Reading Rockets offers a wealth of reading strategies, lessons, and activities designed to help young children learn how to read and read better. Our reading resources assist parents, teachers, and other educators in helping struggling readers build fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.

Blogs About Reading

Sound It Out

Along with her background as a researcher, writer, and teacher, Joanne Meier is a mom. Join Joanne every week as she shares her experiences raising her own young readers, and guides parents and teachers on the best practices in reading.

Children, start your letter writing

November 24, 2009

It is the time of year when many children sit down to write an important letter addressed to the North Pole. Other children pen thank you notes and party invitations during this busy time of the year. Some say letter writing is a lost art, but it doesn't have to be!

An Introduction to Letter Writing covers activities for many common types of letter writing, including formal and informal letters, thank you notes, letters of complaint, and more. For kids who prefer to work online, or need a more step-by-step approach, try Read, Write, Think's Letter Generator. It's set up to help kids write either a friendly letter or a business letter.

For character-related fun, the Arthur section on the PBS Kids website has a Letter Writer Helper that shows kids the various parts of a "good old-fashioned" letter, an email, a greeting card, and a postcard. Staying within that site, kids can use Letters To to help them write to Arthur, Francine, Sue Ellen, or The Brain.

If you're wondering whether you have realistic expectations about your child's writing, some of the links within this section on Education.com can help you understand what to expect in writing by age and grade.

Whatever the reason for writing, hopefully these resources will help.