All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced by any means, including duplicating, photocopying, electronic, mechanical,recording, the World Wide Web, e-mail, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Copyright © 2011 by All About Learning Press, Inc.Printed in the United States of America

All About Learning Press, Inc.2038 E. Anvil Lake RoadEagle River, WI 54521

ISBN 978-1-935197-23-2v. 1.0

Cover Design: David LaTulippeIllustrations and Page Layout: Mike Eustis

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Welcome to In the Kitchen with the Zigzag Zebra!

The Zigzag Zebra is in the kitchen cooking up a storm, and your child can help! And while your child is helping Ziggy, he or she will be absorbing critical pre-reading skills.

You’ll see that the activities in this e-book focus on rhyming, identifying the first sound of a word, oral blending, and clapping syllables—all designed to reinforce phonological awareness.

Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and identify parts of words. As your child plays these different language-based games, he is learning to pay attention to various parts of the word (the ending sound, the beginning sound, or the rhyme). He’s learning to take words apart and put them back together again.

The ability to attend to the various sounds in words is extremely important when it comes to reading. Research shows us that children who have strong phonological awareness learn to read much more easily, and their first attempts at learning to read are more successful. This early advantage sticks with the child as he continues his school career.

There are five important pre-reading skills that we teach in the All About Reading program. Besides phonological awareness, these skills include print awareness, letter knowledge, listening comprehension, and motivation to read. These components are so important to your child’s future reading and spelling ability that we call them the Big Five Skills™. Teaching the Big Five Skills™ is the most important step you can take to show your child how to understand and love the printed word.

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In the Kitchen with the Zigzag Zebra is a small sample of what you will find in the All About Reading Pre-1 program. I hope you enjoy these activities and that you catch a glimpse of what it is like to teach one of our Big Five Skills™ to your child.

Enjoy this special time with your child!

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Ziggy loves pancakes! He loves to make pancakes, and he loves to eat pancakes. He wants you to help him decide what to put on his pancakes today. He has lots of favorites—some may even surprise you!

Let’s play a rhyming game. I will tell you the name of one of Ziggy’s favorite toppings. Then you have to say a word that rhymes with it. It can be a real word, or it can be a nonsense word.

For instance, if I say spice, you could say nice or a silly word like plice.

You say: Your child’s possible rhyming responses:

Cream. Ream, dream, beam. Butter. Sutter, putter, nutter.

Peaches. Beaches, leaches, teaches.

Cheese. Peas, keys, knees.

Honey. Money, runny, sunny.

Bacon. Taken, macon, pacon.

Plums. Suns, puns, buns.

Peas. Teas, cheese, bees.

Cherries. Berries, fairies, marries.

Tomatoes. Potatoes, fotatoes, bomatoes.

Pickles. Sickles, tickles, mickles.

What do you think Ziggy should put on his pancakes today?

What would you put on your pancakes?

What’s on Ziggy’s Pancakes?

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Ziggy has lots of things in his kitchen. He thinks it would be fun to play “I Spy” with you while his cake is baking in the oven.

Here he goes! Ziggy will look around his kitchen and tell you what he is looking at, one sound at a time. Then you say the word back to him. Let’s try one...

I spy with my little zebra eye a f..ish. What am I looking at? Fish.

Right!

Let’s play some more...

I spy with my little zebra eye...

You say: Your child says: s...alt salt p...epper pepper t...ea tea b...owl bowl ch...air chair sh...elf shelf s...tove stove z...ebra zebra

Good job!

Ziggy and I Play “I Spy”

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Sometimes when Ziggy is cooking, he gets very busy. When he has to talk and cook at the same time, sometimes he says the wrong word. He wants to tell you about how he is cooking macaroni and cheese. Will you help him?

Ziggy will talk about what he is doing. If he says a word wrong, please help him out by saying the correct word.

Ziggy says: Your child says: I am using a very big nettle. Kettle. I am stirring with a loon. Spoon.

I like wearing my chef’s mat. Hat.

I like to add Cheddar sneeze. Cheese.

My recipe has lots of toodles. Noodles.

When it’s done, I will put it on a crate. Plate. It will be very pot. Hot.

But it will taste very hood! Good.

I will have my mac ‘n’ cheese with silk. Milk.

Do you think I should save room for dessert? Oh, Ziggy got that one right!

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Thanks for helping Ziggy!

Mac ‘n’ Cheese with Ziggy

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Ziggy’s favorite part of every meal is dessert, of course! He claps every time he hears one of his favorites. I’ll bet you like dessert, too.

Let’s clap together as we think about how good our favorite desserts are. Clap for each syllable in every word, okay? All right then...here we go:

You say: You/Your child claps:

Ice Cream 2 claps Chocolate Cake 3 or 4 claps, depending on pronounciation Peanut Butter Cookies 6 claps Brownies 2 claps Blueberry Pie 4 claps

Fudge 1 clap Strawberry Jello 5 claps Candy Bars 3 claps Cherry Cobbler 4 claps Cream Puffs 2 claps

Custard 2 claps Apple Crisp 3 claps Pudding 2 claps Donuts 2 claps Cookie Bars 3 claps

Mmmm...that was good!

What’s for Dessert?

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Sometimes Ziggy has to clean up the kitchen. This is not his favorite part of cooking—eating is! But when he has to clean up his messes, Ziggy has fun saying silly sentences.

Let’s join Ziggy saying his silly sentences! I will say the sentence for Ziggy, so listen carefully:

Mmmonica mmmade mmmany mmmeatballs.

What does each word start with? Mmm.

Correct!

Let’s try some more:

You say: Your child says: Fred finished five fried fish! Fff. Lucy liked licking lemons. Lll.

Marshmallow marmalade made Mary miserable. Mmm.

Nibbling noodles needs no napkins. Nnn.

Strawberry stew sounds silly. Sss. Rita relishes raspberry rolls. Rrr.

That was fun! Now clean-up is done!

Kitchen Clean-up Is Fun!

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For the complete All About® Reading Pre-1 program, go to www.AllAboutReading.com