Posts tagged ‘reading’

The days of reading with Dick and Jane are a thing of the past. Sure, traditional reading and traditional teaching of reading still happens, but technology is vastly impacting the way our children learn to read. The everyday use of ipads, laptops, smartphones, and other devices have transformed the way kids receive their early literacy. Just yesterday, I was reading a story to my two-year old on my Kindle — and she carries a Leap Frog toy around (that has a screen a buttons on it that are similar to my device) and calls it “Fia’s Kindle.” It’s because of things like this that I think the ClickN KIDS programs are an excellent resource for today’s plugged-in families.

ClickN READ Phonics and ClickN SPELL online learning programs have everything you need to teach reading and spelling guaranteed or your money back. Try 4 lessons with your child now, absolutely free! ClickN READ Phonics and ClickN SPELL are designed to teach beginning reading and spelling for children as early as the age of 3 years old. ClickN KIDS products are also a great solution for older children that may be struggling with their reading and spelling skills and have also proven to be very successful working with learning disabilities as well as individuals learning English as a second language.


ClickN READ Phonics and ClickN SPELL online learning programs have everything you need to teach reading and spelling guaranteed or your money back. Try 4 lessons with your child now, absolutely free! ClickN READ Phonics and ClickN SPELL are designed to teach beginning reading and spelling for children as early as the age of 3 years old. ClickN KIDS products are also a great solution for older children that may be struggling with their reading and spelling skills and have also proven to be very successful working with learning disabilities as well as individuals learning English as a second language. Kids Love to Learn at ClickN KIDS. Save $5 on ClickN READ and ClickN SPELL Code: CLICKN5 exp. 3/31/11

Crystal P. lives in Illinois with her many children, pets, and her husband. She is a former (and probably future) middle school language arts teacher. She is currently working from home as an independent copywriter,editor, and Lesson Pathways team member. You can follow her blog at http://houseofsloth.blogspot.com/.

November is “American Indian & Alaska Native Heritage Month” and RIF (Reading is Fundamental) is offering this amazing, FREE opportunity to attend a live broadcast for kids!

From the RIF Blog:

You are cordially invited to join RIF for our first-ever live broadcast on Tuesday, November 9, in celebration of American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month.

Go to www.rif.org/live at 1:30 PM EST on Tuesday to see American Indian Tomas “Eagle Bear” Shash read Coyote Sings to the Moon and share American Indian culture with a class of second graders at Emery Education Campus in Washington, DC. Eagle Bear will have 4 dancers with him along with American Indian artifacts to share with the children. Following the read-aloud, Eagle Bear and his dancers will perform a traditional American Indian dance.

And because this is a live event, you will have an opportunity to ask questions via a chat feature on the website.

I hope you can join us, but if you cannot, the video will be made available for showing a few days following the event. Watch the RIF home page at www.rif.org for news about the posting of the video after Tuesday’s live event.

Head over to Rasco’s blog to find out more!

This week’s featured Pathway is based on the beloved childhood story, Chicken Little, part of our Language Arts Year 1 Guided Journey. Even though it’s categorized for the younger set, it is sure to be fun for all ages!

While you are visiting LessonPathways.com, please be sure to support our sponsors by clicking their advertisements to see what they have to offer. Every time you do, you help to keep LessonPathways free.

In this unit, you will read “Chicken Little” with your child. By creating a feathered folks paper chain, playing a rhyming name game, learning about strangers, and designing a game, your child will understand the story and have fun. You will also discuss contractions and your child will play Contraction Concentration and Contraction Pickup. Your child will also learn the sight words “know,” “let,” “live,” and “may.” This unit is designed to last one week, depending on how often you teach language arts.

Another “thank you” to everyone that participated in yesterday’s giveaway.  You guys had some very clever ideas for using Tikatok in conjunction with LessonPathways.com! Some of the ideas were to use it along with the History & Language Arts Guided Journeys, create a personal timeline for the child and use it as a way to document and store completed work in lieu of a portfolio or binder!

We’d like to also give a heart-felt “thank you” to yesterday’s sponsor, Tikatok.  Take a moment to visit visit their website to see all of the great options for turning your child’s imagination into a published book. With prices starting at $2.99 for  a pdf download, this is a great value (and space saver, if you’re considering using this as a portfolio).

Tikatok is an online platform where parents and their children can write, illustrate, and publish original stories into professional-quality hardcover and paperback books. Tikatok’s mission is to spark a child’s imagination and capture that in the form of a storybook for parents and children to cherish forever. Tikatok inspires creativity by providing tools that help you to:

• Kick-Start the Imagination — Explore a fun collection of interactive story templates called StorySparks™ Prompts.
• Create a StoryBook — Easily save your words and drawings with a book editor that opens right on our website. No extra software to download or install.
• Become a Published Author — Order any book as a real hardcover or paperback, even single copies!

In addition to offering unique self-publishing services to parents and children, Tikatok also offers a robust classroom program for teachers, librarians and other educators. Tikatok’s Classroom Program is a unique literacy program that gets students excited about reading and writing by allowing them to create and publish their own books.

And the Winner Is …….

Jodi G who said “This would be a great way to keep track of a series of similar pathways. And so simple to show the teacher assessor at the end of the year!”

Congratulations, Jodi!  Drop us a line at Blog@LessonPathways.com  to claim your prize.

How did we pick the winners?

We recorded all of the entries in a document and assigned each one a number.  Using random.org, we generated a number to determine the winner.

We are so pleased to present this fabulous prize sponsored by Tikatok.  “What is Tikatok?” you ask?  Tikatok is an online platform where parents and their children can write, illustrate, and publish their original stories into professional-quality hardcover and paperback books or eBooks.

It’s very easy to use – check out the video below

This prize is a $50 gift certificate to the Tikatok site!

Prices are very reasonable, starting at only $2.99 for a pdf download and $18 for a hard cover book.  This month, they are even offering free shipping.

I could see using this as part of a curriculum, a keepsake for your child or a nice gift for grandma or grandpa! With $50 and the great prices, you can do a lot!

Contest Details:

There are two methods of entry for this contest:

• Leave a comment telling us how you would use Tikatok in conjunction with LessonPathways
• Tweet this on Twitter: Enter to win a $50 GC from @TikaTok & @LessonPathways http://bit.ly/cafK8t

You will be entered once for each method of entry (limit one blog comment and one Tweet per person)

Entry will be open from 9:00am EST today through midnight EST today and the winner will be announced tomorrow morning!

Good Luck!

We’re getting busier and busier announcing giveaways and winners ~ and loving every minute of it! We are so pleased you are here with us to help make our birthday special!

Today, we have another exciting contest for you.  The prize has been generously donated by Susan K. Marlow, author of the Circle C Adventure Series.

Andi never tries to get into trouble, but somehow it always manages to find her. Living on the Circle C ranch near Fresno, California, in the 1880s–the heyday of the Old West–provides Andi with more than her fair share of adventures. Whether nearly trampling her schoolmaster on her palomino horse, Taffy, or outwitting an escaped convict, Andi’s life is never boring. Her hair-raising escapades always end up teaching her valuable lessons about life, friends, and family.

Today’s prize is for the entire six book Circle C Adventure Series!

This series is truly delightful!  To top it off, Susan K. Marlow even offers FREE study guides on her site!  Click on over to her site to see the study guides, read more about the series and even read sample chapters from each book.

Contest Details:

There are two ways to enter:

• Grab our blog button (the html code is in the right side bar), place it on your blog.  Come back here and drop your blog link in our comments section
• Tweet this on Twitter: Join me in a chance to win this adventure series on the @LessonPathways blog! http://bit.ly/bnDVo6

You will be entered once for each method of entry (limit one link per blog and one Tweet per person)

Entry will be open from 10:00am EST through 4:00pm EST and the winner will be announced tomorrow.

Good luck!

Rounding out our series of posts with recommendations for children’s summer reading, we’re happy to present to you our suggestions for High Schoolers.

There are so many great books on the published reading lists across the country, it was difficult to choose just a few.  We tried to include a variety of classics to appeal to different interests and reading levels.  As usual, we also chose books that should be readily available at your local library.  If you would like to add these books to your personal collection, please feel free to click through the Amazon link we’ve included, where a portion of your purchase will go towards keeping LessonPathways.com free.

**Hot Tip** The audio version of many of these books can also be found on LibriVox.org for FREE***

Here’s are picks for High School Summer reading, along with links to free study guide resources:

Summer Reading Grades 9 – 12

This concludes are series of recommendations. Did we include your favorites, or did we forget one? Let us know in the comments section below!

This post was written by Christina S.  She lives in Detroit with her family.  They have just finished their 11th year of homeschooling and look forward to all the adventures life with 2 teenagers will bring!

Continuing our series of recommended summer reading, today we are pleased to present our picks for grades 6 – 8.

Compiling this list was a bit trickier than for grades PreK-5, since reading ability and interest can vary significantly during the middle school years. We selected books we felt were classics and “modern classics” that would be most interesting to children in grades 6 – 8. These books are highly likely to be found in your local library, or you may already own them. If you would like to add a specific book to your child’s personal library, we’ve included links directly to Amazon, for your convenience.

Remember, every purchase you make at Amazon through our link helps to keep LessonPathways.com free for everyone!

We’ve also included a  resource links including teacher’s guides, study notes and quizzes to help you pull together a literature unit for each book selection.

Check back next Monday for our recommendations for High School.

Summer Reading List Grades 6 – 8

Those are our picks for Grades 6 – 8 Summer Reading.  What’s yours?  Let us know in the comments section below!

This post was written by Christina S., a homeschool mom loving life with her husband and two daughters.  She lives with her family in Detroit and enjoying the summer weather!

In a continuation of our previous post, today we present to you our picks for grades 3 – 5 summer reading.

As before, we’ve compiled this list from various public school lists found on the Internet. Since these vary from state to state (and even county to county), we’ve selected books that were most common to each of the lists. We chose books that are considered children’s classics and easily found in most libraries. However, if you would like to purchase the books on this list, simply click the picture to be taken to Amazon.com, where a portion of your purchase price will go towards keeping LessonPathways free.

We’ve matched them up to Pathway unit studies for each one, so you and your child can thoroughly enjoy all the literature has to offer.  Unlike the Pathways for the PreK – 2 list, these are 2 and 3 part Pathways.  We’ve linked and described the first part for each book recommendation.  Parts 2 and 3 can be easily found from there.

Remember, you don’t have to complete the entire Pathway.  Just pick the resources that appeal to you and your child the most!

Summer Reading List Grades 3 – 5

Those are my picks for grades 3 – 5. Check back tomorrow for grades 6 – 8.

What are your picks for summer reading?

This post was written by Christina S.  She is a full time work-at-home-and-homeschooling-mom.  She lives in Detroit with a 16 year old daughter, a 12 year old daughter, her husband, dog, cat and turtle.

Reading. For many people, this isn’t the first thought that pops into our minds when we think of summertime. Not unless you re envisioning yourself by the beach with a good book as the children occupy themselves, anyway.

While it might not be the first summer activity we think of , it is an essential component to giving your children the right start for the new school year. (It also helps tame TV time and rainy-day blues)

We’ve compiled a short list to get your child’s summer reading kicked off. We’ve even matched them up to the free Pathways found on LessonPathways.com, so you and your child can fully enjoy the story and all of the enrichment activities.

Remember, you don’t have to complete the entire Pathway.  You can pick and choose the activities that fill your needs!

Today, we’re including books and resources for grades PreK – 2. We’ll cover grades 3 – 6 on Monday, with higher grades to follow.

We’ve compiled this list from various public school lists found on the Internet. Since these vary from state to state (and even county to county), we’ve selected books that were most common to each of the lists. We chose books that are considered children’s classics and easily found in most libraries. However, if you would like to purchase the books on this list, simply click the picture to be taken to Amazon.com, where a portion of your purchase price will go towards keeping LessonPathways free.

Summer Reading List Grades PreK – 2

Read the story “The Gingerbread Man“ with your child. By working on story comprehension, predicting what will happen next in the story, and creating a fun gingerbread man chain, your child will gain an understanding of the story and the language arts concept for the week. Your child will also learn the sight words: but, did, and came. This unit also includes online games, videos, and coloring pages. Click here to access this free unit on “The Gingerbread Man”.

Read the story “The Rainbow Fish” with your child. By working on story comprehension and learning to differentiate between fact and opinion, your child will understand the story and the language arts concept for the week. Your child will also be introduced to the sight words “clean, cut and done.” This unit also includes worksheets, videos, games, activities, puzzles and coloring pages. Click here to access this free unit on “The Rainbow Fish”.

This unit covers the story,”The City Mouse and the Country Mouse,” which you will read with your child. In addition, your child will be learning about basic nouns, as well as practicing with the sight words “this, too, and under.” Your child will also explore his or her own world by doing a scavenger hunt in the kitchen and creating a “My Favorite Foods” book. This unit includes interactive games, craft projects, videos and interactive reading activities. Click here to access this free unit on “The City Mouse and the Country Mouse”.

In this unit, you will be reading “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein with your child. You will discuss some of the emotions present in the story and your child will create a “Happiness is” book of his/her own. Your child will also learn more about what we get from trees by reading an online page and then applying what he/she has learned in some fun activities: tree drawing, leaf rubbings, a “Working Trees” coloring book. This unit will also introduce the concept of contractions by reading a page online with your child and then practicing with online games and an online quiz. Click here to access this free unit on “The Giving Tree”.

Read the story “Stellaluna” with your child. By working on story comprehension, learning about the main character in the story, and discovering interesting facts about bats, your child will understand the story and the language arts concept for the week. Your child will also review the sight words from the previous weeks. This unit also includes worksheets, videos and coloring pages. Click here to access this free unit on “Stelluna”.

Read the story “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” with your child. By working on story comprehension, learning about the main character in the story, and discovering interesting facts about Australia, your child will understand the story and the language arts concept for the week–syllables. This unit also includes worksheets, videos, games, and coloring pages. Click here to access this free unit on “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”.

Read “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” with your child. By asking comprehension questions, putting on a puppet show, and playing an interactive game, your child will understand the story and have fun. Your child will also learn about descriptive words by playing a detective game. Click here to access this free unit on “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”.

Those my recommendations for PreK – 2 summer reading. What’s yours? Let us know in the comments section below.

This post was written by Christina S.. She is a full-time work-at-home-mom, living with her family in Detroit, Michigan. They started homeschooling 11 years ago and haven’t looked back since!