Skip to main content

Literature Connections

Today we read Flower Garden by Eve Bunting.
I feel it is important to make connections to your toddler's life, the world and the books you are reading. This helps facilitate reading and helps children gain comprehension. To go along with the introduction of the Sensory Box I chose to read Flower Garden. I started by introducing the Sensory Box and allowing Jake to try it out for about 15 minutes. He enjoyed planting flowers, watering them and looking for bugs!
It was very cute every time he found a bug he said, "Ewww!" and then laughed!
Next, I introduced the book. I started reading as he was still playing, but I made sure to point items out in the story or in the picture so Jake was listening and paying attention to the story. 
In the story the little girl plants flowers in a planter. 
Here I point out that she has dirt, a pot and shovel as well as flowers. At this point I pause the story and have Jake plant his flowers as the little girl does in the story. We lined up the pots with 'dirt' (beans) and flowers in front of the pot in the story.
Jake is pointing out that the flower in the book is yellow and he has yellow flowers too!
This is a direct connection between the story and his world (the plants he has planted). This will build his comprehension and make him enjoy this book even more. He will start to look through other garden books and make connections as well. 
He then watered his garden!

 
After we finished the story he enjoyed pouring the 'dirt' back into the tub. We of course had many spill out but that was a good opportunity to teach him to clean-up. I helped so it did not seem too overwhelming then high-fived him after to show him that cleaning can be fun and satisfying! 

Use your literature to make connections!









Labels:

Comments

  1. Michelle BreumJuly 12, 2011 at 11:35 AM

    Wow! If I had a great mom award, you'd be getting one today. Your son is so so lucky.
    I think making connections to books is important. Love this post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jess-July 12, 2011 at 7:57 PM

    WOW! Thank you for your comments! You are too sweet!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Play to Write- Week 3

We participating in a Wednesday Play Group called Play to Write over at Cherrios and Lattes . This is week 3- Write/Spell Your Name.  We started this week's practice with some name tracing. Cherrios and Lattes provides the printable for some dotted letters. She suggested doing rainbow writing with this sheet. I showed Jacob but he was more interested in writing all the Jacobs. I started by modeling on the first name. Then I held his hand and we did it together. Finally I let him do the last three on his own with only my verbal prompts.  He took this very seriously and was very proud of himself! I was surprised at how much he liked doing this activity. He has a long way to go but he did pretty well! One thing I had to repeat was not to go around the o and a more than once. He wanted to go around and around. This is an activity that I think he will want to do again! The next activity was Missing Letter Name Practice. We started by singing a little song I sing for Jak
2 comments
Read more

Name Writing Practice

Jacob did a little name writing practice today. He was asked to trace the dotted lines to write letters for his name. This is good practice with spelling as well. I had him say each letter as he wrote the letter.  As you can see he is very choppy and not exactly on the dotted lines. His motor skills are not quite sharp enough yet to be able to hold the crayon and he especially loses control as he works on towards the end. We also did a Missing Letter Name Practice. Both of these ideas came from Cherrios and Lattes ' Play to Write, Write to Read. These are good ways to practice names and writing. He gets very angry if he thinks he made a mistake. See the scribbling. I have to reinforce that it is ok to make a mistake and that everyone makes mistakes but we just keep trying. Practice is the only way to get better. When this happens I cannot help but think of my former students that did the very same thing and proceeded to throw fits and give up. I hope to help Jacob ge
1 comment
Read more

Building Good Readers

"Your boys are such good readers! I wish mine loved to read like yours do! How did you do that?" Can parents build good readers? How do parents build good readers? This might seem like a daunting question, a task too difficult to tackle. But truly, it does not have to be.  As our children grow and become readers on their own accord they often feel that they do not need or want parents to read to them. It is very common for this to happen, but as their parents, it is our job to push back.  Readers are not born, they are made.  We must find times to read to our children. That might mean reading aloud looks different as they get older. Maybe instead of before bed; you are reading at the dinner table, as they are playing, or during snack time. The point is to share books that will pique their interest and hold their attention. You might have to choose books you might not otherwise choose. The key to reading aloud is to m odel reading for them and to show them th
2 comments
Read more