Our monthly reading guides help enhance your Ranger Rick Jr. subscription by recommending ways you can use the magazine to encourage a strong foundation for your child’s literacy development.
Autumn can be a fun time with cooler weather, the trees changing colors, and Halloween coming at the end of this month. Ricky Raccoon really gets into the Halloween spirit in “The Trickster” on page 20 of this month’s magazine. He decorates his tree house and plays tricks on his pals. Reading this story during an evening with the lights turned low increases the suspense.
Fun children’s Halloween stories can be found at your local library. Look for these titles: Just Say Boo! by Susan Hood, Trick or Treat by Leo Landry, or Sabrina the Black Cat (Sabrina la Gata Negra). Also ask at the library if there will be children’s story time this month when books about Halloween or autumn will be read.
Making a bat tree craft can be a good project with your child. The pattern and instructions can be found online. Search the Internet for Halloween stories and activities that you can do with children.
The two articles about owls can help you engage a child in reading:
Ask the child to find ten owls on pages 12 and 13. The most difficult for me were the owl in a baby carriage and the two owls on clothing. Next have the child count pumpkins on these two pages. (I found eight). The child learns to take her or his time looking at the pages and keeping track of numbers.
As you read “Mystery Animal” starting on page 6, introduce new vocabulary words. Following with your finger as you read shows the child what words look like. When you come to a new word, explain its meaning or ask the child if she or he knows what it means. Examples are “mystery”, “seldom”, “burrowing or burrow”, and “twists”.
Have fun with your child and this issue of Ranger Rick Jr.!
Prepared by Mike Wilson
Prekindergarten Reading Encouragement Project (PREP) Founder
PREP – Helping childhood literacy one family at a time.