Free 2013 Summer Reading Programs

School is out and summer fun has begun. It’s important to remember during these summer months to spend at least a little time in academics. Most students loose a bit of what was learned during the past year in the summer months. One way to help your child retain what was learned and be better prepared for the upcoming school year is to participate in a summer reading program. Some free summer reading programs are listed below.

City Libraries: Dig Into Reading Summer 2013 Reading Program – Read books and complete activities to receive free books, coloring stickers, and more. Most libraries are participating in this event.

Barnes and Noble – Your child can earn a free book when they read any eight books, record them on the provided reading journal, and bring it into Barnes and Noble.

Pottery Barn Summer Reading Challenge – Children 10 and under who complete one of Pottery Barn’s reading lists will receive a free book. Visit your local Pottery Barn Kids to pick up the reading list.

Chuck E. Cheese – Print off their reading calendar. Once your child reads for two weeks, they earn 10 free tokens. They also have other reward calendars such as homework, good behavior, and practicing a musical instrument. All of the calendars are for two weeks and are for 10 free tokens.

Showcase Cinemas Bookworm Wednesdays – From July 10th to August 7th, children can bring in a book report to the Bookworm Wednesdays 10:00 a.m. movie and watch it for free. Download the Book Report

TD Bank – Your child reads and records 10 books on the summer reading form, takes the form to TD Bank, and receives a $10 deposit into a new or existing Young Saver Account.

Pizza Hut’s Book It 2013 Summer Reading Challenge – This program is for kids in kindergarten through sixth grade. They have not launched their summer site yet, but I will update this post as soon as they do.

Find FREE Digital Books For Your Children

Did you know many libraries now offer digital collections of electronic and audio books for your computer, MP3 player, iPod, Smartphone, or tablet?*

You can find hundreds of free online children’s books by visiting your library’s website and clicking on TumbleBooks (TM). If you have a preschooler or beginning reader, be sure to visit DayByDayID.org every day this summer to read books and do fun activities.* Make sure you access TumbleBooks through your library’s site so you can read them for free.

See also:
How Do I Help My Child Become A Better Reader?

How Can I Help My Child With Reading Comprehension? (Free Reading Comprehension Printables)

Motivating Your Child To Read

Reading Baskets

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*From Dig Into Reading At Your Public Library This Summer Pamphlet

Picture font by http://bythebutterfly.com.

One of the questions I have been asked the most as a teacher is, “How do I help my child become a better reader?” Successful readers do four things: sound out words, read fluently, comprehend what they are reading, and love to read.

Step One – Word Attack
It is important for your child to be able to recognize letters and sounds. Phonics and sight words are a large part of this step. I have posted phonetic sight word lists, Dolch sight word lists, and Ekwall sight word lists for your child to practice. Once your child knows the patterns and sight words, it’s time for him or her to move on to step two.

Step Two – Fluency
In this step, your child will put together the words and sounds they have learned to read passages. It’s best for them to start with phrases, such as Fry’s Phrases, and then move on to full passages.

Step Three – Comprehension
Once your child can read fluently at their grade level, it’s time for them to move on to comprehenison. I have a full artice about how to improve your child’s reading comprension here. It also includes free reading comprehension printables.

Step Four – Love of Reading
The final step is the most rewarding. Once your child can read stories at his or her grade level and understand what is being read, fostering a love of reading is a must. One way I have done this in my own classroom, is by reading from a series. Once children are comfortable with that series, they are more likely to read it on their own. Find ways to motivate your child to read and favorite reading series by age group here.

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Related Posts:
How Can I Help My Child With Reading Comprehension (Free Reading Comprehension Printables)
How Do I Motivate My Child To Read?
Reading Fluency: Increasing Speed and Expression

Over the years, parents have asked me what they can do at home to help their children become better at reading comprehension.  Here are four ideas you can do at home that can help your children do better in reading comprehension.

Background
It is important for children to be familiar with the topic they are reading.  If they are reading fiction, an understanding of where or when the story takes place (especially if it is in the past or future), familiarity with the characters, and a general understanding of the topic will help them make sense of what they are reading.  Just think if you were asked to read a book about a setting you knew nothing about, and characters that confused you, and they were all wound up together in a plot that was confusing to you.  Would there be much comprehension and understanding happening as you read it?  There would be very little.  Now imagine if you understood these things first.  You would have a much easier time understanding what you were reading.  Every experience your children have – field trips, vacations, museums, meeting new people – help with building their background knowledge and eventually their reading comprehension.

Vocabulary
Knowing the vocabulary that is used in the book is closely tied to background knowledge.  If you read a paragraph and don’t understand three or four of the words you just read – you’re out of luck!  If your children do not understand what a word means, encourage them to show you so you can explain it to them.  Or, if you rather, they can tried to figure out what the word means through context clues.   This means they look at the sentences before or after, and then try to figure out what would make sense for the meaning of the word.  Vocabulary can be increased starting in babyhood and going all the way through childhood by continually naming and explaining what your children see.

Make Connections (Text to Self, Text to Text, and Text to World)
Reading comprehension is not only recalling facts and details about what was read, but understanding what was read as well.  One of my favorite reading comprehension books is Mosaic of Thoughtby Susan Zimmermann.  In this book, the author defines three ways your children can make connections to what they are reading that will help them understand and remember what they are reading.

The first is text to self.  The idea here is to help children relate the books they are reading to themselves.  It could be something that happened in the books that also happened to them, or it could even be how the main character’s qualities remind them of themselves.  For example, “Lucy was very honest when she told her mother she accidentally broke the lamp.  That reminds me of the time I was honest when I told our neighbor I accidentally threw a ball threw their window.

The second is text to text.  This means it’s important for your children to find similarities in the books they are reading to other books they have already read or heard.  For example, “Junie B. Jones reminds me of Ramona Quimby because both of them are precocious and mean well, but usually end up getting themselves in a pickle”.  Children will probably start off simple like there are kids and animals in both books, but help them move farther.

The third is text to world.  The children find something that is happening in the book and relate it to what is happening (or has happened) in the world.  For example, “Little House on the Prairie reminds me of what I learned about the pioneers on the Oregon trail.”

I use to make “Text To” journals for the students to write down the connections they were making while reading.  These journals would be great for reading while at home as well.  I’ve included a free text to journal printable that you can use.  I would photocopy the paper, cut it in half, fold a piece of construction paper or the journal cover below over it, and then staple it together on top.  You could also use a three ring binder and follow the same concept.

Text To Journal Cover

Text to Journal Free Printable

I also have added big posters made from butcher paper in my classroom.  I have one that says, “Text To Self,” another that says “Text To Text,” and a third that says, “Text To World.”  As students would find connections in their reading, they would go to the appropriate posters and add the connections that they found along with their names.

Building these connections will help them personalize what they are reading and make it purposeful.  Personalizing helps children understand what they are reading better and will help them to remember what they read as well.

Story Elements and Higher Order Questions

It is good to encourage your children to think broader and deeper while reading.  Not only will this help them understand what they are reading, but it will also help to prepare them for state tests such as Common Core (now in the majority of states).  I have included a free printable download below with questions for each part of the story elements.  These questions are great because they can be used with just about any fiction book.  Help your children to think beyond a question such as, “What color was the boy’s shirt?” and up to a question such as, “If you were in the same position as the boy, would you have done the same thing?  Why or why not?”  The questions I provided below provide higher order questions like these.  There is one for preschool through first grade children and another for second grade through sixth grade children.  They will help your children to start seeing reading as understanding what they are reading as opposed to just memorizing and recalling details of what they are reading.  Understanding is key in reading comprehension.

Use this story elements questions free printable for second through sixth grade children. 

Use this story elements questions free printable for preschool through first grade children.  These questions can be used for many of the books your children read including simple picture books.  Starting reading comprehension elements early will help your children as they grow older.

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Related Posts:
How Do I Help My Child Become A Better Reader?
Reading Test For My Child
How Do I Motivate My Child To Read?
Reading Fluency: Increasing Speed and Expression
Online Reading Games For Preschool Through Second Grade

I have combined all of my r-controlled sight word lists below.  You will find them in an easy to print .pdf for your convenience.  Practice these sight words with your children after they have mastered the short and long vowel word lists.  This usually happens around second grade.

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Related Posts:
Short Vowel Word Lists
Long A Word List
Long E Word List
Long I Word List
Long O Word List
Long U Word List
Oi/Oy Sight Word List

After your child has mastered the Dolch and Ekwall sight words, it is time for them to move on to Fry Phrases.  The phrases contain common words seen most while reading.  The first 300 Fry Phrases make up 67% of all words that children encounter when they read.  When your child is able to read these phrases with ease, you will see his or her reading fluency (how quickly and easily they can read) increase.

Here are six sets of Fry Phrases that you can print and use with your child.  Start with the first set.  Once your child can read the entire set easily, have him or her move on to the next set.  Continue until all of the sets are mastered

View or Print Fry Phrases
(6 Sets Total)

After your child has mastered all six sets of the Fry Phrases, he or she is ready to move on to reading comprehension.

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Related Posts:
Sight Words Your Child Needs To Know (Dolch Words)
More Sight Words Your Child Needs To Know (Ekwall Words)
How Can I Help My Child With Reading Comprehension? (Free Comprehension Printables)
Reading Fluency: Increasing Speed And Expression
Reading Baskets
Reading Test For My Child
Motivating Your Child To Read
How Do I Help My Child Become A Better Reader?

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Around second grade, children learn about r-controlled words. R-controlled words are words that the letter “r” makes the vowel have a different sound then it would normally have without the “r”. Thus, the vowel sound is controlled by the “r”. Some teachers also like to use the expression “Bossy R”.

Below is a list of r-controlled words. Begin by writing the words on index cards. Continue practicing with your child until he or she can say the words accurately. Mix the cards up each time to further help with reading practice.

Once your child can read the words on the index cards, print out this list of words. Start by reading the list to him or her. Then, have your child read with you. Finally, have your child read independently. The goal is for your child to be able to read this list in 40 seconds.  Have your child keep practicing until this goal is obtained.

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All R-Controlled Printable Sight Words Lists
R-Controlled Sight Words -AR
R-Controlled Sight Words – ER
Long A Words
Long E Words
Long I Words
Long O Words
Long U Words
Short A Words
Short E Words
Short I Words
Short O Words
Short U Words
How Do I Help My Child Become A Better Reader?