Once the school year is over,
children sometimes forget what they have learned. Parents can encourage their
child/children to read during summer weeks to keep this from happening. When children
go to the beach, or out in a boat, the questions they ask show their interest
in the living world around. Don’t hesitate to “wonder” with your child/children
about what they see and smell, feel and hear. A few ideas below can add to what parents already do:
·
Read out loud with your child -- this helps
her/him grow in understanding, vocabulary and decoding words. Whatever her/his
age, it raises interest in reading on their own.
·
Excite your child to read with a variety of
books and magazines at his/her interest level. Keep reading material in cars,
bathrooms, bedrooms, and family rooms, even beside the TV.
·
In your daily routine, include 15-30 minutes
when everyone in the family reads together silently. Your child’s interest in
reading grows when she/he sees you reading. And it makes her/his reading smoother
and more confident.
·
Invite your child to read signs, grocery store
items, menus, movie time listings, weather reports, board games, and other
necessary everyday information. Keep something to read with them or for them to
read when they wait for appointments or travel in the car.
·
Visit the library regularly with your child to
help them choose books to borrow. This is a great way to get new reading
materials, let him/her make their own reading choices, and build their reading
interest.
·
Most important, give them genuine praise for
their efforts to read, and share your own reading pleasure with them!
A few summertime book choices are below. Happy vacation!
These Seas Count! by
Alison Formento
illustrated by Sarah Snow
Albert Whitman, $16.99 (hardcover)
Interest Level: Junior Kindergarten – Grade 2
(This book is available to
purchase from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)
Mr. Tate’s class is at Sunnyside
Beach to help on Clean-Up Day. Working
with Captain Ned and counting the ocean’s animals, students pick up trash. They
talk about weather, air and water, and the fish they like to eat.
Digital
collage illustrates a dirty, then clean beach and ocean. Busy seascapes are paired
with counting language and children’s questions and comments.
Lively text and alert children and
animals drive readers’ interest in this environmental storybook. Additional information about oceans is
included at the back.
Ocean Commotion: Life
on the Reef by Janeen Mason
Pelican, $16.99 (hardcover)
Interest Level:
Grades1-3
(This book is available to purchase from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)
A too-tight tulip shell house sends
a hermit crab on a hunt, across the living reef, for a new home. The author/illustrator, a Florida
resident, uses sunlit colors and active shapes to create an undersea
adventure.
Vivid language propels hermit crab.
She tiptoes “through a garden of anemones,” and past turtle grass. Readers meet sea creatures like pufferfish,
sea urchins, parrotfish and more. After a powerful storm, hermit crab discovers
a perfectly sized whelk shell house.
End matter includes an Illustrated
Glossary and letter from the author.
Out of the Ocean
by Debra Frasier
Harcourt, $7.00 (paperback)
Interest Level: Pre-Kindergarten
– Grade 2
(This book is available to borrow at the Miami Dade Library; Main
Branch.
Also may be purchased from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)
With a pleasing mix of photos, cut
paper and found objects the author/illustrator welcomes readers to share her
delight. Ocean treasures create a collage of words and pictures. Asking the sea to bring something often
depends on remembering to look for it, the girl and mother in the book find out
together.
This
winning picture book works its wonder, shaping a magical experience. Those who read this book will be eager
to search a beach for what is waiting to be discovered. An Ocean Journal at the back adds
richness to this Florida story.
Turtle, Turtle, Watch
Out! by April Pulley Sayre
illustrated by Annie Patterson
Charlesbridge, $7.95 (paperback)
Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2
(This book is available to borrow at the
Miami Dade Library; Main Branch.
Also may be purchased from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)
Starting on a Florida beach, this
picture book shows the dangers a young turtle must find her way through, in
order to survive. Beginning with eggs, and then hatchlings, each part of a sea
turtle’s life is risky. The author uses the repeated words of the title to warn.
Many hands help in different ways to keep rare turtles alive.
Blues, greens and purples in watercolors
and pastels suggest day and night for turtle’s water world. The artist adds contrast and detail
with golden browns for turtles, beaches, other animals and sea creatures. Additional pages -- Helping Hands for
Sea Turtles, and, Sea Turtle Species – are included at the end.
Try any of these terrific books too:
The Fantastic
Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino
Knopf, $7.99 (paperback)
Interest Level:
Kindergarten – Grade 2
(This book is available to borrow at the Miami Dade
Library; Main Branch, Little River.
Also may be purchased from Books &
Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)
The Earth Book by
Todd Parr
Little Brown, $9.99 (hardcover)
Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade
2
(This book is available to borrow at the Miami Dade Library; Main Branch,
Allapattah, Culmer/Overtown, Little River, Miami Lakes, North Dade Regional, Opa-Locka.
Also may be purchased from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)
Down Down Down: A
Journey to the Bottom of the Sea by Steve Jenkins
Houghton Mifflin, $17.00 (hardcover)
Interest Level: Grades 1-3
(This book is available to borrow at the Miami Dade
Library; Main Branch, North Central.
Also may be purchased from Books &
Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)
Mayday! Mayday! A
Coast Guard Rescue by Chris L. Demarest
Simon & Schuster, $17.99
(hardcover)
Interest Level: Preschool – Grade 2
(This book is available to
borrow at the Miami Dade Library; Main Branch, Miami Lakes, Miami Springs,
North Dade Regional.
Also may be purchased from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)
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