In this strategy, students read aloud to each other, pairing more fluent readers with less fluent readers.  Children who read at the same level may be paired to reread a text that they have already read, for continued understanding and fluency work.  In order to increase student fluency, readers need experience reading to and listening to other readers of all kinds.  Specifically, lower-level readers benefit from strategies such as Paired Reading by listening to the reading of a higher-level reader.  Reading with someone else encourages students to try reading material that may be above their usual reading level, while also building oral skills so that students are more comfortable with their reading.

Our reading group book this week was titled, Birds, by Bruce Larkin.  We focused on the sight words this and is throughout the book.  The students were also introduced to the reading strategy, looking for a small word in a big word (i.e. is in this).  After reading the book all week, we created our own sentences and designed an illustration to match.  The students also put into practice their new knowledge of creating an interesting illustration by adding details.  They did a GREAT job!

Reading groups began in K Prep today!  Our very first sight words were introduced and we practiced reading them in our very first reader…I Jump by Bruce Larkin.  We will continue reading these books for the remainder of the week and practice recognizing our first sight words of the year.  New sight words are introduced every Monday/Tuesday.  Don’t forget, if you miss a day in K Prep, you miss a lot!

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What color is the Recycling Bin?

We have been working on learning to read the color words during the month of April and it continues this week…earth day style!  What Color is YOUR recycle bin?

After an “extended” winter vacation, we were all ready to be back in school this week!  We hit the ground running with a new emergent reader focusing on the new sight words, go and on.  We also began sounding out simple two letter words.

We’ve been focusing on the sight word you, this week, during our guided reading groups.  We built the sight word on each page to complete the sentences, read the text to identify any unknown words using the basic reading strategies we’ve been learning this year, and reread the text to practice fluency.

Strengthening fine motor muscles in the hands is essential for successful writing.  Coloring small pictures with a focus on moving your hands/fingers slowly to stay inside the lines helps improve hand strength and dexterity of children.  An easy way to encourage fine motor development at home or just about anywhere!

We finished up our reading groups today as we read, I Can Move, for the final time and then had the opportunity to work our small motor muscles as we colored the pages of our emergent readers.  The students have worked very hard this week mastering their new sight word: can.  They have done such an amazing job!  As we learned the new sight word, we reviewed its letters and sounds Cc~Aa~Nn.