Now that we are have been practicing our new reading skills all these months, the children's reading abilities and interests have grown by leaps and bounds. They eagerly try out new books and have confidence to read books with more words on each page. Reading has become a vital part of their daily lives both at school and at home.
The children have many tools to help them to read new words that are tricky. First, they are encouraged to look at the picture for clues as to the words in this story. Next, to try to sound out the words by looking at all the letters, not just the first letter. Then they are to think about what word would make sense in this story. The children are brave readers and eagerly tackle more challenging stories.
Often the whole class reads stories of high interest together, first in big book form, and then with partners using copies in smaller books. The children are very motivated to learn to read these great stories and eagerly help each other read these stories.
Several times a week the teachers meet with children in small groups who are on similar levels. These could be to read new books together or to practice skills that group will find helpful as their reading abilities grow. The focus can also be related to learning new sight words or reviewing letter sounds.
Each Monday the class continues to shop for new books to read from book baskets of "just right" books. These are books that are not too hard or too easy but just right for them to grow as readers. Sometimes they have private reading times and sometimes they read with partners. On Tuesdays we also have Buddy Reading with Ms Deegan's second grade students. The "big kids" are great role models for the kindergartners and help they to learn to read more challenging books. Soon, it will be our turn to be the "big kids" as we read books to the junior kindergarten children.
The class is especially drawn to non-fiction books. They really enjoy the information books that have been written by Gail Gibbons. Recently I was able to buy additional titles, so we now have a collection of 24 of her books in our classroom library. While these books are written on fairly advanced level, the children are able to pick out many words that they can read from these texts. Soon these books will be displayed on our book rack and offered for book check out.
By continuing to build strong reading skills and maintaining a high interest level in reading, our children will be ready to march ahead with confidence to new reading levels. Class, keep up the great work!
