copy of "Read Well, Think Well" on Amazon. Here is the link.

Read Well, Think Well: Build Your Child's Reading, Comprehension, and Critical Thinking Skills

Teaching Comprehension 

Reading With Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades

Review: If you have dedicated yourself to producing thoughtful readers who read for meaning, this is the book you need!
Not only is it filled with helpful lesson ideas, but the arrangement of each chapter follows a scaffolded approach to help young readers engage and develop as lifelong readers. Miller shows teachers how to lay out the entire year.

Reading With Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades

Preschool and Kindergarten Toys 

Great Preschool and kindergarten DVD's  

Click the link

Helping Children Read on Amazon 

Favorite Children's Books on Amazon 

The Twilight Saga Collection

Amazon Price: $45.65 (as of 11/28/2009) Buy Now

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

Amazon Price: $5.25 (as of 11/28/2009) Buy Now

Eclipse (The Twilight Saga)

Amazon Price: $5.25 (as of 11/28/2009) Buy Now

Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)

Amazon Price: $4.25 (as of 11/28/2009) Buy Now

Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas

Amazon Price: $10.52 (as of 11/28/2009) Buy Now

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by SharonMay

Hi I'm a teaching Mom who has taught over 1000 children and two of my own. Hope you find these reading strategies helpful.
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