Reading Chapter Books

We have started Annabelle's K curriculum this week. In doing this we have begun to read chapter books. I am not concerned about most of them holding her interest. However, I was feeling a little iffy about Born Free by Joy Adamson.

It is a good book about a woman and her husband living in Africa and raising a lion cub. The language (not bad words, just the way things are worded) and words used are way over Annabelle's head. Coupled with little to no pictures I knew this book would be a hard one to get through. I didn't want to put it aside because of that.

After our first reading I knew that I would have to come up with something more to keep her listening. Pretty sure her eyes glazed over within the first two paragraphs. lol I thought for a while and this idea popped into my head (thank you Lord!).

We played a "Find the Lion" game while we read. I printed out a clip art picture of a lion and placed it behind one of the doors in this Melissa and Doug latch puzzle. I would read a page and then ask Annabelle a question about what I just read. If she got the answer right she was able to open one of the doors. As soon as she found the lion we would be done reading the book (even if we didn't get through all that was scheduled).
She really appreciated this. I think that she felt like she had some control over what was read. With the goal of finding the lion in mind she listened much better, although we still had some problems.... her brothers. lol I hope that she will soon adjust to listening, comprehending, and answering questions. If this book continues to be a problem we will shelve it for later. I want to foster her love of learning and reading. I want it to never feel like something she HAS to do, but something she WANTS to do.

How well did she do with this little game? Well, I asked 8 questions and she answered 5 correctly. I think that is pretty good for the first time around! Happy blogging.

jess_hak

I am linking this up to Preschool Corner. Head on over there to see other great ideas.