Autumn Zigzags (pages 6 to 9)
- Begin by explaining that this is a poem that describes what fall looks like in places where it gets cold. Make sure your child knows the meaning of the word zigzag. Then look for examples of zigzags in the illustrations.
- If your child asks about the meaning of a word in this poem, the illustrations can help you define the word.
- After reading the poem, encourage your child to look for or make his or her own zigzag patterns.
Our youngest readers may not be ready to sit and listen to this poem. But they will enjoy talking about the illustrations. And you can encourage your child to talk about what fall looks like where you live.
Language Development: Listening & Understanding (Understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.) *Language Development: Speaking & Communicating (Develops increasing abilities to understand and use language to communicate information, experiences, ideas, feelings, opinions, needs, questions, and for other varied purposes.
Look at These Trees (pages 24 and 25)
- Point to the words as you read the text and the labels.
- If you want to help your child identify the trees in your neighborhood, a number of Web sites can help. You could also look for tree-identification field guides at your local public library.
If you have trees nearby, take pictures of them throughout the year. To make a book, ask your child to describe each photo. Write your child’s words below each picture. By summer, you'll have a record of how the trees change.
*Science: Scientific Knowledge (Expands knowledge of and abilities to observe, describe, and discuss the natural world, materials, living things, and natural processes.) *Science: Scientific Skills & Methods (Develops growing abilities to collect, describe, and record information through a variety of means.)
Pick a Pack of Jacks (bonus pages)
- Cut out the cards and read the titles to your child.
- Play the game together several times.
- Encourage him or her to teach a friend how to play.
- If your young child is not ready to play this game, spread the cards faceup on a table, and ask your child to find all the matches.
Learning to play cooperatively with others is an important developmental milestone. Playing simple card games helps children learn to take turns, ask for what they want, and follow simple rules.
*Social & Emotional Development: Cooperation (Develops increasing abilities to give and take in interactions; to take turns in games or using materials; and to interact without being overly submissive or directive.) *Mathematics: Number and Operations (Begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects.)
*Early childhood standards based on the U.S. Head Start Child Outcomes Framework.