For those very beginning readers, books with patterns are great! I was reading the Mercer Mayer classic, "Just Go To Bed" with my five-year-old this afternoon. I really pushed her reading skills today. Two things that we relied on heavily during our reading was pattern and prediction. On each new page we first studied the illustrations. Looking to see what was happening in the pictures gave us a great head start to figuring out the words. Another big help was the repetition in the book. We would look back to find where we had read a word before to help us. (She has been known to do this on her own. We've been playing Draw Something, a smartphone app which is like Pictionary, and she went to find her Click magazine to find how to spell "nose" because she remembered she could find it there! How resourceful!) Between these two strategies and her base knowledge of phonics, she did great and was very proud.
Another fun strategy that I used when she started to get frustrated was using humor and word play. At one point the character dressed as a "bunny." When sounding out "bunny," I suggested funny things. I don't hesitate to use bathroom humor, so "butt" is not off limits :) That lightened the mood and gave her a spurt of energy to try reading a little longer. When we focus on prediction and making sense of what we are reading, we reinforce reading for understanding. Isn't that the ultimate goal?
(Note: I actually have a post from YESTERDAY, too! :) Go me!)
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