Literacy Activities and What Your Child Learns (K-5)

Kindergarten | 1st Grade | 2nd Grade | 3rd Grade | 4th Grade | 5th Grade

Elementary School / Grade K-5

The Long Beach Unified School District is committed to providing the instruction that will make every student in the district a skilled and proficient reader. Through a reading instructional program that includes sequential and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, and comprehension, students learn the skills and strategies necessary for them to become proficient readers.

The information that follows gives you specific details of the learning that is expected of students at each grade level, as well as examples of reading passages that a grade-level reader should be able to read. Also included are suggestions for activities you can do at home to help increase your children's reading skills. Many of these suggestions for at-home activities come from Parent Information Brochures published by the California State Department of Education Curriculum and Instruction Steering Committee, 1999.

Children Entering Kindergarten

Before children begin kindergarten, there are some things that they should have had experiences with which will help them learn to read.

These include knowing:

• Names of colors
• Names of parts of the body
• Names of family members
• Familiar stories, rhymes and songs
• Positional words (over, under, beside, through, etc.)
• Letters of the alphabet and words that start with those letters

When you register your child for kindergarten, you will receive a poster called ABC, Ready to Read which contains many activities to help provide your child with those experiences. In the time before kindergarten begins in September, be sure to work with him or her to fill in the poster and learn the things that the poster includes.

At kindergarten pre-registration time, children will also work for a few minutes with a teacher or counselor to show that they:

• Can recognize their name in print.
• Know how to hold a book and where to begin reading.
• Can look at a picture and retell the story it illustrates.
• Can recognize some simple shapes.

If these tasks are difficult for your child, he or she will be asked to attend a one or two-week pre-kindergarten class during the summer before regular kindergarten starts. This pre-kindergarten class will help your child learn important things that will help make him or her successful in kindergarten.

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Kindergarten

During their kindergarten year, children learn:

• The parts of a book, such as the front and back.
• That the print contains the message of the story.
• How print works, going from left to right, top to bottom.
• Some frequently occurring words, such as: the, I, we, and, see, to, you, is.

By the end of the year, they should also be able to:

• Recognize and name all upper and lower case letters.
• Match all consonant and vowel sounds to the appropriate letters.
• Demonstrate story comprehension by drawing or retelling.
• Make logical predictions about stories based on language patterns and story events.

They should be able to read books with pictures that have text similar to the following:

• I go to school.
• I go to school in a wheelchair.
• I go to school on a bike.
• I go to school in a car.
• I go to school in a taxi.
• I go to school in a van.
• I go to school in a bus.
• I go to school on a boat.

Materials:

In Long Beach schools, kindergarten teachers use materials published by Scholastic, Harcourt Brace, and Open Court as their basic reading program. As their phonics program, they use either Open Court or Scholastic. They also use a wide variety of storybooks, which children hear read aloud.

What to do at home:

There are many things that you can do at home to help your child become a skilled reader. One of the most important is to read aloud to your child every day. (Click here to see a list of wonderful books to read aloud to kindergarten-age children.)

Other at-home activities that will increase your child's reading skills include:

• Reading and sharing rhymes and songs.
• Playing rhyming games such as, "Find something in this room that rhymes with fat" or "sounds like Dan."
• Talking to your child about the sounds different letters make ("What sound does the letter m make?"
• Finding and naming letters on street signs or food labels.
• Encouraging your child to point to words or letters on signs or labels.
• Playing word games with word cards, such as matching colored cards to the corresponding color words.
• Talking about books that you and your child have shared.
• Encouraging your child to retell stories.
• Playing word games such as, "Let's see how many animals (colors, vegetables) you can name."
• Taking your child to the library to check out books.
• Letting your child see you read.
• Encouraging your child to read, "pretend" read, or look at books and magazines.
• While reading with your child, sliding your finger under the words to model left-to-right movement.

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Grade 1

As first graders, children learn to:

• generate the sounds from all letters and letter combinations.
• recognize and automatically decode commonly occurring letter patterns such as -ed and -ing.
• recognize and use 50-150 high-frequency words.
• relate their background knowledge and prior experiences to material they are reading.
• Understand that reading is supposed to make sense.
• Identify the main idea of something they have read.
• Read independently for at least 15 minutes every day.

By the end of the year, they should be able to:

• Read first grade level material with fluency and comprehension.
• Use a variety of comprehension strategies, such as asking and responding to text-related questions, making predictions, and comparing information from several sources, to understand what they are reading.
• Read aloud with fluency so that the reading sounds like natural speech.
• Retell a story, either orally or by writing or drawing, to include an appropriate beginning, middle, and end.
• Read and respond to a wide variety of important works of children's literature.

They should be able to read fiction stories similar to:

Ben was in bed. His mother came to tuck him in.

Ben began to cry.

"What's the matter, Ben?" asked his mother.

"I'm not brave," sobbed Ben.

"Who says so?" asked his mother.

"Why do they say that?" asked his mother.

"Because I don't like the rough games they play," Ben said.

"I'm scared my glasses will break."

Sample Questions

• Why does Ben say he is not brave?
• What might be a rough game that Ben's friends would play?
  First graders should also begin to be able to read simple, illustrated, non-fiction text, such as the following example:

Corn is good to eat.

Farms grow corn for people and animals to eat.

Farms use machines to plant corn.

A machine plants the seeds and covers them with soil.

Soon the plants begin to grow.

Corn plants need water to grow tall.

Farms use machines to water corn.

A machine sprays water on the corn.

Now the corn is ripe.

Farms use machines to pick the corn.

A machine picks ears of corn right off the stalks.

(Parkes, Corn: From Farm to Table)

Sample Questions

• Why does Ben say he is not brave?
• What might be a rough game that Ben's friends would play?

Materials:

In Long Beach schools, depending on the school, first grade teachers use materials published by Scholastic, Harcourt Brace or Open Court as their basic reading textbooks. As their phonics program, they use Open Court, Scholastic, or Harcourt Brace.

Our district wide spelling programs are either Scholastic or Harcourt Brace.

What to do at home:

There are many things that you can do at home to help your child become a skilled reader. One of the most important is to read aloud to your child every day. Click on list of books to see a list of wonderful books to read aloud to first graders.

• Other at-home activities that will increase your child's reading skills include:
• Reading and sharing rhymes, songs, poems, and books.
• Having your child rhyme a series of words, like bat, cat, fat, hat.
• Playing word games with word-building cards, BINGO, etc.
• Reading and talking about books.
• Encouraging your child to tell a story he or she has made up.
• Encouraging your child to ask questions about a story.
• Starting a story and having your child complete it.
• Taking your child to the library to check out books using his/her own library card.
• Having your child follow the print while you read aloud.

Interventions:

• Individual and small group tutoring (before/after school)
• Homogeneous instructional grouping during the school day
• Reading Recovery
• Reaching Higher program
• Summer School

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Grade 2

As second graders, children learn to:

• Recognize and use 150-300 or more high frequency words. (Click on (coming soon) to see examples of Grade 2 high-frequency words.)
• Recognize and use knowledge of spelling patterns when reading.
• Identify the author's purpose for writing a particular text.
• Read independently for a least 20 minutes every day.

By the end of the year, they should be able to:

• Read second grade level material with fluency and comprehension.
• Use a variety of comprehension strategies, such as drawing on their background knowledge and prior experiences, asking and responding to text-related questions, making and confirming predictions, and comparing information from several sources, to understand what they are reading.
• Read aloud with fluency and accuracy, using appropriate intonation and expression.
• Retell a story in sequential order to include an appropriate beginning, middle, end, and supporting details.
• Correctly state facts and details to clarify, organize, and summarize ideas in non-fiction text.
• Read and respond to a wide variety of important works of children's literature.

They should be able to read fiction stories such as:

I live at 165 East 95th Street, New York City,
and I'm going to stay here forever.
My mother and father are moving. Out West.
They say I have to go, too,
They say I can't stay here forever.

Out West nobody plays baseball because they're
too busy chasing buffaloes.
And there's cactus everywhere you look.
But if you don't look, you have to stand up just as soon as you sit down.

(Sharmat, Gila Monsters Meet You at the Airport)

Sample Questions

• How does the person telling the story feel about moving out West?
• What does he believe it's like out West?

A typical grade 2 non-fiction passage is similar to:

Mr. Tagawa (his students call him Mr. "T") explains how to grow Hawaiian plants. Young.coconut plants are kept in small pots. Then the plants are taken down to the beach for transplanting. On clean-up day, Mr. "T" makes sure everybody gets the job done right. First, the kids clear an area of land. Then they dig holes for the rich soil and plants. The plants are put in the ground and watered.

(Aleong, Children of the Land)

Sample Questions

• What does transplanting mean?
• What is the last thing the kids do with the plants?

Materials:

In Long Beach schools, depending on the school, second grade teachers use materials published by Scholastic, Harcourt Brace or Open Court as their basic reading textbooks. As their phonics program, they use Open Court, Scholastic, or Harcourt Brace.

Our district wide spelling programs are either Scholastic or Harcourt Brace.

What to do at home:

there are many things that you can do at home to help your child become a skilled reader. One of the most important is to read aloud to your child every day. Click on list of books to see a list of wonderful books to read aloud to second graders.)

Other at-home activities that will increase your child's reading skills include:

• Playing word games such as "Scrabble Jr." and "Boggle Jr."
• Using word hunt activities.
• When reading a story, having your child stop and predict what will happen next.
• Reading and sharing classic fairy tales and legends with your child.
• Establishing a TV-free hour for family reading games and activities.
• Encouraging your child to read aloud to a younger child.
• Sharing specific sections of the newspaper, such as the comics or the weather page, with your child.
• Using flashcards to practice new and challenging words.
• Using the newspaper to find words with particular spelling patterns, such as all the words that end with -ing, or begin with th-.

Interventions:

• Individual or small group tutoring (before/after school)
• Title I specialists
• Homogeneous grouping for instruction during the school day
• Reaching Higher program
• Summer School

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Grade 3

As third graders, children learn to:

• Distinguish between the main points and supporting details in non-fiction text.
• Identify and use features of non-fiction texts, such as subtitles, captions, graphs, charts, and glossaries, to gain understanding and locate information.
• Understand how text structures, such as cause/effect and compare/contrast, are used in non-fiction texts.
• Ask questions and support answers by connecting prior knowledge with literal and inferential information found in text.
• Make inferences and draw conclusions about context, events, characters, and settings addressed in the material they read.
• Determine the underlying message in fiction and non-fiction works.
• Read independently for a least 25 minutes every day at school, plus an additional 20 minutes daily at home.

By the end of the year, they should be able to:

• Read third grade level material smoothly and with comprehension.
• Use a variety of comprehension strategies, such as drawing on their background knowledge and prior experiences, asking and responding to text-related questions, making, checking, and revising predictions, and comparing information from several sources, to understand what they are reading.
• Mentally visualize the content which they are reading.
• Read aloud fiction and non-fiction fluently and accurately, with appropriate pacing, intonation, and expression.
• Read and respond to a wide variety of important works of children's literature.

They should be able to read fiction stories similar to:

One day Cat and Fox were walking down the road together. Along the way they would stop for things to eat - a mouse here or a fat chicken there. Soon, they began to argue to pass the time away. As arguments usually do, this one became very nasty. You think you're awfully clever, don't you?" said Fox in a haughty voice. "You think you know lots more than I do.

Well, I know a whole bag of tricks!" Ah, I admit that I know only one trick, but my one trick is worth a thousand of yours," replied Cat. At that moment, the hunter's horn was heard, followed by the barking of a whole pack of hounds. Cat leapt into the closest tree and hid in the leaves. Now you see my trick," he yelled to Fox. Let's see one of yours!"

Sample Questions

• What does "in a haughty voice" mean?
• What was Cat's trick?
• Why was it worth a thousand of fox's tricks?

A typical grade 3 non-fiction passage is similar to:

Sea otters look for danger by standing tall in the water, shading their eyes with their forefeet. But their natural watchfulness couldn't help the otters of Prince William Sound in Alaska one day in 1989. That's when the oil tanker Exxon Valdez hit an underwater reef, causing the worst oil spill ever in U.S. waters.  About 11 million gallons gushed into the Alaskan sound, spoiling 304 miles of shoreline.

(Wilsdon, Operation Rescue)

Sample Questions

• What do otters do to watch for danger?
• Why didn't that help save them from the Exxon Valdezoil spill?

Materials

In Long Beach schools, depending on the school, third grade teachers use materials published by Scholastic, Macmillan/McGraw-Hill or Open Court as their basic reading textbooks.  As their phonics program, they use Open Court, Scholastic or Harcourt Brace.  Our districtwide spelling programs are either Scholastic or Harcourt Brace.

What to Do At Home

• At-home activities that will increase your child's reading skills include:
• Playing word games such as "Scrabble."
• Doing simple crossword puzzle activities.
• Practicing changing word meanings by add prefixes and suffixes to words.
• Using a dictionary and thesaurus to check spelling and to build word knowledge.
• Summarizing a story you have read.
• Discussing sections of the newspaper such as the sports section, comics, etc.
• Reading and sharing classic fairy tales, myths, and legends.
• Using the "closed caption" option when watching a TV show to practice reading.
• Establishing a TV-free hour for the family.

Don't forget the joy of reading aloud to your child. If you click on list of books, you will find a list of delightful books which are appropriate to read aloud to third-grade age children.

• Individual or small group tutoring (before/after school)
• Summer School
• All-day literacy classroom
• Reaching Higher program
• Districtwide Literacy Clinics

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Grade 4

As fourth graders, children learn to:

• Distinguish between cause and effect and fact and opinion in non-fiction text.
• Identify and use features of non-fiction texts, such as subtitles, captions, graphs, charts, and glossaries, to gain understanding and locate information.
• Understand how text structures, such as cause/effect and compare/contrast, are used in non-fiction texts.
• Use knowledge of the situation, setting, and character's traits and motivations to determine the causes for a character's actions.
• Ask questions to clarify meaning, speculate about content, author's purpose, ideas or events, and locate specific answers.
• Determine the underlying theme or author's message in fiction and non-fiction works.
• Read independently for a least 30 minutes every day in school, plus an additional 20 minutes daily at home.

By the end of the year, they should be able to:

• Read fourth grade level material with fluency and comprehension
• Use a variety of comprehension strategies, such as drawing on their background knowledge and prior experiences, asking and responding to text-related questions, making, checking, and revising predictions, and comparing information from several sources, to understand what they are reading.
• Mentally visualize the content which they are reading.
• Read aloud fiction and non-fiction fluently and accurately, with appropriate pacing, intonation, and expression.
• Read and respond to a wide variety of important works of children's literature.

They should be able to read fiction stories such as:

One day Pa said that spring was coming. In the Big Woods the snow was beginning to thaw. Bits of it dropped from the branches of the trees and made little holes in the softening snowbanks below. At noon all the big icicles along the eaves of the little house quivered and sparkled in the sunshine, and drops of water hung trembling at their tips.

Pa said he must go to town to trade the furs of the wild animals he had been trapping all winter. So one evening he made a big bundle of them. There were so many furs that when they were packed tightly and tied together they made a bundle almost as big as Pa.

(Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods)

Sample Questions

• What were some signs that spring was coming?
• Why do you think that Pa spent time in the winter trapping fur?

Non-fiction texts at fourth grade level are similar to:

As a sculptor I have worked with clay, plaster, wood, bronze, and stone. For me, carving in stone - because stone is so very hard - is the most exciting. When a block of marble is carved into a figure that is alive with form and feeling, I feel good.

Stones can be found everywhere. I have found them in the country, in city lots, and even in torn-down buildings. But most of the carving stones come from quarries. A quarry is a huge open hole in the earth from which stones are dug. The stones are then cut into different sizes and shipped to where they are needed. As a rule, I work with a stone I can handle. If a stone is very heavy, however, a pulley can be used for lifting and moving it.

(Rieger, The Stone Menagerie)

Sample Questions

• What is a quarry?
• Why does the author prefer to carve stones?

Materials

In Long Beach schools, depending on the school, fourth grade teachers use materials published by Scholastic, Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, or Open Court as their basic reading textbooks.  Our districtwide spelling programs are either Scholastic or Harcourt Brace.

What to do at home

At-home activities that will increase your child's reading skills include:

• Playing games such as "Monopoly", " Sorry" and "Hangman."
• Making cards with synonyms, antonyms, and homonyms to play "Concentration."
• Playing alphabet and travel games using license plates, road signs, and billboards.
• Reading books, newspapers, and magazines silently, aloud, and/or together.
• Visiting museums, historical sites, and libraries to build your child's knowledge base.
• Having your child help in the kitchen by cooking and following a recipe.
• Having your child retell and respond to various forms of literature, such as poems, legends, biographies, fiction and non-fiction.

Interventions

• Individual or small group tutoring (before/after school)
• Title I specialist
• Homogeneous grouping for instruction during the school day
• Breaking the Code phonics program
• All day literacy classroom

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Grade 5

As fifth graders, children learn to:

• Distinguish between the main points and supporting details in non-fiction text.
• Identify and use features of non-fiction texts, such as subtitles, captions, graphs, charts, and glossaries, to gain understanding and locate information.
• Understand how text structures, such as cause/effect and compare/contrast, are used in non-fiction texts.
• Draw inferences, conclusions, and generalizations about what they read and support them with textual evidence and experience.
• Question textual ideas, opinions, and outcomes of events, using text and own ideas, experiences and background knowledge.
• Form an interpretation of a variety of reading selections based on implicit information in the selections.
• Integrate prior knowledge with text evidence, using both explicit and implicit information, to draw conclusions about the universal ideas addressed in a piece of text.
• Read independently for a least 30 minutes every day in school, plus an additional 20 minutes daily at home.

By the end of the year, they should be able to:

• Read fifth grade level material with fluency and comprehension
• Use a variety of comprehension strategies, such as drawing on their background knowledge and prior experiences, asking and responding to text-related questions, making, checking, and revising predictions, and comparing information from several sources, to understand what they are reading.
• Mentally visualize the content which they are reading.
• Read aloud fiction and non-fiction fluently and accurately, with appropriate pacing, intonation, and expression.
• Read and respond to a wide variety of important works of children's literature.

They should also be able to read fiction stories such as:

Meanwhile Eustace slept and slept - and slept. What woke him was a pain in his arm. The moon was shining in at the mouth of the cave, and the bed of treasures seemed to have grown much more comfortable: in fact he could hardly feel it at all. He was puzzled by the pain in his arm at first, but presently it occurred to him that the bracelet which he had shoved up above his elbow had become strangely tight.

(Lewis, Voyage of the Dawn Treader)

Sample questions

• Why do you think that Eustace could hardly feel the bed of treasures?
• Why do you think the bracelet had become strangely tight?

Non-fiction texts at fifth grade level are similar to:

After months of trial and error, more trials and worse luck, an exhausted but victorious Rich Wilson finally turned his trimaran, Great American II, due west toward home. He glanced up to the sails, checking to make sure they were set at the best angle to catch the wind. Finally Boston lay just ahead and Rich and his crewman Bill Biewenga were jubilant. They had been at sea for 69 days. It was April 7, 1993, and they were about the beat the phantom clipper ship home...

On his first attempt he had selected a 60-foot trimaran named Great American. It was a single-masted racing sailboat, built of fiberglass, and reinforced with Kevlar and carbon fiber, new boat-building materials. It had a central hull with a galley, a bunk, and a radio station. On each side of the main hull was a long pontoon, giving it, when at anchor, the look of a water-walking bug, and when in action, the awesome beauty of an eagle in flight.

(Conrad, The Ocean Challenge)

Sample Questions

• About when did Rich and Bill's journey on the Great American II begin?
• What ocean were they probably sailing in at the end of their journey?

Materials

In Long Beach schools, depending on the school, fifth grade teachers use materials published by Scholastic, Macmillan/McGraw-Hill or Open Court as their basic reading textbooks. 

Our districtwide spelling program is Scholastic Spelling.

What to Do At Home

At-home activities that will increase your child's reading skills include:

• Playing games such as "Trivial Pursuit" and "Password."
• Making cards with words, prefixes, and suffixes, then putting the cards together to make different words.
• Playing alphabet and travel games using license plates, road signs, and billboards.  For example, you could find the letters of the alphabet, in order, using road signs.
• Reading video game directions.
• Visiting museums, historical sites, and libraries to build your child's knowledge base.
• Reading and responding to various forms of literature, including legends, biographies, fiction, non-fiction, and current events.

Interventions

• Individual or small group tutoring (before/after school)
• Title I specialist
• Homogeneous grouping for instruction during the school day
• Breaking the Code phonics program
• All day literacy classroom