We Are READERS!!!

Shhhh!!  Can you hear that?  The children are reading! Children have been learning there are two ways good readers read books. Good Readers...

1) Read the pictures

2) Read the words   

These five and six year olds have been doing both!  We started reading books that rely heavily on pictures to tell the story and have little to no words on the page.  Now we are reading simple "I see" and "I like" sentences. Students have learned other reading habits that good readers do.
Good Readers...

• Use their "eagle eyes" and look for details in the pictures to help determine what the story is about. 
• Point to each word as they read. 
• Look for letters and words they know.

We began practicing our 1:1 correspondence by pointing to pictures and then letters.  

Now we are reading easy readers that have patterned text and dots under the words to remind us to touch each word as we read.

Students practice reading each day!  Sometimes independently....

and sometimes with a buddy!

Students can now confidently say “I can touch each word as I read!” and are eager to share with you their new reading skills.  Commend them on this important reading milestone!

The next time you read a favorite book together, ask your child questions similar to these:

Can you point to the letter ___?

Can you find an uppercase/lowercase ___?

Can you point to the words as I read?

What do I do when I get to the end of a line? (Return sweep; start at the beginning of the next line of text)

Common Core State Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1

Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.A

Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.B

Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.C

Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.

Happy reading!

C is for Connection

 

This is the hand signal students use during read alouds when they have a text-to-self connection they want to share with the class.

   Has your child shared a text-to-self connection with you while reading together?  Keep the praise and encouragement coming!!  The children have been improving their abilities to connect with the text and now LOVE to share their connections! Over the past few weeks, we have been thinking hard to identify how a story relates to our own feelings and experiences.  We thought of times we were wild like Max in Where the Wild Things Are...

    

and times we felt disappointed like The Littlest Pumpkin by R.A. Herman.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the students' work for this text-to-self connection activity, but some of the ideas they thought of for when they were disappointed were when they couldn't carve a pumpkin, when they couldn't go to their friend's house, and when they couldn't buy a toy they wanted.

Finally, one of our most recent mentor texts for Global Read Aloud tied in perfectly with our current comprehension strategy.  Check out our text-to-self connections for The OK Book in the iMovie below.  The children loved using the iPad app Chatterpix to make their pictures talk!

     

 This book has such an important message for students of all ages.  (Click here to check out the book's impressive book trailer).  I feel it is important for children to see that we adults are just OK at various skills and activities as well and that is okay.  So, parents and teachers, what are you OK at?  Leave your connection in the comments section below! 

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.6 With guidance and support from adults, explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers. 

 

We are Readers!

Hello Families!

Since the beginning of school, your children have learned that letters make up words, words make up sentences, and sentences make up stories.  We have been practicing identifying and categorizing examples of letters, words, and sentences.

We created this interactive anchor chart as a class
 for students to use as a reference while reading and writing.

For the past week, the students have been learning that good readers touch each word as they read. We started out simple, pointing to the dots below a strip of pictures or letters as we read. 

Next, we practiced recognizing and spelling the word “see” so we could create our own “I see…” statement by drawing a picture to complete the sentence. From there, they excitedly accepted the challenge to point to each word while reading a short story. (Of course they read the pictures first before reading the words as good readers do!). The children have practiced each of these activities both independently and with a partner.

Students can now confidently say “I can touch each word as I read!” and are eager to share with you their new reading skill. Today, your child should have a paper book called “Pets” in their homework folder. The black dots below the words help remind our young readers to point as they read. Commend them on this important reading milestone!


The next time you read a favorite book together, ask your child questions similar to these:

Can you point to the letter ___?

Can you find an uppercase/lowercase ___?

Can you point to the words as I read?

What do I do when I get to the end of a line? (Return sweep; start at the beginning of the next line of text)

Happy Reading!

Mrs. Libby

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1
Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.A
Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.B
Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.C
Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.