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Tips

Get your video-kid reading

Kids can be into video games and enjoy reading, too! Your child loves video games but isn’t a big reader? No problem. Here are some tips that will get your video-loving kid reading. 1) GO WITH THE FLOW. Studies show that kids are more apt to read things that interest […]

Activities Games

Fishy literacy game

A do-it-yourself game that helps early readers connect capital letters with their lowercase equivalents. Thank you to guest blogger Dawn Little, for this post. Here is a fun letter match game to help your child recognize and match capital letters to lower case letters. 1. Gather your materials: One small […]

Tips

Alice now and then

Do cheer up, Alice dear! This is the first Alice in Wonderland – the namesake. It’s Alice Liddell, one of three girls to whom Lewis Carroll told the original story of Alice Through the Looking Glass. They urged him to write it down, and the rest is history. The Globe […]

Activities Crafts Tips Toys

Dry-Erase Crayons

Things that make you go “d’uh!” This is one of those inventions that you wish you’d thought of. Dry-erase crayons. How good is that? No mess, no smell, no drying out. But do they work? This is the best part – they really, really do work well. The colours are […]

Tips

Bubblegum writing

Another tip from Lori Jamison, speaking at the recent Reading for the Love of It conference. When she’s trying to get young children to sound out words, she calls it “bubblegum writing.” She tells them to pretend the word they want to write–let’s say, “camping”–is a piece of bubblegum. With […]

Tips Writing

Early writers – adding detail

Yes, Lori Jamison’s workshop was packed. And for good reason. Here’s another excellent tip she shared. When her kindergarteners were starting to write sentences (towards the end of JK or in SK), they would write this way: “I like my cat.” And that would be it. I’m finished, teacher! How […]

Book Reviews

Why Percy Jackson is awesome

Now this is a goood book. How do I know that Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is a good book? Here’s how: The other day my son was home sick with an ear infection (he’s fine now). Even when he’s sick, he normally never stops moving around, playing sports, […]

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We’re now gkreading.com

We have a new – and improved – web address. Getting Kids Reading is now at www.gkreading.com. The old address (http://gettingkidsreading.blogspot.com) will still work. And the content hasn’t changed. But the address is just a bit easier to, um, read. And isn’t that the point? Yes. I’d like to thank […]

Activities Games Tips Writing

Plastic plate as whiteboard

Here’s another great idea from Lori Jamison’s workshop. A cheap, plastic plate can be used as a mini-whiteboard for kids. They’re durable, easy to store and inexpensive. And best of all, dry erase marker wipes right off! Kids can practise their writing on them, wipe off what they’ve done, and […]