Below are activity ideas that you and your child can do together. The activities cover many different reading and writing ideas, and they vary by difficulty level.

Activities

Beginning   Intermediate   Advanced

The Five W's Through focusing on “the facts,” you and your child can work on reading comprehension. Make sure that your child is clear about what he reads. This activity builds skills in Forming an Initial Understanding.   Seek Out Sequence Words This activity helps your child understand sequence by focusing on important sequence words. This activity builds skills in Forming an Initial Understanding and Developing an Interpretation.   Find the Facts This activity helps your child develop a sense of the difference between facts and opinions. This activity builds skills in Read to Comprehend, Interpret, and Evaluate Informational Text.   Authors' Stories This activity encourages your child to think and learn about the author behind the books he loves and what’s involved in writing a book. This activity builds skills in Read to Comprehend, Interpret, and Evaluate Literature and Demonstrating a Critical Stance.   Behind the Back This activity, emphasizing character, is a game that hides the identity of a character from one player; she must ask questions of the other players in order to determine who the character is. This activity builds skills in Read to Comprehend, Interpret, and Evaluate Literature.   A Jar of Words This activity invites everyone in your family to learn new words by keeping a word jar. This activity builds skills in Word Analysis Skills and Strategies.   Newsmakers Through reading and discussing newspaper and magazine articles, your child will explore how events influence and shape characters. This activity builds skills in Read to Comprehend, Interpret, and Evaluate Informational Text and Developing an Interpretation.   Pictures Worth a Thousand Words This activity helps your child build observation skills through looking at and discussing photo albums and art books. This activity builds skills in Developing an Interpretation.   Types of Writing Highlight the different features of many types of writing by helping your child to rewrite well-known stories in new forms. This activity builds skills in Read to Comprehend, Interpret, and Evaluate Literature and Demonstrating a Critical Stance.   Alibi The game of Alibi is a fun way to distinguish between fact and opinion. This activity builds skills in Read to Comprehend, Interpret, and Evaluate Informational Text and Developing an Interpretation.