Fountas & Pinnell Blog

Choose some books to read together. Tell the child that they can tell stories using words and pictures. Provide writing and drawing materials, and let the child make their book.

Provide the child with a page that has the repetitive text: "I went walking. What did I see? I saw a _____ _____ looking at me." Repeat until the child has created a few variations.

Have the child write an acrostic with the letters of their first name about something they love to do. For example, Sam could be "Skateboard Awesome Movement."

Have the child create a family portrait and label each member of the family. Emphasize that your family are the people who love you and take care of you, and there are different kinds of families.

Introduce the child to a cumulative song such as "Old MacDonald Had a Farm." Once the child is familiar with the song, have the child add a verse.

Challenge the child to to solve problems in game play. Afterward, discuss some of the different strategies the child used, what worked well, and how working together helps.

Talk about how knowing the same letters, and the sounds they make, helps you communicate. Have the child work with letters and making sentences with a list of high-frequency words.

Brainstorm with the child the vocabulary they might use in writing a card to a family member to express their love or appreciation, and then send the card.

Talk to the child about how illustrators and artists use drawing to show their thinking. Choose a simple object for the child to draw, have the child look carefully at the object and draw what they notice.

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Teach the child the folk song, "We're Going on a Bear Hunt." After becoming familiar with the repetitive patterns of the lyrics, invite the child to "pantomime" a bear hunt with you!

Together, create a graph of the weather. Every day, have the child mark the weather conditions for that date. After a month, ask the child to look at the data.

Cut out each letter in the child's name. Tell the child that they can use the letters to construct words

Have the child create a list of ways in which a family member takes care of them or they care of a family member (for example, making meals or reading stories).

Introduce the “Feelings” song, sung to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”: "I have feelings [point to self] / So do you [point to child] / Let’s all sing about a few / I am happy [smile] / I am sad [frown] / I get scared [wrap arms around self and make scared face] / I get mad [make a fist and shake it or stomp feet] / I am proud of being me [hands on hips, shoulders straight, smile] / That’s a feeling, too, you see."

Choose a moment from a beloved fairy tale. Provide art supplies and have the child draw the scene with details of the setting and the characters with speech bubbles.

Have the child talk about animals they know. Pick one, and have the child write down everything they know about that animal, including what it looks like, where it lives, and what it eats.

Talk with the child about how music has the power to change the way we feel. Play a variety of musical selections and talk about how the music makes you both feel.