Highlighting Coloring Page

About this page

Here the crayon becomes a highlighter. Among playful scribble-text, a few special magic words are hiding, and your child's job is to find them and make them glow with color. This is a pint-sized version of a genuine study skill, picking out keywords from a busy page, the same thing older students do with highlighters and scholars do when skimming. Pre-readers can join in fully since no actual reading is required, only sharp eyes. It is a real skill disguised as pure play, and it fits naturally into library programs too.

The research skill

Five words stand out among the scribbles: Fact, Idea, Clue, Evidence, and Truth, while a hand holds a marker ready to highlight them. The skill is picking out keywords, deciding which words carry the meaning of a page. Researchers mark key terms so they can find them again and so their notes stay short. It supports Chapter 2's work of reading what others found. Your child will use it in school when underlining answers, building vocabulary lists, and eventually highlighting textbooks and articles.

Try it at home

Grab a cereal box, a piece of junk mail, or a grocery flyer. Choose three "magic words" together that your child can spot, such as their name's first letter, a number, or a short word like "the" or "new." Give them a crayon or marker and let them circle every magic word they find. Count the circles together at the end. For older kids, ask which word on the page tells you the most about what the box or flyer is selling, and circle that one in a special color.

Talk about it while you color

• Which color feels like a magic color to you, and why?
• How did you spot the special words hiding in all those scribbles?
• If you could invent a magic word, what would it be and what would it do?