Grades 3–5 Reading Activities

Advertisements, brochures, recipes, telephone books, and catalogs are sources of information that we often use to help us perform specific tasks. When using these materials, we must pay careful attention to the text's organization, language, and visual features.

	A recipe from a cookbook, newspaper, or magazine

	Pen

	Paper or index card

Ask your child to think about how he prepares his favorite foods. Discuss how a cook follows a recipe by first gathering ingredients and then putting them together in a certain order. (You might even have this conversation as you prepare a meal or snack with your child.)

Perhaps it is easy to come up with the recipe for a milkshake, but what about a recipe for a disaster? a surprise? a warm summer day? a perfect baseball game? a fun birthday party? a day at the beach?

Take a look at a recipe in a cookbook or in the food section of a newspaper or magazine. As your child writes the new “recipe,” make sure that he is clear about the recipe's form (a list of ingredients followed by assembly and cooking instructions).

To create the new recipe, ask your child first to think of the “ingredients.” What do we need to build this thing or event?

Next, ask him to consider the order of events, or how the ingredients should be put together. Have him write the recipe on an index card or piece of paper. Encourage him to be very descriptive in his writing. When he’s finished, read it out loud together, and then hang it on the refrigerator for the next time you need a new and exciting recipe!

Extend this activity to include discussion about other written sources of information. Talk about the kinds of information you use every day — on websites, bus maps, signs, forms, and written directions, to name just some common sources. When someone in the family needs information, ask your child to help, particularly with determining what source would be best for the information needed. As situations arise, he might help you solve such questions as, “Where would we look to find the phone number of the pizza restaurant down the street? How do we figure out the best route to get to a friend’s house across town? Where do we look for a train schedule? How do we sign up for summer camp?” Asking your child to help with these tasks will develop his ability to gather information and follow the steps in a process.

 Grades 3–5 Reading Activities