Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant

I love poetry!  It is so fun to read and it does not take much time to share a poem or two with your child.  Jack Prelutsky is one of my favorite poets and he is usually a kid favorite.  One of his newest collections, Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant is so much fun to read.

In this collection Prelutsky plays with words and combines an animal name with an inanimate object.  Some of his creations are pop-up toadsters, shoehornets, zipperpotamuses and a clocktopus! He takes his readers on a journey into a world of imagination and creation.

This collection of poetry is great to help children visualize. Children should always have a movie playing in their mind when they hear a story.  They should be able to create mental pictures.  However, this skill is challenging for many students.  Prelutsky uses a descriptive vocabulary to help paint a picture in the reader's mind.   He offers the readers clues as to what each of his creatures might look like.

To help your child visualize, pick one poem to read aloud.  Do not let them see the picture.  As you read the poem have your child close his/her eyes and focus on creating a mental picture of the creature.  Give your child a piece of paper and a pencil.  Read the poem again and let your child sketch the creature.  Have a discussion with your child about the descriptive words that are helping to create a picture.  After your child has finished their drawing share the picture the illustrator created.  Discuss how the images are alike and different.

It is always fun to change roles. Let your child read a poem to you and see what type of images you can create!

Chrysanthemum

January 24th - 28th is No Name-Calling Week!  This week provides a wonderful opportunity to talk with your child about the concept of put-ups and put-downs.  A great book to share with your child is Kevin Henkes Chrysanthemum.  Chrysanthemum is a little mouse who has the perfect name, or at least she thinks she does until her first day of kindergarten.  She is teased by the kids at school because she is named after a flower.  

Chrysanthemum is a great book to start a conversation about name calling.  Since children have experience with being teased, the book is very easy for students to make text-to-self connections.  Reading this book with your child will provide you and opportunity to share a time when you were teased and it might provide your child a forum to share a time when they were teased.  


1.  Read to the second page of text. "Chrysanthemum.  Her parents named her Chrysanthemum".
Tell your child you can make a text-to-self connection and share how you decided upon your child's name.

2.  Read to the tenth page of text  "I wish I could, thought Chrysanthemum miserably."
Ask your child: How is  Chrysanthemum is feeling?  Have you ever felt that way?

3.  Read to the eighteenth page of text "After all, it's absolutely perfect."
Ask your child: Why are the kids are making fun of Chrysanthemum?  Talk about some of the vocabulary used by Chrysanthemum's parents-- envious, begrudging, discontented, and jealous.  Share a time when you were envious or jealous.

4.  Read to the twenty-first page of text "She loaded the pockets with her most prized possessions"
Ask your child to share a time a good luck charm helped them through a difficult or scary situation.

5.  At the end of the text Chrysanthemum feels great about her name because of her teacher Mrs. Twinkle.  Ask your child: What lesson is the story trying to teach us? What can you do the next time someone teases you? 




This book really lends itself to an open-ended conversation between you and your child about bullying in school.  It is also a great opportunity to discuss how Chrysanthemum shares her feelings with her parents. Her parents help boost her spirit and support her!  Sometimes kids just need reminded they can share anything with their parents!

Max's Words

Max's Words by Kate Banks is a gem! Max has two older brothers who both are collectors:  Benjamin collects stamps and Karl keeps coins.  Max looks for something to collect and he decides to start collecting words.  He finds them in newspapers and magazines.  He takes care to cut them out and sort them into many different categories.  Eventually he starts moving his words around to create stories.

This is a great book to share with your child, because it will help your child become a word collector!

I was lucky enough to stumble upon this book when I was teaching second grade.  As soon as I read it I knew my students would love it.; however, I had no idea they would all start their own word collections!  It was amazing to watch my students bring in newspapers and magazines to start finding words.  They came up with quite a collection and even started to create their own stories.

Today I am not going to leave you any questions to ask your child when reading Max's Words.  Instead, I am going to challenge you to read this book to your child and start you own word collection.  It will be a lot of fun and it will help enhance your child's vocabulary.  By helping build your child's vocabulary you are helping to build their schema (background knowledge)!

Pink and Say

Many parents (and teachers too) quit reading aloud to children after second or third grade.  I have never understood why this happens.  I suppose many parents and teachers feel after third grade most kids can read text on their own and no longer need to have it read to them.  However, there are many reasons why reading aloud to older students is important.  First, a child's listening vocabulary is two years ahead of their reading vocabulary.  This means they can understand stories that are too hard for them to read on their own  Second, older children still need help comprehending the text.  Even though they may be able to decode the words on the page, they might not understand what they are reading.  Lastly, older children still need to hear you model fluent reading!

A great book to share with an older child is Patricia Polacco's Pink and Say.  It is a beautifully written and illustrated picture book.  The story takes place during the Civil War and it shares the journey of two Union soldiers --  Sheldon Curtis and Pinkus Aylee.  Sheldon is a fifteen year old wounded soldier who is nursed back to health by Pinkus (also a fiftteen year old soldier).  The story takes the reader on an incredible journey of friendship and love.  It is a rather deep and serious book.  In my opinion it is appropriate for children in grades four and higher.  

I guarantee this story will spark a conversation between you and your child.  You probably will not even need the questions below to help you and your child talk about the story.  Pink and Say is a great book to     apply the reading strategy of asking questions and synthesizing information.

Readers often ask questions about a story to help them make sense of what is happening.  Asking questions is a great way to interact with a story and stay focused.  A great question starter to use when reading with your child is "I wonder..." because it shows your curiosity. It is also good to show when you are confused by starting with the stems "I don't understand..." or "I am confused by..."  The answers you ask might not have answers.  The important thing is the thinking behind the statement.


Synthesizing is one of the toughest strategies because it takes so much thinking. Pink and Say  is a great book to synthesize.  As you read the story stop a few times and talk about how your thinking has changed through the story.  After finishing the story, you can think about what the story means to you.


1.  I wonder who are the marauders and why everyone is afraid of them?  


2.  I don't understand what it means to "jump the broom"


3.  Read to "I had no answer for him, but, God forgive me, I didn't want to ever go back to it!"
Stop and talk about the story so far.  You might start by saying, "I'm beginning to think..."


4.  Read to "That night I dreamt of hummin' birds and green pastures full of sunlight and wildflowers.
Stop and discuss your thinking of the story.  You might start by saying, "Now, I am thinking....."

5. How could the marauders hurt Moe Moe Bay?  She was not even fighting in the war!

6.  I don't understand why their would be trouble for Pink if they saw he had a pair of glasses.

7.  Read to "I held him as he had done for me."
Stop and discuss your thinking of the story.  You might start by saying, "My new thinking is..."


8.  At the end of the story ask "What does this mean to us?"

The above questions are just a guide to start a conversation.  When you are reading with your child stop and talk anytime you wonder about something.  Share anytime something in the story confuses you.  Authentic questions are the best!

Please keep reading to your children!  Books provide opportunities for great conversations!  There are tons of picture books that are appropriate for older children.

The Relatives Came

Cynthia Rylant is one of my favorite authors.  She writes great stories for children.   The Relatives Came was selected as a Caledecott Honor book in 1986.  Rylant writes about a family packing up the car and leaving their Virginia home to visit relatives.  The story shares the love of family and it has always touched my heart.  

Children tend to really enjoy The Relatives Came because it is very easy to connect with the story line. Children all have stories about traveling to visit relatives.  This is a great story to work on the strategy of schema.  Remember schema is all about background knowledge and making connections.  The Relatives Came allows children to make text to self connections.  The questions below will help you and your child have a conversation and make text to self connections.

Enjoy the story!  It is a good one!

1. Discuss the title of the story with your child.  What does the word relative mean?  Share some examples of your relatives with your child.  


2. Read the first three pages of text.  
Share with your child a memory you have of loading up the car, leaving really early in the morning, or driving all day into the night to get somewhere. Ask your child if they remember a time when they had to drive all day to get somewhere.


3.  Read to "They hugged us for hours."  
Ask your child if they remember a time we saw family members and did a lot of hugging?  Be sure to share a memory you have too! 


4.  Read to "It was different, going to sleep with all that new breathing in the house? " 
Ask your child if they can make a connection?  If they have trouble prompt them by asking if they remember a time they had to share a room with a lot of people when it was time to go to sleep.

Reading aloud to your child is a great way to spend quality time! 

Where the Wild Things Are

When I decided to start this blog, I thought long and hard about what story I would share first.  I think it is best to start with my favorite childhood story.  Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak started my love of stories when I was a little girl.  It is a story that is timeless and children love it.  It inspires children to use their imagination!  Most children can empathize with Max, the main character.

Children are never too young to learn about inferences.  It is a great story to help your child learn how to make inferences because it is a simple story with which children can relate. Remind children they need to use clues from the story and then add their own thinking to make an inference.  So, pull your child next to you and enjoy the story.

When reading think about asking a few of the questions below to help you child learn how to infer.  Unfortunately, the book does not have page numbers.  So, I have shared where in the story the questions arise.

1.  Why would Max's mom call him a Wild Thing?  How do you think she feels toward Max at the beginning of the story?  Why do you think this?     (beginning of story)

2.  Since the Wild Things made Max their King, how do you think they feel toward Max? (middle of story)

3. At the end of the story, there is food in Max's room.  How do you think the food ended up in his room? (end of story)

4.  Was Max's journey real or was it a dream?  What clues from the story can help us determine if it was real or a dream? (end of story)

Remember, do not focus too much on the questions. The goal is to start a dialogue between you and your child to help enhance their understanding of the story.  Enjoy story time with your child!

What is Comprehension?

Comprehension is simply making meaning of text. Reading is an interactive process between the words on the page and the reader.  Children need to understand what the words and sentences mean in order to make sense of a story. Comprehension is all about thinking and it is the key to reading.

Good readers constantly interact with a text using one of six strategies that aid in understanding.

1. Visualizing: Creating mental images as one reads through the five senses.
2. Using Schema (Background Knowledge): Making connections and retrieving prior knowledge before during and after reading.
3. Inferring: Drawing conclusions, making predictions and forming interpretations by using prior knowledge and information read in the text.
4. Questioning:  Generating questions about text before, during and after reading.
5. Determining Importance: Identifying the theme of a text and distinguishing between important and unimportant information
6. Synthesizing: Continually changing thinking as one reads through the text.

In this blog I will share some of my favorite stories from children's literature.  Along with each story, I will post guiding questions for you to ask your child.  Each story's questions will focus on one or two reading strategies.  Remember, reading with your child is a fun experience.  Do not focus too much on the questions.  They are just meant to help guide a conversation between you and your child!