It is important for young readers to practice reading and develop additional language skills to become fluent readers.  They need to challenge themselves with more difficult reading materials to gain a strong vocabulary level which eventually leads to better comprehension. 

 

When reading a new story, young readers may be faced with unfamiliar words that are hard to understand. But, kids do not need to know every word they read. Figuring out new words, based on visual and context clues, is a great way to learn new words and meanings. 

 

This book incorporates several key reading skills. It offers words at a 2nd to 4th grade reading  level, varied sentence length, and playful letter-sound combinations which all help to improve vocabulary levels.

 

Indirectly, this book introduces readers to literary terms such as alliteration and simile. Read these examples. Then explore more about alliteration and simile.

 

Alliteration: the multiple use of the same letter sound in a sentence.

                    Example:    “silently slid back into the crevice to slumber” 

                    This example has the repeated sound of 's'.

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Simile: the comparison of one thing to an unrelated object.

                   Example:    “twirled like a pretzel”

                   This example compares the shape of the snake's body to an unrelated object, a pretzel

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Search to find more examples of both in the book and create some new ones.

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Adjectives: There are many words in this tale that are used to describe things.

                   Example:  "a giant groan"  The word giant is an adjective, but how does it pertain to a                    groan? How can it be used with other words and in other sentences?

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Readers can find more adjectives in the story and learn new ways to use them.