Young children are good at making connections.  In fact, in constructivist education, we consider the making of connections to prior knowledge to be key to building new understandings.

As we read, we practice making connections from:

Text to Self–

This reminds me of when I. . .

Sometimes I also like to. . .

Text to Text–

This reminds me of another book I’ve read.

I’ve read about this subject before.

I’ve read about this character before

I’ve read another book by this author.

Text to World–

I’ve also done. . .

My mom and dad said. . .

I’ve been there before.

That’s also happened to me!

As we read aloud, I model making connections and with some practice, the children are quite able to make their own connections.  Happy reading!