Pre-packaged Lit Kits Simplify and Engage

I recently came across this wonderful company called Engage with the Page. Two reading specialists, and moms, Michelle Roderick, M.Ed. and Emily Swan, Ph.D. are passionate about helping children love reading so they created DiscoverLitKits. Each pre-packaged literacy kit centers around a theme with books and a bag full of research-based reading activities to help parents and teachers engage children with reading. 

The kits come in this clear bag to keep all of the activities together and make them easily transportable to take in the car, to the doctor, grandma’s house or at school.
 
ENGAGING ACTIVITIES
My son and I played with this Bugs DiscoverLitKit, for PreK-K, for the past two weeks. The focus book was The Butterfly by Anna Milbourne and Cathy Shimmen. There were so many activities to go along with it that we could explore the book differently each day. The activities included math, writing, poetry, word study, vocabulary, discussion cards, art, science, and fluency. They took from 5-15 minutes each to complete so it worked well for my kindergartner’s attention span to do a Lit Kit activity each day, then let him pick a few books of his choice for reading time.

I loved that the book had teaching tip stickers placed on the cover and on each page to give the parent or teacher additional ideas of engaging the child with the book. I normally try to ask more questions as we read books but their tip stickers gave me ideas I hadn’t thought of.


My son really loved the interactive, engaging parts of the Lit Kit.  We played the Ladybug Math Mat several times.  He would roll the die and place pom poms on his half of the ladybug then I would roll and place pom poms on my half. Then he would write the equation down on a piece of paper. He didn’t want to stop and filled the entire page with equations.


He also loved the art project and using the magnifying glass to search for words in the book. There were also colored butterfly stickers we used for several activities.
TIME SAVER
As a mom, I try to come up with several ways to explore a book, through crafts or reading techniques but it takes time to put it all together and most days we just simply read a book cover to cover while asking a few questions. This kit put everything together so you could just pull it out and start using it right away, giving you hours of engaging activities to do with your child. This would be great for busy parents or teachers to add to their library.
Engage with the Page has been developing these scientifically-based DiscoverLitKits for years and have made sure they are kid tested and mom approved too. They have just started to sell them at local boutiques in Utah and now offer some online at www.engagewiththepage.com.
Kits vary in price and they do have a subscription program available so you can try a different themed kit each month. When you add up the cost of the book, supplies, and the time it saves you from having to research and create your own supplemental activities to go with books, these kits are worth the money. Especially because you'll want to re-use it with future children or in classrooms year after year.
Update- they now have DIY lit kits where you can buy the resource kits and print some parts out if you already have the book.

*Disclosure: I was given this DiscoverLitKit to review but all experiences and opinions are my own as we explored this literacy program.

DIY McElligot’s Pool: Summer Reading Spot

To keep my kids reading all summer I made McElligot's Pool for our reading spot.

I still remember my first grade teacher had a 6-foot, hard-plastic pool in her classroom. Children could earn the right to take their books into the pool for reading time. She always had some pillows and a variety of books scattered inside.  I’ve always wanted to make my own reading pool so I decided to make McElligot's Pool for my kids at home.



McElligot's Pool is another fantastic imaginative story from Dr. Seuss. I always think about it when I go fishing. Make sure you grab it from your library to try reading it in the pool. Or if you’d like to buy it to add to your Dr. Seuss collection click the book above.

MAKE YOUR OWN McELLIGOT’S POOL
Free Printable Sign. You can copy and save the image below or paste it into Microsoft Word to print at the size you want.  I printed the 4x6 size and cut it out and taped it on the pool. You could make it larger if you plan to put it on a post but I thought this small size was easier and safer for kids.

The kids love hopping into the pool to read.

This pool was just the right size for our small reading loft. It was $5 at Wal-mart. I saw a little bit bigger one, two rings high, for $8. I’ve also seen similar ones at the grocery store on their seasonal isle. Grab a pool right now while they are in season. These little ones go quick.  I liked the fish design for this project and we can deflate it to get it out of the way and put it up quickly when we want to.

Remember Dr. Seuss’ advice to, “Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks.” Here is my sweet baby boy surrounded by our favorite books.

Keep your child reading all summer. Visit your local library as much as possible. We love the libraries in Salt Lake City. Click below to see my guest post about our Library's Summer Reading Program on I Heart Salt Lake.

Linking this project at these great blogs:

Dr. Seuss Crafts and Teacher Supplies at Lakeshore Learning

We stopped by Lakeshore Learning Store this past weekend for their Dr. Seuss Birthday celebration. This is my favorite store to grab teaching supplies.  They have a special “Teachers Club” card for discounts and the great thing is anyone who teaches children can get a card – even moms. 

I picked up a few more Dr. Seuss, ABC board books to give as baby shower gifts. I also grabbed some Dr. Seuss wall posters featuring phonics for our reading area at home. The store had Dr. Seuss bulletin board decorations, reward sticker charts, more posters, and more books.

 

  Dr. Seuss Crafts

They had several stations set up for the kids to rotate around. Our kids liked making bow ties out of a piece of felt. They scrunched it up, wrapped a pipe cleaner around the middle, then attached yarn to make it into a necklace.

 

 

 Two more craft stations included making whimsical hats and a small story book out of construction paper.

Dr. Seuss Games

 

Then they had a game station run by The Cat in the Hat. He played “Cat Says” (like Mother-May-I game) and a bean bag toss into Cat in the Hat buckets and a balancing ball game.

Story time with ‘Ten Apples Up on Top.’

This was a fun event to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ Birthday this week.

Try making your own Dr. Seuss crafts at home.

Check out the page tabs above for more ideas.