Language activities

I have been trying to make a transistion for ramam to the early chapter books.  Here a list of some of the books that Ramam has been reading in the process….  

Snail and the whale, Stick man, room on the broom, Jack and the flum flum tree all four by Julia Donaldson.

The little critter series.

Postman Pat series.

Amelia Bedelia series.

Tikki tikka Tembo .

A chair for my mother.

Cherries and cherry pits.

Those shoes.

Step into reading level 3. This series has both stories and nonfiction titles as Christopher Columbus, early inventions.

Milly Molly Mandy.

Alexander has a terrible no good horrible day.

Fatuma’s new cloth. This book gives you an insight into East African culture.

                                           These books generally have good illustrations and help with the narration. I have tried pairing these books with language activities mostly making use of graphic organisers. I have fallen in love with these organisers as they help you answer the basic wh questions. There is much more to story telling than just narration and some relevant questions. Sequencing, discussing feelings, especially how the character feels at some point in the story, has Ramam experienced similar feelings, comparing and contrasting physical features, mental abilities. It has been a huge learning for myself too.

http://www.readingrockets.org/content/pdfs/parahamburger_2.pdf

http://treasures.macmillanmh.com/national-2011-full/teachers/building-reading-and-writing-skills/graphic-organizers

                                       I have been using the Venn diagrams to compare and contrast the characters in a story, what is similar and dissimilar between two characters in the story. Yesterday was reading an Aesop fable so we did a language activity based on comparing and contrasting an oil lamp and the sun.

This is again another wonderful website for reading activities

http://www.readwritethink.org/

Sentence construction with jumbled sentences, deconstructing a sentence into 3 parts- the beginning part, middle part and last part. I-like to play-in the park

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/      is a website where educators, buy, sell and share materials.  I found it useful for lesson plans some of which are paid and some free for the stories I have mentioned above.

 This is another website where one can read online books for free.

http://www.wegivebooks.org/     These are simple stories both fiction and non-fiction.

                                         I have gathered this much in that apart from doing things like doing a picture talk on say cars, boats, having this lttle tidbits of information as to Columbus sailed out for the East indies in his three boats, or Henry Ford designed his first car Model T, broadens their horizons. So when he has to talk about say car, I ask him which was the story you read about a car?

                                         I am also following it up with him doing sketches on the stories he reads.

I tried some witch stories to see how he likes fantasy tales. Tried a story of how a girl misplaced her shoes. and wears chicken subs for footwear, how the teacher and other kids also misplace their footwear and wear  different things.His look was a mix of disbelief and surprise.

But one thing, Ramam enjoys reading immensely.