Here are some Summer picture books:
· Summer Beat, written by Betsy Franco and illustrated by Charlotte Middleton, Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2007—A cute book about the sounds of summer.
· The Twelve Days of Summer, written by Elizabeth Lee O’Donnell an illustrated by Karen Lee Schmidt, Morrow Junior Books, 1991—We sung this book (about various things found in or near the ocean) out loud like The Twelve Days of Christmas carol (“On the first day of summer I saw down by the sea a little purple sea anemone “).
· Watermelon Day, by Kathi Appelt and illustrated by Dale Gottlieb, Henry Holt and Company, 1996 – Bright illustrations adorn this book about a girl waiting for her watermelon to grow big enough for her family to have a watermelon day!
JOURNALING QUESTION PROMPT:
Write out one or more of the following questions in your Family Theme Day Scrapbook or on a piece of paper to glue in your scrapbook:
What is your favourite thing about summer? What do you like to do in the summer? What would you like to do this summer? What is summer to you? What is a summer memory that you have?
Summer
Go to the library to search for books to read and to see if they have a summer reading Program in place!
This title is good for conjuring up ideas on what to do during the summer:
· Lazy Days of Summer, by Judy Young and illustrated by Kathy O’Malley, Sleeping Bear press, 2007 – Twelve different summer activities (like tag, kick the can, monkey in the middle) are highlighted first through poetry and then factual notes (both historical and instructional) along with great water color illustrations.
This one is a good poetry book:
· Lemonade Sun and Other Summer Poems, by Rebecca Kai Dotlich and illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist, Wordsong Boyds Mills Press, 1998—This book has thirty poems of various lengths all about various aspects of summer (lemonade, sunflowers, bumblebees, jump rope, being barefoot…).
How to encourage your child to write:
Choose the level of your child:
Toddler/Preschool – discuss the answer(s) out loud first and have your child draw a picture of the answer.
Preschool/Kindergarten – discuss the answer(s) out loud first and write the answer down for him/her leaving one word for him/her to write out himself/herself with your help. You could also encourage him/her to draw a picture as well.
Early Grade School – have your child either write out the answer himself/herself (encourage phonetic spelling) without your help, or offer to help with spelling each word out loud one word at a time.
Grade School – have your child write a sentence or two on his/her own and then read over and discuss the response. (You decide whether to correct the spelling or not)
Older Child – have your child write a longer response (paragraph).
As A Challenge – instead of a question ask your older child to write a story or poem about summer.
Reading and Writing
Here are some good nonfiction/learning titles if you can find them:
· Nature Projects for Every Season; Summer, by Phyllis S. Busch and illustrated by Megan Halsey, benchmark Books, 2000—This book includes such thins as recognizing poison ivy, cloud watching, and nature walks for outside plus a number of indoor experiments and activities, too.
Natural Treasures: Field Guide for Kids, written and illustrated by Elizabeth Biesiot, Denver Museum of Natural history and Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 1996 – This book is divided into the different seasons, so for this theme day flip to the summer section in the middle of the book. This would be a great book to take outside on a nature walk. It has symbols which tell you which clues to use (sight, sound, smell and clue to examine by hand) when searching for the various signs of summer (frogs, crayfish, cicadas, hummingbirds, spiders, bees, etc.).
- What Happens in summer?, by Sara L. Latta, Enslow elementary, 2006—This easy reading science book is great for introducing subjects like the tilt of the earth, pollination, the benefits of sunlight…
Beginner readers might enjoy this:
· The Summer Playground, by Carl Emerson and illustrated by Cori Doerrfeld, Picture Window Books, 2009—This one was in the science series and beside the easy reading story it offers little text boxes with little science notes .
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BOOKS
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Copyright 2009. Family Theme Days. All rights reserved.
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Encourage Summer Reading to keep literacy skills up in the months off from school. Kids who read in their spare time can improve or maintain their reading skills. Reading improves vocabulary and writing skills as well.
WRITING
Encourage Summer Reading by using this Reading Reward Chart .
- Read to your young child (who cannot read)
- Have new readers read to you
- Young readers can read entire picture books/beginner books
- Older readers can read a chapter at a time
- Go by time (20 to 30 minutes)
- Challange advanced readers to read many books.
When every spot is coloured in give your child a reward like a trip to the bookstore to buy a new book or some quality time together