The weeks past have focused on the importance of talking and reading with children and the role it plays in their ability to read when they are older. There is a name for this…. Language Nutrition! Just like food nutrition, the type and amount of language we “feed” children is so important to their brain development and later reading success!

The Little Red Hen Makes A Pizza Read Aloud 1

This week’s book is The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza by Philemon Sturges. This first read focuses on explaining the key events of the story and pushing in target vocabulary.

The Little Red Hen Makes A Pizza Read Aloud 2

This second read focuses on the character’s thoughts and feelings about the key events of the story and continues to push in target vocabulary.

Tying it Together

Talk about the book whenever and wherever works best for your family! Throughout the week, engage in meaningful  conversations around these words. Guide your child with questions and support their answers by repeating back what they say and encouraging use of the target vocabulary. Soon, you will notice they will become a part of your child’s vocabulary!

Target VocabularyConversation Starters
Lovely- nice looking, beautifulRemember how the Little Red Hen woke up from her nap hungry and decided she wanted to make a lovely, little pizza. She wanted to make a nice looking or beautiful pizza. However, when she asked her friends for help, no one offered to help. Why did the Little Red Hen’s friends finally decide to help her at the end of the story?
Rummaged- to look through stuff-pushing things aside try to try and find somethingRemember how Little Red Hen rummages all through her kitchen looking for a pizza pan; she looks all around, moving things out of the way to try and find it. She needs a pizza pan but does not have one.  How does she try and solve this problem?
Generous- When you share what you have with othersRemember how generous the Little Red Hen is with her friends, how she shares her pizza with her friends even though they did not help her when she asked for help. I wonder why the Little Red Hen continued to be kind to her friends, even when they chose not to be helpful?

Progress Monitoring

After hearing the first two reads, let your child tell the story of The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza and show what they’ve learned! Say to your child, “This week we heard a story about how the Little Red Hen made a lovely pizza. Remember how her friends didn’t help the Little Red Hen when she asked them. I wonder how this made her feel? Now that you know the story so well, you get to tell it!”

As your child talks about the story, ask them open-ended questions about what happened and how the character felt. This is your opportunity to have a conversation about the story. Prompt your child with open-ended questions to discuss the story. Be intentional in the questions you ask your child to try and pull-out target vocabulary and rich, complex language.  Always acknowledge their answer, probe them with more questions, and expand on their answers by using longer, complex sentences with the focus words from the story.

Path Pointer

Language Nutrition

Just like healthy food and exercise is necessary and important for young bodies to grow strong and healthy, young minds need to be nourished too with lots of meaningful language! Check out this blog to learn how you can “serve up” language nutrition for your child

Paving The Way to Reading

Phonological Awareness: Rhyming

Click here to see how you can support your child in learning to recognize and produce rhyming words. Don’t forget to keep reciting nursery rhymes with your child! They are so much fun, build language and will help your child be a great reader!

Alphabet Knowledge: Letter Recognition

Alphabet Knowledge: Use our Alphabet Knowledge Blog to support your child in learning this week’s focus letters.

Focus Letters this week:  L, Z