Reading With Building Blocks

Play Day in the Park (Easy Reader for 3- to 4-year-olds) This Easy Reader features the familiar Building Blocks characters in a rhyming book that encourages children to play outside and exercise and discover the world around them. Use this oversized, colorful book in the classroom or at home to engage young children in reading and counting, problem-solving, and making healthy decisions.

Look What I Can Do! (Easy Reader for 5- to 6-year-olds) This Easy Reader features the familiar Building Blocks characters and encourages children to play outside and exercise, eat healthy meals and snacks, and discover the world around them. Activities throughout the book let children show all of the things that they can do, too! Use this oversized, colorful book in the classroom or at home to engage young children in reading, problem-solving, and making healthy decisions.

Purpose

To introduce students to basic reading concepts through Building Blocks.

Materials

• Free Building Blocks materials
• Building Blocks online games
• Building Blocks sing-along songs

Preparation

Select the Building Blocks tool you're planning to use and print out and distribute the materials to students.

Teaching Note: Building Blocks materials are copyright free—you may copy and use all of the materials in the ways that work best for you and your classroom.

Procedure

Choose one of these sample ideas and adapt it to fit your students' needs.

Letter Sounds

Use the Building Blocks ABC Coloring Book (PDF) to have students listen for and identify alliteration in "ants on Ali's apple" or Sandy Squirrel's "beautiful, bouncing braids."

Context Clues

Bright, simple graphics on the Character Cardsand Know Kit Cards help children read the questions and answers for each Building Blocks character.

Know Kit Cards Ages 3-4 (PDF)

Know Kit Cards Ages 5-6 (PDF)

Character Cards (PDF)

Word Recognition

Each Building Blocks character is named after the animal he or she resembles. Use the Character Cardsand Know Kit Cards to have children look for the bushy tail or long ears to identify Sandy Squirrel or Ali Rabbit.

Know Kit Cards Ages 3-4 (PDF)

Know Kit Cards Ages 5-6 (PDF)

Character Cards (PDF)

Rhyming

The simple words and rhyming schemes used in Building Blocks songs help students use rhyme to identify and create new words. Print out the lyrics for each song and have students read along as they sing. Or, have them highlight the rhyming words and find new ones that can also be used within the song’s meter.

Reading Games

Reading games are everywhere on the Web. Have students try these:

	The Great Weather Race is an excellent tool for listening comprehension.
	Favorite Snacks Memory Game helps children match pictures and words, an important pre-reading skill.
	I Feel Many Ways develops word recognition skills using picture clues.
	Get to Know the Friends Match Game uses picture clues and word recognition to solve a simple matching puzzle.
	The Recording Studio focuses on the progression of the keys and on improving direction, matching, and motor skills.
	Mee's Maze provides practice in direction and small motor skills, important pre-reading and writing skills.
	Free E-Cards give children practice with reading and writing in a real-world situation.

Resources:

• Reading Tips for Parents from the U.S. Department of Education provides excellent information and tools for reading to children.
• Reading to Babies, Toddlers, and Young Children from the Child Literacy Centre^TM provides parenting tips and information on why, what, and how to read to children.
• Caldecott Winners and Notable Children’s Books Library Association can make choosing children’s books easy and fun.

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