Reading is Learning

This week, we have started reading both independently and with partners during Reading Workshop. At this point in the year, "reading" looks very different from child to child. Some children are reading the pictures in books, noticing details and making inferences about what they see. Some children are also reading the pictures and are beginning to attend to words, finding letters, words and sounds that match parts of the pictures they read. Some children are beginning to read words and are using those words to support their work as they read the pictures. No matter what reading looks like for your child at this point, it is all celebrated as READING!

Most of our reading has been focused so far on "Learn About the World Books," or nonfiction. Make sure to ask your child about nonfiction. We now know that reading is 1. looking, 2. thinking, 3. reading, and 4. LEARNING. Reading is for meaning and for learning. Your children have been so engaged and excited about all of the reading they are doing! It is very fun for me to see. 😊

We also practiced reading with reading partners this week. We learned that reading with a partner can not only help you become a better reader but also help you learn more about the world!

We can look, we can think...we can READ!

This week was very exciting for our class as we learned three things that readers do to read the world around them:

• Look
• Think
• READ

We went on a walk around the school and discovered that each and every one of us can actually READ words! We read signs, notes, maps, nameplates and so much more! The look on their faces when they discovered they could read words like "library," "Panther Paws," "Dr. Cicotte," and "kindergarten" was very special to see. 😊 When we returned to our classroom after our walk, we read words all around the room, using pointers to help us find letters and words. We talked about all the things they can "read" at home too: menus, restaurant signs, store signs, toy boxes, food containers, notes, letters, clothes, words on TV, and so much more! Make sure to practice reading the world all around you and your child this weekend and beyond. 

On our reading walk, reading "Mrs. Palazzola"

[Trying to take photos of 20 excited new readers was challenging as they darted around the room, excitedly finding word after word they they could truly read! 😃] 

This week, Mrs. Aubuchon visited our class and read the book, Interrupting Chicken, by David Ezra Stein. If you haven't read this one before, make sure to search for it on YouTube for a good read aloud. Mrs. Aubuchon talked with the kids about being respectful and being an "interrupting chicken" and how those choices affect others. 

Hope you don't have any Interrupting Chickens at your house this weekend! Enjoy a photo from our first jammie day. Looking forward to another fun week next week!

Letter Detectives!

We have been learning about letters as we have been studying the names of our classmates. This week, we became letter detectives and searched for different things around the classroom that started with various letter sounds. They loved being sound detectives! We will be creating a class alphabet book with the items we find.

We have also started working on a wonderful math resource called, Dreambox, on our Chromebooks. [Make sure to check your child's folder for more info about Dreambox and log in instructions for you to use at home!]