Teaching kids to love reading: It should be the number one priority when teaching a child to read. Even before teaching them to decode words on a page, or understanding phonics, or boosting their reading comprehension. We, as well-meaning adults, often jump in to teach our children the mechanics. Rather, our very first job is to nurture a love of reading. All the rest needs to be done, of course, but it's important to have that piece in place. If the big focus is on teaching your child the [Read More]
New! Reading Group Book Sets
New Book Sets for Guided Reading Groups: Leveled Reader has new leveled books sets for reading groups. Your favorite leveled readers now come in sets of 6 of one title. They're perfect for use with reading groups. Teaching Guided Reading groups with emergent readers who are at the beginning stages, has its own particular challenges. There are many important skills that these pre-readers can learn from a Guided Reading lesson. The first step is to find books that are predictable and [Read More]
Summer Reading
Kids love summer reading: Summertime is the perfect time to catch up on all the latest and best books. With a break from all the busyness of the school year you and your kids can relax and enjoy jumping wholeheartedly into imaginary and true life adventures of all kinds. Here are some of our favorite reads for these sunny summer days. Summertime is filled with backyard fun, and at the end of a day outside, it's satisfying to curl up with a book like Busy Bug Builds a Fort by David A. Carter. [Read More]
Books for Real Kids
Beloved author Beverly Cleary turns 100: Leveled Reader is joining the celebration of Beverly Cleary's 100th birthday! One hundred years ago today she was born in McMinville, Oregon. When she was growing up, her school librarian encouraged her to write children's books. The idea appealed to her and when she grew up she decided to write the books she wanted to read as a girl, but couldn't find on the shelves at the time. She wrote funny, touching stories inspired by her own neighborhood and the [Read More]
Spring is Here!
Fresh spring books for growing readers: Spring is the season for planting gardens, watching baby animals grow, playing outside, and finding bugs. Leveled Reader has a variety of enticing spring books at various reading levels. Take a look at these picks for your young readers. Lots of families plant gardens in the spring. Seed to Plant (L-M) is a beautiful nonfiction reader that explains where plants come from and how they grow. The bright, clear photos in this book nicely illustrate the [Read More]
New Book Sets For All Kinds of Readers
Check out these new book sets that will captivate both avid and reluctant readers: Leveled Reader's new C-D set 7 has a great variety of books for beginning readers. A big favorite in this set is Otis's Busy Day. Kids love to read about Otis the Tractor doing his farm work and playing with all his animal friends. This is a reader born from the series of beautiful Otis picture books by Loren Long. The husband and wife team of David Soman and Jacky Davis has a loyal following of fans who [Read More]
New Nonfiction Titles
What's new in nonfiction at Leveled Reader: Lots of teachers ask for high quality nonfiction titles to add to their classroom libraries. At Leveled Reader we have some fantastic new nonfiction books to share with you! You're going to love these. It can be a bit challenging to find good nonfiction books that are leveled at the A through D levels. But we have found some for the youngest readers. First, we have Chicks! by Sandra Horning in our C-D Set 5, in which a family brings home chicks [Read More]
Reading for Pleasure
Reading great children's books: The way children become good readers is to spend a lot of time reading. Kids need lots of time and space in their days to read, every day, at school and at home. And when they love their books, they will choose to spend more time reading. According to successful reading teachers, the only way to encourage a love of reading is to invite kids to choose their own books. Wise parents and teachers gather the best in children's literature, make it readily available, [Read More]
How to Support the Common Core Standards
English Language Arts Common Core Standards: The Common Core Standards are not a curriculum, but instead are a set of expectations aimed at raising the achievement level for all students so that they will be more prepared for college and careers. Forty-six states and the District of Columbia have adopted the Common Core State Standards. The English Language Arts Standards are divided into three areas. Students are required to demonstrate increasing competence in their reading, writing, speaking [Read More]
New Books for Summer Reading
Kids will love reading these new books this summer! Leveled Reader has some fantastic new selections for young readers to dive into over the warm summer months. You'll find fun and exciting new books from level G through level M. A wide variety of topics will ensure that there is something to please every reader. Our new G-H-I set has some favorite familiar characters that are making the move from picture books to readers. These include Worm, from Diary of a Worm, Charlie the Ranch Dog, and [Read More]