Reading with Expression: 5 Teaching Tips and a Free Printable

If you’re looking for some great ways to teach your child to read with expression, you’ve come to the right place! Read on to download a fun printable activity and then read our top five tips.

Let’s start with “Round Up the Sheep.” It’s a great way to start practicing expressive reading!

Sometimes the same words can take on a completely different meaning if you say them with a different expression. For example, if you’re afraid of cats, you would use a frightened voice to say, “Look! A cat!” But if you love cats, you would use a happy, excited voice to say, “Look, a cat!” This activity is a fun way to practice this concept.

Preparing the “Round Up the Sheep” Activity

1. Download the “Round Up the Sheep” Activity.
2. Print and cut out the sheep cards, following the instructions in the activity download.
3. Place the cards in a pile with the sheep facing up.
4. Now let’s practice reading with expression!

Play “Round Up the Sheep”

Have your child choose a card from the pile. The word printed above the sheep indicates the expression with which your child should read the sentence on the back of the card.

Now have your child flip the card over to read the sentence using the indicated expression.

Continue until all the cards have been read.

5 More Ways to Teach Kids to Read with Expression

Have you discovered a great way to encourage expressive reading? I would love to hear about it in the comments below.