Fountas & Pinnell Blog

Talk with your children about their favorite foods. Get out the art supplies so the child can create a picture of their favorite food or their favorite meal tradition.

Place three drops of paint on a paper plate and have the child mix the different colors together. Encourage them to talk about what they are noticing. Have them use their mixed colors to paint a picture.

Search the news or social media for examples of people helping others in this difficult time. Watch or read the materials with the child, and talk about what you learned. Talk about the ways that you could help others.

Choose a few fiction books with animals as the main characters and read them together. Talk with the child about the characters in these stories. How are they like people? How are they different?

Encourage your students/child to think about some of the important events in their lives. When their lists are done, have them create a timeline. Have them choose one event from their timeline to write and/or draw about.

Have your child/student read a few books on animals that they have at home or can access for free online. Have them create an animal journal with the things they learned and encourage them to share their journals with you.

Have your child write about a time when they worked hard to achieve something important to them. Invite them to share their writing with you.

In partnership with Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell, Heinemann will provide temporary teacher access to the below identified Fountas & Pinnell Classroom™ and Leveled Literacy Intervention resources.

If children can observe insects in a natural setting, have them draw an insect and label its anatomy. If possible, have them observe various insects over a period of time and record similarities and differences.

Encourage children to gather together objects that are meaningful to them. Have them talk or write about why they selected these objects and what they mean to them.

Brainstorm with your students/child on the vocabulary they might use in writing a card to a family member or community member (a greeting, a special sentiment, an update on what they have been doing, a closing, etc.). Have children fold a piece of paper in half to create a card. They can also use a variety of art materials to decorate their card. Encourage children to share their card with you or another family member describing the language they used, the pictures they created, etc. Have your child mail the card to the person for whom they created it for or share it with them on a call or via an email picture.

Take time to talk about acts of kindness found in books. Reflect on how you can add kindness into the world, even now from a distance. Keep track of them on a chart or reflection notebook.

We promised to investigate options that would provide digital access to Fountas & Pinnell resources. Since then, we have been working tirelessly to make this happen.

Choose a picture book or graphic novel and encourage your child to talk or write about their favorite illustrations. Prompt them with questions about style and color and then encourage them to make their own drawings.

Choose a book with strong characters to review with your child. Encourage them to talk about the qualities and traits of the characters. Help to organize their thoughts with a graphic organizer.

Read a book with your child and then encourage them to take on the role of the character through dress up and play. Prompt them to talk or write about the decisions that went into selecting and recreating that character.

A collection of links to remote learning resources for educators and parents to support distance and virtual learning.

Here are some topics and conversation starters that you might try with your child as you read and talk about books together.