Highlights High Five® January 2013 Parent/Teacher Guide

Pen Pal (page 4)

• After you've read this poem, ask your child to listen for the words that rhyme when you read it again. Then point out that both words in the title begin with the letter P.
• This poem contains a powerful message for emergent readers and writers: we can use our words to communicate with others. Have your child draw a picture. Then write your child's words on the back of the drawing, pop it in an envelope, and help your child mail it to someone special!

Even very young children can begin to understand that the words we say can be written and then read. Writing to loved ones is a great way to make that link. It also strengthens the bond between your child and extended family members who may live far away.

*Literacy: Early Writing (Develops an understanding that writing is a way of communicating for a variety of purposes.)

*Literacy: Alphabet Knowledge (Increases in the ability to notice the beginning letters in familiar words.)

Grumps (pages 26 to 30)

• As you read this story aloud, stress the rhyming words and the lively rhythm.
• After you've read the story, help your child use the illustrations to tell what happened first, next, and last. And encourage your child to notice the many details in R.W. Alley's engaging illustrations that are not mentioned in the text. (The candles get smaller on each page, the children are playing musical instruments, there's a toy knight on the toy horse on the mantle, the nurse knits, and the dog does tricks.)

Read this rollicking story again and again and encourage your child to chime in. The rhythm and rhyme will make it easy to memorize some of the lines.

*Literacy: Book Knowledge & Appreciation (Demonstrates progress in abilities to retell stories.)

*Literacy: Phonological Awareness (Progresses in recognizing matching sounds and rhymes in familiar words, songs, stories, and poems.)

Make a Pyramid (page 35)

• Have your child point to each row of blocks as he or she counts the rows.
• Help your child identify all the numbers on the blocks. You both could also count the number of blocks the girl used to build her pyramid (twenty-one). Then count the number of blocks in the pyramid that your child makes with his or her blocks.

Research has shown that hearing and using number words when they are young will help children do better in math. There are many things to count in this issue: the hidden objects in "My First Hidden Pictures Puzzle" (pages 10 and 11), Catty Jane's friends (pages 20 to 23), the shoes in "Match the Shoes" (bonus pages), and the squares in "Hop, Hop, Hopscotch!" (pages 12 to 15).

*Mathematics: Number & Operations (Demonstrates increasing interest and awareness of numbers and counting as a means for solving problems and determining quantity.)

*Physical Health & Development (Grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks.)

*Early childhood standards based on the U.S. Head Start Child Outcomes Framework.