Curriculum Services and Development Manager, Robye Harvey, shares a fun summer reading tip for early readers: try making a scavenger hunt where kids find all items that begin with a certain sound or letter, and make this part of everyday activities. Learning to read can happen anywhere, anytime, and this is just one way to make it fun and engaging for young readers.
Hello. My name is Robye Harvey. I’m the National Manager of Curriculum Services and Development, with the Professional Development Team at Learning A to Z.
I’m so happy to be here with you today. And I want to give you a summer reading tip, especially for your young children, your early readers. There are so many ways to learn to read without actually being in a book. Oftentimes it’s really fun to involve them, maybe as you’re picking up around the house. Make a scavenger hunt, and have them first pick up all the items that they see that begin with the sound “buh.” Maybe you’ve read one of our alphabet books, or a letter sounding symbol book from the Raz-Plus or Reading A to Z resources, and you’ve been working on thinking about that sound or that letter.
That also transfers -- maybe you go to the grocery store, and you’re going up and down the aisles and you ask them to find those items in the grocery store that begin with that sound as well. You can be traveling, and maybe that sound has now been identified with the shape of a B; they now recognize the letter B as having that sound, buh.
Learning to read does not always have to happen in a book, but can be active and exciting in everyday life around your home.
