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Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss is a wonderful tool for early literacy! The simple, playful rhymes are easily understood and repeated back from little minds.
The inner cover has cheerful little creatures joyously holding up sheets of rhyming words. They are grouped together by “families” all of which share the same root. I took this a step further with some fun fine motor cards that illustrate the interchangeability of letters and roots.
We picked out our favorite word groups and I made a sheet with the root and various letters that can belong at the beginning of the words. My Little Helper, who is always helping diligently began cutting up the squares.
As we read along in the book, I gave my daughter prompts like:
How do we make this word (indicate to card with finger) look like that word (point to book)?
What are the differences between the two?
What are the similarities between the two?
What can we add to this root to make it read differently?
This game worked best when the squares were separated into two distinct columns. I made one of roots and one of the letters. The last prompt – What can we add to this root to make it read differently? proved the most successful.
Keep repeating the sounds to your child and eventually it will start to click in their brains. I like to approach reading in daily life – look at street signs, labels, recipes, etc – which illustrate the importance and usefulness of reading. I hope these activities foster a love of reading within my daughter that steams from within rather than imposed be myself.
Learning to read takes lots of practice and patience!
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