Make Tracking Fun!

Early readers can experience great difficulty when attempting to track words through the pages of a book. I have several readers right now who are pros at reading sight words off of the card, but when all the words are strung together in a sentence the words become unrecognizable. I use a variety of interventions for students with this issue, but the first one I try is introducing the child to a fun reading tool I call the reading tracker. Students often get very bored when asked to point and follow each word with their finger. However, students are less hesitant to use this all-important early literacy skill when given a fun tool. As you can see in the picture above, the Dollar Tree is my friend! I have found magnifying glasses, rulers with a magnified strip, skeleton hands, zip ties, paint brushes, little critters, a variety of magic wands, and even crazy straws! The rocket and open book trackers I simple made by taking small bulletin board icons (again from Dollar Tree) and slicing a reading window into the center with an Exacto knife. That alone is usually sufficient, but I was overly ambitious that day and also glued a tiny zip tie to the back for added tracking appeal. Young children are motivated by the easiest (and thankfully cheapest) little doodads. Anything to bring visual appeal and interest to the learning scene, right? So, go raid your Dollar Tree today! 

Happy Wednesday!