All parents have heard it before, but can we blame them? With the strenuous March MSA testing, and the last school vacation three months in the past, kids need a break too! I love waking up for my job everyday; that doesn’t mean sometimes I just need a break! Learning and school is our kid’s job. It only makes sense they want time off too!
This spring break, challenge yourself engage your child in thinking critically. Critical thinking skills, outside of reading, will improve a child’s comprehension skills. Learning is most effective when we don’t know we are doing it!
“But the family is going on vacation” (EVEN BETTER!)
Here are some ideas to challenge your children’s literary skills this spring break!
While Out to Eat …
Writing style: Know your audience! Authors know who their audience is. Menus are made differently for children and adults.
-Present both a children’s menu and an adult menu to your child.
-Ask why they think the author used a different style?
- How does the style of the menu catch the attention of different readers?
Text Features: Menus are full of text features! Pictures, captions, and headings, a menu has them all! Bring some crayons and plain paper.
-Read one menu item to your child and ask what text features might be with it.
-Challenge them to make three text features for the chef to sell this meal!
-Ask them to draw a picture of what they think it might look like.
This seems like a simple task, but they are using comprehension skills to make an image in their head of what their menu would look like!
Text Structure: Text is written in different structures to best present an idea.
-Ask your kids why the restaurant has put the food in sections.
- The soups and salads are together and the desert is separate?
-Wouldn’t it be easier in alphabetical order?
-A dictionary isn’t separated into word categories, why is a menu?!
And they thought they were on break from school!
By Deidre Sonner, Thoughtful Literacy Book Club
See Related Posts by Deidre: How to Make Your Kid a Lifelong Reader
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