Our Summer Fun Reading Program fits neatly packaged into four unforgetable days. In effective reading instruction, 5 key areas are taught:

1) phonemic awareness

2) decoding

3) vocabulary

4) fluency

5) comprehension

We call it the “Bridge to Reading”. One of these key areas becomes the focus of each day.

9:00 - 9:15 Concept for the Day/Review

9:15 - 10:30 Horse Powered Reading Activity #1 

10:30 - 11:00 Literature Circle / Reading Activity and Snack 

11:00 - 11:45 Horse Powered Reading Activity #2 

11:45-12:00 Processing and Wrap-Up

There will be a variety of reading concepts covered each day. Activities are planned depending on the grade level and needs of the students. Below is a sampling from an elementary school summer program. 

Monday

Activity #1 "Rip Roaring Readers"

Activity #2 "Word Sort" or "Word Chopper Checkers" 

• Decoding by analogy: You can read other words with the same phonogram by just changing the beginning sound

• Some sight words are tricky- how can you remember them?

• Adding the "magic e" to the end of many CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words will change the vowel to make it say its name

• Long words can be easily decoded by breaking them into syllables and seeing the phonograms

Activity #1  "Vocabulary Soccer" 

Activity #2 "Horse Labeling"

Rainy Day Activity- "Reader's Theater" 

• Many words have multiple meanings

• Synonyms & antonyms

• What happens when you “skip” over words you don’t know? You have to circle back and re-read

Wednesday

Activity #1 "Fluency Course" or "Reading Racers"

Activity #2 "Painted Ponies" 

• Create obstacle course with various words on cones, balls, puzzle pieces. Then work with your team to complete the course 3 times

• 1st time through read words/sentences from their stories in the path accurately

• 2nd time through, read the path accurately but as quickly as you can

• 3rd time through, read accurately and quickly, but add EXPRESSION!

• Paint your pony and practice "prosody" (expression)

Thursday

Activity #1 "Catch and Halter"

Activity #2 "Story Circle"

• With your team, talk about what you have learned so far about your 4 legged reading buddy

• Using what you already know, go and connect with your reading buddy and get them ready for our next activity

• If something doesn’t work, what should you do? Try something else...use a different strategy, ask questions, and/or ask for help

• Comprehension and affixes- story writing