A Snowy Book Talk Thursday

I have really enjoyed my super long weekend, but it was back to the daily grind today! Though we had a two hour delay, I still enjoyed going into work, but I missed some fun time with my own kids. {I did NOT miss the fighting, though!}

Still it is back to Book Talk Thursday!

Today was my tutoring day, and I always spend part of the time doing a read aloud with my kindergartener. Some background on him: he was very premature and had very little hearing, which meant he did not learn to rhyme, letters, or letter sounds. He just got new hearing aids and is able to hear, resulting in some of the fastest learning I have ever seen! Two weeks ago, he only knew the letters in his name. The next week he knew a lot more letters and sounds! Wow!

I have a pile of books at school, but with our being out of school, I had no access to them. I needed to find a book for today, and I found it when I read to Ginny Beth. Since we had a snow day, I chose the book Snow by P.D. Eastman and Roy McKie to read to her, and I am so glad I did! It was one of my husband's books from when he was a kid, and it is a gem!

I love this book because it is full of rhymes, and during our first assessment and subsequent tutoring sessions, he could NOT rhyme at all! It is also an easy to read book, which would be perfect for children just learning to read. But I wanted to use it to focus on the rhyming aspect of the book. Before reading, we talked about what he did in the snow yesterday and what other people do in the snow. Then I read the book to him, and he helped me fill in the rhymes.

The two kids in the book have all kinds of fun on a snow day by sledding, having snowball fights, building a fort, skiing, and building a snowman. When the sun comes out, they make some snowballs to freeze and play with anytime. Kids will love the fun the two kids have as they play in the snow.

After reading the book, we worked on rhyming words by playing a game. Yesterday on our snow day, I felt inspired and created a concentration game to play with him. He did remarkably well, matching rhyming words by sound for the first time! He had fun playing it and even didn't want to stop when his dad showed up to pick him up. We had to finish out the game! Here are examples of him flipping the cards.