Reading Fluency Activities
With this page I hope to give you some ideas for fun reading fluency activities. The activities on this page will also help to increase your child's reading rate. As I have said before, learning to read is a challenging adventure! Your child will go through many stages while on this incredible journey. They learn to recognize letters and the sounds they make. The sounds that letters make is also known as phonics. Then they discover those letters make words, words make sentences and sentences make stories that they love to read or have read to them! Here are many fun reading fluency activities you and your child can do together to make this adventure a fun one! Hidden LettersThis fun letter recognition activity will help your child build reading observation skills. Ask your child to look for letters of the alphabet on boxes, cans, and household supplies.For example, find five A’s, or three C’s, or any number of letter or combinations on cereal boxes, cans of food, or other items in the store. Start with easier to find letters and build up to ones that are more difficult to locate. You can also have your child write the letters on paper or point out the letters on boxes or cans. This reading fluency activity will help you beginning reader increase their letter recognition skilll, which lead to better word recognition skills and improved reading fluency. In fact, you could have your child look for words on cereal boxes, cans, and other items in the store. Alphabet FlashcardsA lot of reading activities that will help your child can be done using index cards, pictures, and something to write with.For example, you can make a set of alphabet flashcards to help your child with letter recognition. Print the letter on the card, leaving room for a small picture. You can also print letters using your computer. Draw a picture of something that begins with that letter. If you don't like to draw, or like me can't draw that well, then find some clip art pictures, or some you have cut out from newspapers or magazines, and attach them to the card. When you have completed your set of cards, play some games with your child to help them learn the alphabet!
ActivitiesFor example, keep the cards in order, call them out, and have your child repeat the letter. This helps with letter recognition and repitition.Just hold the card up and have your child say the letter, if they are correct, they hold the card, if not you hold the card, hugs for the person with the most cards! Mix up the cards and play again, this will help improve letter recognition. You can cover up the letter, have your child tell you what the picture is and what letter the word begins with. You can have one set of cards that only has the letter on them and another set with pictures and play a game of match the letter to the picture. I just found a great site with even more fun reading activities! Visit Homework Help Secret's Reading Activities To see these terrific reading fluency activities! Word Flashcard ActivitiesOnce your child recognizes letters and the sounds they make, you are ready to move on to word flashcards.Scroll down this page for a link to wordlists based on grade level, high frequency words, and special word groups. As your child's reading fluency increases with these activities, their reading rate will also increase. When your child begins school, you can use index cards to make flashcards for their Spelling and Vocabulary words each week. Print the words on the card, you can also draw or attach a picture to these. Then review the words for just a few minutes each day. For the Vocabulary Words, also write the definition on the card for learning and review.
More Reading Fluency ActivitiesThe reading fluency activities you and your child participate in with these cards are similar the the games played with the Alphabet Flashcards.You can call out the words and have your child spell them out loud, write them down on paper, or type them into the computer. For the Vocabulary Words, you could call out the word and have your child spell the word and give the definiton. If you have the larger index cards, your child can also write a sentence for the word. Another actvity is to keep these cards in a box and revisit them to help reinforce the correct spelling of the words and their meanings throughout the school year. You could also hook the cards together with a ring and keep them in the car to review while driving from one place to the next. The more reading fluency activities and games you can use to review these words will improve your child's reading ability greatly! The more they see and say the words the better readers they will become. For Wordlists to make the flashcards for these Reading Fluency Activities, click here. Reading Poetry to Increase FluencyReading poetry is a fun way to increase reading fluency. Poetry helps with reading fluency because it has a natural rhythym when you are reading aloud.Poems from Shel Silverstein's, Where the Sidewalk Ends, has a lot of excellent choices. Make a poetry collection book for you child to read from so they can read their favorite poems many times. Simply write or print out poems your child enjoys reading and put them in a notebook or a journal. Poetry Books Finger Rhymes by Marc Brown A Jar of Tiny Stars: Poems by NCTE Award-Winning Poets by Bernice E. Cullinan A Family of Poems, My Favorite Poetry for Children by Caroline Kennedy Moon, Have You Met My Mother? by Karla Kuskin When the Dark Comes Dancing: A Bedtime Poetry Book by Nancy Larrick The Frog Wore Red Suspenders by Jack Prelutsky My House is Singing by Betsy R. Rosenthal
Poetry Anthologies Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle by Stephen Dunning, Edward Luders, and Hugh Smith Poetry for Young People: Robert Browning by Eileen Gillooly My Song is Beautiful: Poems and Pictures in Many Voices by Mary Ann Hoberman Pass the Poetry Please by Lee Bennett Hopkins The Dream Keeper and Other Poems by Langston Hughes Pocket Poems by Bobbi Katz A Family of Poems, My Favorite Poetry for Children by Caroline Kennedy Poetry for Young People: Edward Lear by Edward Mendelson Classical Poetry: An Illustrated Collection by M. Rosen Books on Tape or CDAnother enjoyable reading fluency activity is to listen to a story read by a fluent reader. This includes a story being read by mom, dad, grandparents, and older siblings.Also, your child can listen to recorded books. These can be checked out from the library or recorded by someone in the family for the child to listen to on their own. If your child's grandparents live far away, they can record stories on tape or CD, then mail them, along with the book for your child to listen to. Another idea that a teacher friend reminded me of recently, was to have your child record themselves reading a story and then listen to their own recording. Doing this will improve their fluency because they will hear the words they are having trouble with and improve their pronunciation of those words. I have found some E-Books that contain reading fluency activities and might be helpful to your child. For information about Robot Reader, Click Here! For information about Reading Through Play, Click Here!
I would love to know what you think! Click here for some Reading Activities that focus on comprehension.
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