Beginning Reader Mini Books Giveaway!

We've been working the past few weeks on our pre-reading books.  It's an important stage of reading development to be able to memorize text patterns and learn the skills that pre-reading texts provide practice in.  Be sure to check out my post about pre-reading books to familiarize yourself with the concept and skills we can be working on. 

Throughout the year we've been working on our repertoire of decodable texts.  I strongly believe that we can teach young children the alphabet in a manner where it is usable to them immediately, rather than just learning the names and sounds of symbols that don't have a purpose.  Each week as we focus on a new letter we add it to the letters we already know and work on sounding-out or decoding words with those letters.    

A decodable text in preschool is a text that utilizes only short vowels and single consonant sounds (think of CVC or consonant-vowel-consonant words like "cat").  We don't try to tackle tough phonics like digraphs (think of "th" or "sh") or soft sounds (think of "g" in giraffe).  Reading is a skill that requires a lot of practice and it's easier to practice something you are being successful at.  By the 3rd week of preschool we know the letters M, T and A and can decode or sound-out the words "at" and "am" and "mat".  That is literally success right out the gate!

I have been partnering with Esther from The Amazing Action Alphabet since I started teaching preschool.  The products she provides are excellent and follow this same philosophy that we can teach our young learners with great success.  She has a set of Beginning Reader Mini Books that are just perfect for our young readers.  The first page covers some of the basics of reading which helps every teacher or mom that has never taught reading before be successful. Then each 8.5 x 11 page has a book, intended to be copied, cut and stapled together.  Each book builds upon the previous ones as we learn to blend sounds together to read words.  The pictures are black and white and perfect for coloring.  Since they are paper books I LOVE having the kids circle any sight words they come across (I think there are a total of 6 sight words they learn to memorize).

Even if you don't win the books you can still get a great deal! I just heard back from Esther at Amazing Action Alphabet and she wants to offer a 20% discount code to readers of Little Adventures Preschool.  Just enter 11131971 at checkout! 

I  love how the second page of each book has a word list.  In the beginning of our reading lesson we write the words from the word list one at a time on the white board and practice sounding them out.  We draw pictures where it's helpful and we act things out (like "zip") to practice the words.  Then we head to the reading table where I have a big copy of the book.  I simply copied each little page to fit on a 8.5x11 by itself and put it in sheet protectors.  That way we have a giant shared reading version of the book to reference while each child has their own child size version in front of them.  We do a picture walk through the book and talk about what the pictures are showing us about the story.  Then we take turns reading pages through the story.  It works great and the kids are being successful!

I know that each of you would love to be successful in teaching reading in your home or school, right? Well, now is your chance!  Check out the Rafflecopter below and enter to win one of two copies of the Beginning Reader Mini Books from the Amazing Action Alphabet!  And don't forget to grab your discounted materials with coupon code 11131971 at checkout!  All of her products are simply amazing!

a Rafflecopter giveaway