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.
  • Email this page
  • Print-friendly version of this page
 

Monthly tips for parents

Growing Readers

Written especially for parents, Growing Readers (formerly Ed Extras) provides monthly tips for raising strong readers and writers. Schools and PTAs can add these preformatted briefs to their parent newsletters. Growing Readers is also a great resource for libraries and community literacy organizations. The one- or two-page articles are available as a PDF in both English and Spanish.

Subscribe to Growing Readers

Sign up here to have Growing Readers delivered each month right to your inbox!

Download and print the latest Growing Readers article:

Science vs. Science Fiction

Children's books

The Importance of Reading Widely

Nursery Rhymes: Not Just for Babies!

Finding and Sharing Great Kids' Books

Back to Top

Community resources

Early literacy development

Good Night, Sleep Tight: Preschoolers and Sleep

How to Read With a Squiggly Baby (or Toddler!)

Does My Preschooler Have Delayed Development?

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe: Math and Literacy for Preschoolers

Building Your Child's Vocabulary

Handwriting: What's Normal, What's Not

Healthy Hearing

Beginning Readers: Look! I Can Read This!

Emergent Readers: Look! That's My Letter!

Back to Top

Families and schools

How to Read a Report Card

Homework Tips for Parents

No More Morning Madness!

When to Call Your Child's Teacher

Choosing a Preschool

Listen and Look at Back-to-School Night

Preparing Your Child for Testing

The Parent-Teacher Conference (Pre-K)

The Parent-Teacher Conference

Back to Top

Literacy activities for the family

Mission Critical: Reading Together to Build Critical Thinking Skills

Beat the Heat with Your Weather Page

Book Swap for Kids

Environmental Print

Poems at Home

Use a PEER When You Read Aloud

Picture This! Using Mental Imagery While Reading

Playing with Word Sounds: Stretch and Shorten

The Night Before the Museum

Grocery Store Literacy for Preschoolers

Grocery Store Literacy

Developing Writing and Spelling at Home

Reading for Meaning with Your Child

A Fresh Look at Your Home Library

Playing with Words

Creating a Home Library

The Role of Fathers in Their Child's Literacy Development: Pre-K

The Role of Fathers in Their Child's Literacy Development: K-3

Developing Writing and Spelling at Home: Pre-K

Making Reading Relevant: Read, Learn, and Do! (K-3)

Making Reading Relevant: Read, Learn, and Do! (Pre-K)

Talking Counts!

Reading Aloud to Build Comprehension

Writing and Spelling Ideas to Use with Kids

Back to Top

Seasonal topics

Start the New Year Off Right: Resolve to Raise a Reader!

Creating Learning Traditions

Learning That's Hands-On Holiday Fun (Pre-K)

New Year's Resolution: Help Your Kids Do Great in School

Back to Top

Summer reading

Struggling readers and learning disabilities

Learning Disabilities, Dyslexia, and Vision

Successful Transition to Kindergarten for Learners Who May Be at Risk for Learning Disabilities

Recognizing Reading Problems

Common Signs of Dyslexia

Back to Top

Science and math activities (STEM)

Science vs. Science Fiction

Think Like an Inventor

Developing Research and Information Literacy

The Vocabulary of Science

How to Read Nonfiction Text

Share What You Discover! Publishing Your Work

Creating Bar Graphs

Making Inferences and Drawing Conclusions

Cause and Effect

Teaching Sequence

Patterns and Categorizing

Recording Observations: Capturing and Sharing Images

Recording Observations: Journals and Field Notes

Measure Up!

Making Predictions

STEM Tools at Home

Steps in the Scientific Process

Outdoor Explorations

Back to Top

Sign up for Growing Readers

Once you have signed up you will receive an e-mail every month, letting you know that a new article is available. You can then either cut and paste the text of the article from the Word document into your newsletter, or you can print out the already formatted PDF and staple it in with the rest of your newsletter and distribute it to parents.

Enter your e-mail address above and then click on Go. You'll then be taken to our easy-to-use sign-up page.

* To view this file, you'll need a copy of Acrobat Reader. Most computers already have it installed, or you can download it now.

Get our newsletters!

Follow Reading Rockets

Become a fan of Reading Rockets on Facebook! Watch our videos on YouTube Check out our podcasts in iTunes

"I have been teaching for over 24 years and find wonderful information for parents and teachers alike on your site all the time."
~ Carole P.

Reading Rockets Podcasts

Featured Sister Site

Colorin Colorado: A bilingual site for families and educators of English language learners.

Colorin Colorado: A bilingual site for families and educators of English language learners