Learning Activity

The subject I am basing my activity on is reading and comprehension for kindergarteners. Students have to know how to use a flexible range of metacognitive reading skills in both assigned and independent reading to understand an author’s message. Also, students will have to know how to continue to apply earlier standards with greater depth in increasingly more complex texts as they become self-directed, critical readers. Their TEKS is that they need to be able to make inferences based on the cover, title, illustrations, and plot. They need to be able to retell or act out important events in stories and make connections to their own experiences, ideas in other texts, and to the larger community and discuss the textual evidence.

My activity I am making is called Story Ball.
The materials you will need:

• beach ball
• permanent marker
• first grade level book (or a story from your child's reading textbook)
• pencil
• lined paper             

To make the activity:

1. Using the marker, grab the beach ball and write one of the following in each of the colored sections of the ball: "Setting?" "Favorite Part?" "What does this remind you of?" "Beginning?" "End?" and "Sight Words?"
2. Once the ball is marked up play a game of catch, inside or outside (whatever suits your class). In the game of Story Ball, each time you toss your child the ball, he/she must answer the question written on the color which lands under his right hand. Where did the story take place? What happened in the beginning and in the end? What was his/her favorite part? Toss the ball back and forth, from student to student—the quicker, the better, since that makes answering in time more fun and silly. If your child can’t recall an event from the story give him/her some clues.
3. The game continues until all the questions have been answered. If you’d like to extend the activity, ask your child to write down what he’s said aloud on paper, then illustrate it. This is another great way to help him recall the events of a story and understand what he’s read.