In my eternal quest for an organized house, I recently read yet another book by an organization guru. When I got to the chapter on kitchens, I learned that a kitchen only needs two wooden spoons. I wondered why this lesson needed to be taught. 

Then I looked in my kitchen drawer. 

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm giving you an activity that will declutter your kitchen, occupy your children and help them read more accurately...all at the same time! 

While you are preparing your Thanksgiving feast, occupy little hands with a Thanksgiving craft that will ultimately help with reading.

How To Make a
Thanksgiving Reading Pointer: 
1) Give your child one of your wooden spoons, or any kitchen gadget that is actually just cluttering up your kitchen. 

2) Gather various art supplies from the unorganized art cabinet, and place them in front of your child. (Paper, scissors, markers, glue, ribbons --- whatever you find.)

3) Challenge your child, to think creatively, and use the supplies to turn the wooden spoon into a turkey.

4) Finally, when Thanksgiving is over and all the guests have gone home, take some well deserved time with your child for reading. Read a bedtime story with your child and point to every word using the new Thanksgiving pointer. This is truly a moment to be thankful for. 

Why are reading pointers helpful? 

1) Pointing to words while reading is a necessary step for beginning readers, struggling readers or readers that are working on accuracy and fluency. 

2) Although pointing to words while reading is useful, it is annoying and most kids dislike doing it. 

3) Using a silly pointer like a turkey made out of a wooden spoon makes the act of pointing to the words much more fun! 

4) You can use any silly item to encourage pointing while reading: fork, carrot, banana, toy airplane or homemade wooden spoon turkey.

5) Pointing to words helps the reader in so many ways. Here is just a small list:
-- Helps for tracking the words
-- Reminds the reader to put sounds to the  beginning, middle and ending of words
--  Helps the reader work on blending sounds
--  Increases reading fluency 
--  Increases reading accuracy
--  Parents can use a reading pointer to indicate that a mistake has been made, by resting on words that are read incorrectly. This method is less frustrating and does not interrupt the reader.
 

 More ways to Encourage Reading! 

Even more ideas to encourage reading!

Last year's Koala Coach Thanksgiving writing Activity! 

Thank you for reading Koala Blog. Happy Thanksgiving.