Tips and tricks to help your reader take on the HPAS Reads Bingo Card Challenge! (And the cards themselves if you need to reprint, or your child wants to switch to a different reader level.)
Turn in your Bingo Card by November 2nd for a chance to win a prize.
HPAS Reads Emergent Reader Bingo Card
Emergent Readers Resources
Confused about what one of the squares on your child’s Bingo Card means? Or want a book suggestion? Check it out down below.
There are 16 challenges. Some kids might like to do a bunch at once. Others might be slow and steady or need a little reminder. They can turn in their Bingo Card even if it isn’t complete.
“Connections to Curriculum” are pointed out when a book may support a part of the Science or Social Studies curriculum. Since the Kindergarten Curriculum is not structured this way the connections mentioned here are all from Grade 1, but in many cases these are subjects students are introduced to, and then come back to with more depth.
We also have great podcasts, a website and an app suggested by HPAS teachers for Emergent Readers. Please note: We cannot post TDSB Logins & Passwords publicly, online.
If a website you visit requires a login & passwords, please refer to the TDSB Learnmark, that can be found linked in your Google Classroom, or reach out to our Librarian Kelly Iggers at Kelly.Iggers@tdsb.on.ca for more information.
HPAS Reads is about getting kids excited about reading, and changing up the routine a little bit! The kids you’ve been reading to are on a journey towards independent reading. We hope some of these activities can be fun steps along the way.
Bingo Card
- Sing Your ABCs – Learning the alphabet is a key step toward literacy, and singing it is a fun way to learn. Challenges that your child can complete on their own (or with a little prompting) are key to building confidence.
- Read a Book About a Season – Curriculum Connection – Daily and Seasonal Changes is a Grade 1 unit, but even in kindergarten (and before!) children are learning about the cycle of the seasons as a way to understand time and the world we live in. Some suggested titles include This is How I Know, and Four Seasons Make a Year.
- Go on a “Things That Look Like a Letter” Hunt – This is a fun game to play with your reader. Basically you look for things that have a shape that resembles a letter. Depending on the stage your readers is at you may be looking for the shapes of upper case letters only, and you may need to find some to start the game, or focus on the letters in their name. You can even play it like an I Spy type game with very young kids who are just learning letters. Discovering that a ladder from the side looks like an A, or a cookie with a bite out of it looks like a C can be funny and create some enthusiasm for letters.
- Read a book about Counting – From The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Doggies to Anno’s Counting Book (which is also a book with no words) there are lots of great choices that will help boost literacy and numeracy! Counting on Fall (also a book about seasons) has some challenge questions asking kids to estimate, understand order and identify patterns making it a good choice for Emergent Readers with more advanced math skills.
- Read a book with no words – Some children might like to do this one on their own, or they might have fun telling you the story. Goodnight Gorilla, The Red Book, Wave and Flashlight are among the many wonderful wordless books for younger children that help develop a sense of narrative and develop the skill of getting clues from illustrations that will help when there are words on the page in other works.
- Draw a Picture From a Story You Like – Some kids will copy an illustration (that’s okay – copying is a motor skills exercise), while others might re-interpret or focus on a favourite character, the title or something else – their imaginations are big! This exercise is mostly about connecting kids with something they enjoy, and encouraging the use of drawing/writing tools.
- Read a Book About A Special Day – Connection to Curriculum – Grade 1 Heritage and Identity. Young readers always enjoy reading stories about their special days their community celebrates, and learning about the celebrations of others. This can also help children make month to season associations, and understand annual (or other) patterns.
- Draw the First Letter in Your Name – A good letter to focus on for those just starting to recognize and write their alphabet, and fun to make fancy for kids a little further along the path. As with all drawing challenges, this is a motor skills exercise.
- Look at a book alone for ten minutes – Grown-ups will have to help with timing. This encourages independent exploration of books and taking the time to puzzle things out on your own.
- Read a Book About an Animal – This may make a Connection to Curriculum: Grade 1 Needs and Characteristics of Living Things, but it’s okay if the characters are anthropomorphized animals too.
- Make nature letters – This is a “get outside” activity! Use sticks, pinecones, leaves or stones … anything natural to form letters. Making letters out of objects can help with pattern recognition (and therefore recognizing letters in different fonts or handwriting).
- Re-read a book – Many of you do this already, but re-reading books is a great way for kids to learn to associate sounds with letters and learn sight words.
- Read a book with Rhymes – Rhyming is an early phonological awareness skill. It’s fun and through repetition helps kids associate letters (and letter combinations) with sounds. Room on the Broom is a fun choice for Hallowe’en, Brown Boy Joy is full of pride joy and empathy for all children, and Mooncakes tells of a girl learning about the Mid-Autumn Festival.
- Talk to a Family Member About Their Favourite Kid’s Book – If they’ve heard yours before see if a more distant relative can share. Connection to Curriculum: Grade 1 Heritage and Identity (learning about your family).
- Read a Book About Families – Connection to Curriculum: Grade 1 Heritage and Identity. There are many fantastic books about families out there, like Todd Parr’s The Family Book, A Handful of Buttons and Smooch!
- Listen to a Podcast – Listening to stories or about a favourite subject on a podcast helps build listening comprehension, and can help expand vocabulary. Look below to see a few HPAS teachers recommend.
Podcasts
Deep Blue Sea (Spodify)
Climb aboard submarine Sea Lab Alpha to join underwater explorers Marina and Reef on awesome adventures in the magical oceans covering our planet. Meet amazing sea creatures, learn tons of fun facts, and discover ways to protect the oceans these creatures call home. Parents, this is perfect for young explorers (3-5).
Bobby Wonder (GoKidGo)
Bobby just found out he’s from another planet, he has superpowers, and Mighty Mila is out to get him! At least protecting his hometown of Pflugerville will be a little easier with Grabstack, his constant companion, at his side.
Whale of a Tale (GoKidsGo)
Zavia and Atlas are a 10-year old sister and brother with different temperaments and skills but one big common interest: fearlessly exploring the vast ocean while driving around in their home — a high tech whale-shaped submarine!
Molly of Denali
Meet Molly Mabray, an Alaska Native girl growing up with her parents, family, and friends. Over eight episodes, Molly and her friend Tooey discover the identity of a mysterious creature that has stolen Molly’s birthday cake.
Websites
https://storyonline.net
The SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s Daytime Emmy®-nominated and award-winning children’s literacy website, Storyline Online®, streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations. Readers include Oprah Winfrey, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson, Viola Davis, Terry Crews, Connie Britton, John Lithgow, Jennifer Garner, Betty White and dozens more.
Apps
Tumblebooks – This App lets kids view animated versions of favourite books.
