Tomorrow is the birthday of beloved Dr. Seuss, and Read Across America Day. There are so many wonderful activities to do with kids and so many wonderful Dr. Seuss books that I’m going to do several posts. There are even Dr. Seuss apps.
Since it’s the first day of a new month, an appropriate book would be Please Try To Remember The First of Octember. There are messages about patience and waiting, and the names of the months in this book, but one of the best learning and kindergarten readiness activities is words that rhyme. For those that follow this blog, you could have probably predicted that somewhere I’d mention words and their sounds. Why? Being able to rhyme words is a crucial part of learning to read.
Words are made of several different bits of sounds. For example, Seuss has an sss sound to start, then an oo in the middle and sss at the end. Children need to be able to hear these bits of sounds and then combine them in different ways. This is called phonological awareness. Later on, these sound bits get attached to letters so that kids can learn to read and spell. This is so critical for later learning to read that readiness for reading correlates to the ability to rhyme. This happens about the age of 4 and is sometimes used to evaluate children’s readiness for kindergarten. Lots of exposure to talking and books helps kids develop these brain patterns and connections for words and sounds. And Dr. Seuss books have terrific rhyme stimulation.
Today, read a book that rhymes to your child. Did you know that rhyming can help to remember?