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Follow words from left to right

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Activity Type: Introduce
Activity Form: Standard
Grade: K, 1 (can be adapted for older students)
Group Size: Small Group
Length: 5-8 minutes
Materials: A Fun Day
Goal: The student can join in on a choral read of A Fun Day and note how we follow words from left to right.
Items: A Fun Day

What to do

  1. Review the parts of a book and book-handling skills. What do the words on the front cover show us? (title of book, author name, illustrator name)
  2. Turn to page 1. Model for the students where to begin reading on the page. Demonstrate with your finger tracing under the words that you move from left to right. Then call other students up to model. Who can show me where we should begin reading this page? Who can show me the direction we should read in? Tell them that when you are done reading the words on the page you turn the page. Listen now as I read A Fun Day.
  3. Point to each word as you read aloud the title and author and illustrator’s names. Who remembers what an author is? (a person who writes the words in a book) What is an illustrator? (a person who draws pictures)
  4. Turn to page 1. Track the print as you read aloud. Stop along the way and ask students to come up and point to the word that you should read next. Remind the students that you are reading words from left to right. Then point to the illustration. Who is this? (Mia) How do you know? (The words on the page are what the girl says. She tells us that her name is Mia.)
  5. Repeat the process for pages 2–5, tracking the text as you read. Ask questions for each page. Now we’re going to read the book together. Read along as I point to each word.
  6. Direct students to turn back to page 1. Now it’s your turn. Let’s read together again, but this time, use your finger to point to each word in your own book. Now let’s turn to page 2. Let’s read the words together again. Read the page.
  7. As you are reading together monitor that students fingers are tracking from left to right. Stop and model again of students are still struggling with tracking from left to right in their books. Repeat with pages 3–5.