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7 Strengths
Belonging: Being a valued, cherished member of a community Celebrate and value your culture, language, ancestors, elders, traditions, food, songs, and history by sharing stories with your child.
Curiosity: A willingness to explore new territory and test new theories
Ask questions about your child’s interests and ideas. Share your own. Create a “curiosity window.” Look out your window each day and keep track of what you see, hear, and wonder about. Friendship: Having close, trusting relationships with and personal connections to others Create a friendship check-in schedule for your family. Connect with family members with encouraging messages, phone calls, or texts. Show appreciation for how your child is your reading friend when he or she reads aloud to you. Kindness: Being compassionate toward others; expressing tenderness that has an impact, near and far Help your child create a special, cozy camp space. If you can, keep paper, pencils, crayons, and books nearby. Offer your child compliments, such as “Great work!” and “Well done!”. Confidence: Thinking independently, expressing ideas, and pushing through the hard parts with assurance Learn something new together or tell a story about a time when you learned something. Encourage your child to share LitCamp activities with you, such as retelling stories, singing songs, and playing games. Draw, write, or make up and act out stories together. Courage: Having the strength to stand up for yourself, for others, and to take action when it is needed Model bravery by trying something new with your child. Be courageous by allowing your child to see you do something outside of your comfort zone. Share a story about a courageous family member or ancestor. Hope: Thinking optimistically and believing that today’s efforts will produce good things in the future for yourself and the world Create a shared calendar. Fill it with positive events and joyful celebrations for the future. Affirm a hope and a dream of your child’s and share one of your own.
Family Guide 5
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Let’s Walk! LitCamp Lesson Steps During LitCamp lessons, campers read great books—and a lot of them. They also write, talk, listen, share, and play! LitCamp’s structured routine ensures that campers can set and meet expectations. From Opening Campfire to Closing Campfire, each lesson features whole- and small-group activities, time for independent reading and writing, and plenty of opportunities for lively collaboration and play. Here’s a look at the LitCamp lesson routine, with a description of what happens at each step. Invite your LitCamper to tell you about his or her favorite activities!
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Opening Campfire Campers gather to greet one another, get settled, sing an opening song, and join in a community-building activity.
Words of the Day New vocabulary words are introduced at the beginning of each lesson. Campers are encouraged to use them in their speaking and writing.
Bring the Text to Life Campers work together to creatively demonstrate their understanding of the read- aloud book.
Read-Aloud The core of each lesson is the Read-Aloud. As the leader reads aloud, campers follow along with their own copy of the book.
Reading Power Campers practice and strengthen their literacy skills.
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Community Lit In this community- building activity, the whole group gathers to play games and have fun!
Bunk Time C ampers read on their own or confer with the teacher.
Writing Power This step builds writing strength, stamina, and confidence.
Closing Campfire The end of a lesson is a time for reflection and celebration. It’s important to take time to acknowledge and praise campers’ accomplishments.
Support for Multi-Language Learners Throughout the lessons, supports are offered for multi-language learners. Home languages are celebrated in LitCamp!
Family Guide 7
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Let’s Talk! Family Conversation Starters Use these conversation prompts anytime, anywhere to get your LitCamper (and other family members) talking. Want to get the whole family involved? Take turns choosing one prompt to start a conversation at mealtimes.
What title would you give
Which character from a book would you like to be friends with, and why?
What character or person in real life inspires you?
What gives you a sense of belonging?
the story of YOUR life?
Without using words, confidently act out your favorite scene from a book.
What is something
Which of the 7 Strengths is your superpower?
Describe an act of kindness someone has done for you.
you are hopeful about?
Which book that you’ve read would you recommend to a friend or family member?
Tell about one hope and dream you have for yourself as a reader.
What gives you confidence?
How is a book you have read a mirror (you see yourself) or a window (you see the world) for you?
What is something you discovered at LitCamp that you want to share with friends or at home?
What is something you are wondering about today?
Compare an act of courage you read about in a book with a real-life act of courage you know or have heard about.
How can sharing a story with someone be an act of kindness?
Tell about a time you were kind to someone. What did you do?
Demonstrate how a confident person acts and talks.
In your own words, what does it mean to “walk in someone else’s shoes”?
How has a book you’ve read inspired you to be courageous?
What is one goal you have for your future? What can you do to achieve that goal?
How can you be a good friend to someone?
What is something that surprised you today in your reading?
Describe the funniest scene you have ever read in a book.
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Let’s Read! Tips for Family Read-Alouds In their book Every Child a Super Reader, 2nd Edition, authors Pam Allyn (LitCamp founder) and Ernest Morrell stress the importance of reading aloud with children. And they’re quick to point out that reading aloud is good for everyone in the family, not just the kids! Reading aloud to children is a research-proven strategy for helping children learn to read. That may seem odd, since the child isn’t doing the reading. But reading aloud improves children’s reading by • immersing them in language, like soaking in a pleasant bath of words. • motivating them to pick up books on their own. • exposing them to lots of new vocabulary and types of texts they might not be able to read on their own. • inspiring them to be super readers! Finding time to add reading aloud to your daily routine might seem challenging. Here are some tried-and-true tips for adding family read-alouds to your routine at home. When? • Make time for reading aloud each day. Too tired at the end of the day? Read in the morning! Too rushed in the morning? Read aloud at bath time. • Ask your child or a family member to read aloud while others are preparing a meal, doing the dishes, folding laundry, or tidying up. • Plan your family read-aloud time. Make a chart and hang it where everyone can see it. Invite family members to write their book suggestions on the chart and their names on the days they want to be the reader. Where? • Read aloud while waiting in line at the store or for an appointment. • Find a quiet spot in your local park or in your yard and have an outdoor read-aloud. • Set up a special place in your home for read-alouds. Make it as cozy as possible. Be sure there’s plenty of reading light. • Read aloud (quietly) on public transportation, in the library, and while waiting to meet with friends. • Read aloud everywhere!
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