Winners Announced!

Welcome to our Step into Reading Teacher Web Site! The Step into Reading leveled series includes age-appropriate font and decodable text— perfect for guided reading or any reading program! Promoting fluency and providing quality content, Step into Reading hits curricular topics and is perfect for integrating science, social studies, and even math. Step into Reading offers fiction and nonfiction favorites, and includes popular characters such as Disney Princess and
Barbie™, who will excite even your most
reluctant readers.

Check out our What’s New section for featured books by level and classroom activities. We hope Step into Reading brings you one step closer to fostering your students into life long readers. Enjoy and please feel free to share any of your Step into Reading success stories!

WHAT'S NEW!

STEP 1: READY TO READ Preschool–Kindergarten Big type and easy words Rhyme and rhythm Picture clues For children who know the alphabet and are eager to begin reading.

Dancing Dinos Go to School by Sally Lucas Illustrated by Margeaux Lucas 978-0-375-83241-3 (0-375-83241-6)

Activities:
Before you read the book, as a class, brainstorm all the words that go with school, listing them on the board or chart paper. Next, have students think of ways these words could be categorized and sort them. Possible categories: tools, activities, parts of the day, things you can see, things to do, things to know (but give them time to come up with different ones as you might be surprised by their ideas.)

Brainstorm a list of activities that students like to do after school. Sort them into two categories: active and idle. Discuss which ones are best for your body. As a follow-up have children create collages from magazines, newspapers and advertisements that show children being active and healthy.

After reading Dancing Dinos and Dancing Dinos Go to School, do a dinosaur study! Have students learn about their favorite dinosaur and then create a poster, diorama, or mobile about what they learned.

STEP 2: READING WITH HELP Preschool–Grade 1 Basic vocabulary Short sentences Simple stories For children who recognize familiar words and sound out new words with help.

Here Comes Silent e! by Anna Hane Hays Illustrated by Joann Adinolfi 978-0-375-81233-0 (0-375-81233-0)

Activities:
Discuss the following questions with your students before reading the book: Have you ever heard about silent “e” before? Do you have an idea what his job in a word is to do? Do you think there are many words that follow this rule or just a few? As a class, brainstorm a list of as many words as you can that have the silent “e” on the end.

Explain to the class how good readers do not read word-by-word but actually process language in chunks. Read a sample paragraph word-by-word (rather like a robot) and how processing the information this way can make you lose the meaning. Next, read a passage fluently and discuss how the phrases help you move along the text into chunks of reading. Have students practice reading in phrases or chunks to each other. Or, provide a copy of a paragraph and have children use a highlighter to chunk the words they would read together. One phrase highlighted, the next left plain. Discuss your results.

STEP 3: READING ON YOUR OWN Grades 1–3 Longer sentences Engaging characters Easy-to-follow plots For children who are ready to read on their own.

Pinky Dinky Doo: Where Are My Shoes? by Jim Jenkins 978-0-375-82712-9 (0-375-82712-9)

Activities:
Show the class the cover of the book and then ask: What do you think will be the setting of this story? If you think about it what things might show up in a story set in the city? What things would be the same if the setting was in the country or the city?

On the board, brainstorm a list of things that kids (and adults) commonly lose. Then, discuss why these items are more likely to be misplaced than other objects. How do you go about finding something you’ve lost? How can you keep from losing things?

Pinky Dinky Doo likes to make up choices like a test in school. Have students write their own questions (and they can have silly options too) about what happened in a story that you read. But be sure that all the answers aren’t “C,” like they are for Pinky!

STEP 4: READING PARAGRAPHS Grades 2–3 More challenging vocabulary Short paragraphs Exciting stories For newly independent readers who read simple sentences with confidence.

Ben Franklin and the Magic Squares by Frank Murphy Illustrated by Richard Walz 978-0-375-80621-6 (0-375-80621-0)

Activities:
Have students brainstorm the inventions of the last 100 years. See if the class can figure out categories into which the inventions might fit. Circle ones that were created by Americans. Ask students: What does it take to become an inventor? What is the most amazing invention? What would you invent if you could create anything? Can you name ten inventors?

As a class, brainstorm a list of skills or attributes that you think an inventor has (creative, smart, inquisitive, persistent, etc.) and rank the ones you think are most important. Which ones do you think Ben Franklin had?

Have your students create Ben Franklin’s Magic Squares.

STEP 5: READY FOR CHAPTERS Grades 2–4 Chapters Long paragraphs Full color art For children who want to take the plunge into chapter books, but still like colorful pictures.

The Trail of Tears by Joseph Bruchac 978-0-679-89052-2 (0-679-89052-1)

Activities:
Read the back of the book to the students while letting them see the front cover. Ask them: What time period does this book take place? How was America different back then? Why do you think the Cherokee People are leaving? What does it mean when someone “has no choice?”

Create word cards from index cards from the following words from The Trail of Tears. Have students sort the words into two piles, one for nouns and one for verbs. Word list: October, looking, Tennessee, wagons, packing, belongings, blankets, worry, remembers, farms, houses, built, Cherokee Nation, ask, prayer, urge, thunder, cloud, sky, fear, colonist, flew, Great Smoky Mountains, students, shows, town, leaders, settlers, traded, leaders, visit, king, British, fighting, land, protect, live, peace, capital, sawmills, herds, invented, invention, write, creating, alphabet, taught, write, language, read, phoenix.

Have the class research the history of another Native American tribe and create a timeline about what you learned. Be sure to show the impact of the arrival of the colonists and westward expansion.

Activities prepared by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, a reading specialist and author of Reaching for Sun.