Sing into Reading: the Blog

Finding and Keeping the Beat:
a class for kids under seven

We've got the beat!

In this multi-age class, Risa Beth Cohen, M.S.Ed., Creative Director of Sing into Reading, teaches about the beat. Students practice beat synchronization with their torsos, hands, and feet. Modifications can be made to this class (or any of Risa's classes)  for your age group and abilities.

In this class, Risa sings two of her original songs, "Oh, Friends, We Love You," and "Hello With One Hand." These are both zipper songs that allow students to add their own ideas, giving them a sense of ownership. In "Hello with One Hand," students suggest different parts of the body. "Oh Friends, We Love You" can be sung as a name song, "Oh____, We Love You" making the song more personal and meaningful.

Songbooks and resources are provided after classes. In Risa's songbooks, the text is color-coded with red consonants and blue vowels. (If you would like to color-code your text, you can get the...

Holidays are precious times we want to remember. To help with memory consolidation, in addition to taking pictures, it is helpful to write about our experiences, and encourage our children to write as well.

Here are some of my favorite holiday writing prompts:

• Holiday Wish List
• Favorite Holiday Memory
• Favorite Holiday and Why
• Favorite Holiday Gift Given
• Favorite Holiday Gift Received
• The Best Part of (Name of Holiday) is ____
• (Name of Holiday) is All About _______
• Retelling a Favorite Holiday Story

"It's Holiday Time" is a song written by a student. He wrote about his holiday wish list, and also the best part of the holiday.

Even preschoolers can write about the holidays. Ask them one of the writing prompts above and then tell them to write about it. Hand them crayons and paper let them get to work. Then ask them to tell you about what they wrote, and transcribe their words. Encourage your children to write about the holidays and let me know how it goes.

Wishing you all happy...

Name Songs are important. Not only do they help children feel welcome and included, but they teach that words and letters have meaning. 

In this blog I demonstrate how to use name songs for word study, modeled writing, interactive writing, and independent writing.

Here are the name songs in this blog:

• "Round and Around is the Name of the Game"
  • This song incorporates motions that cross the midline.
• "Hickety Pickety Bumblebee" 
  • This song helps teach syllables.
• "Do You Know This Friend of Mine"
  • The melody of this song piggy-backs on "Do You Know the Muffin Man"
• "Oh, _____, We Love You"
  • You can get your own personalized recording of this song, with a customized digital book! Get your copy here.

Keep singing,

Risa

P.S. This blog first aired in the Early Childhood Global Mastermind Group. Huge thanks to Atul, Mar., and the gang.

Encouragement is having high, but attainable expectations, celebrating every success, and showing compassion in the face of failure.

In How to Talk So Kids Will Listen, and Listen So Kids Will Talk, Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish write,  “Let us realize that, along with food, shelter, and clothing, we have another obligation to our children, and that is to affirm their ‘rightness.’ The whole world will tell them what’s wrong with them—loud and often. Our job is to let our children know what’s right about them.” (p.191) (I love this book. Their book, Siblings Without Rivalry is also excellent.) The world can be a discouraging place. Our homes don’t have to be. We can choose to encourage our children.

Let’s focus on progress, not perfection. Focus on the wins, employing a strength model vs. a deficit model.

Recognize your child as a reader. (Check out this blog: https://www.singintoreading.com/blog/recognizing-readers)

When I...

Today is World Poetry Day!

Poetry is all about using words to evoke emotion.
Poetry is about using beautiful language.

I often talk about the importance of reading books to children daily. It is important to expose our children to poetry as well. There are many wonderful poetry books for children. My favorite is "Honey, I Love," by Eloise Greenfield.

Not only do we read poetry to our children, but we also encourage them to write it. Children are natural poets. The world, seen through a child's eyes, is poetry. The words a child uses are often poetry.

Collect your child's words. When your child says something poetic, save it. Say, "That is beautiful language." Write it down and hang onto these precious words.

As a classroom teacher, I had a poster on the wall that was titled, "Beautiful Language." When students said something beautiful, I wrote it down, hung it on the bulletin, and read it aloud to the class.

Here is one of my favorites... When my oldest (now 15) was 4, he referred to the...

Get your free booklet, "Ten Tips to Teach Your Child to Read with Music and Love" here: 

https://www.singintoreading.com/ten-tips

Do all things with love. This is my mantra. Especially when teaching or parenting, we want to do it with love and encouragement. When we lose our patience with children, that is discouraging. Facing discouragement puts someone in a state of dysregulation - which is not a state receptive to learning. Instead, if we want our children to be open to learning, we need to encourage them.

Parents in my membership receive a "Rosy Moment Visualization." In this guided meditation, I walk parents and guardians through a special memory of their child. Once this memory is solidified, you can breathe into it at times when you feel you are losing your patience. It is a tool I use to bring me back to encouragement and love.

How do you keep your patience and remain loving when you feel upset? What are your favorite ways to do all things with love? Let...

Holidays can be a crazy time. There is so much to do and just not enough time to get it all done. 

Let's face it, holidays don't always feel like a Hallmark show. Holidays can be stressful - especially with children.

I invite you to join me in deliberately stopping to breathe whenever you feel stressed.

No matter how much we have to do, we always have time to breathe.

Wishing you PEACEFUL holidays filled with love, joy, and music!

Keep singing,

Risa

In this "Edutalk" I explore recognizing our children as readers, no matter what level they read at currently. I redefine literacy, reading, and writing to a wider definition of these words. In this talk, I explain how this wider view of literacy is more encouraging for our children. 

I want to thank Noha Barrania of Edulane. Noha has given me permission to post this on the Sing into Reading blog. You can find more edutalks by other educators at https://www.facebook.com/edulaneeg

Keep singing,

Risa

Zipper songs are fantastic tools for teaching literacy. A zipper song is a "fill-in-the-blank song." I ask the children to fill in the blank, and zip their ideas right into the song. For example, my song, "Holidays are For Family" is a zipper song, since I can ask the students their favorite holidays and then sing about them.

In this blog, I talk about how to use zipper songs to teach literacy. Zipper songs can be used for modeled reading, shared reading, modeled writing, interactive writing, independent reading, and independent writing. The suggestions students make for zipper songs can easily be a springboard into word study and phonics work.

What is your favorite zipper song?

Keep singing,

Risa

What is Balanced Literacy? Balanced Literacy is a reading curriculum that includes Read Aloud, Modeled Writing, Independent Writing, Independent Reading, Shared Reading, Interactive Writing, Guided Reading, Phonics and Word Study.

I learned about Balanced Literacy at The Reading and Writing Project (TRWP) at Teachers College, Columbia University. What I do differently at Sing into Reading is that I use songs as our texts. 

Keep singing,

Risa