Building a Reading Life

 

Donalyn Miller, the book whisperer, has many tips on building children into lifelong readers. One of the most important habits to build is the “read a lot” habit to teach kids that readers carry reading with them, often lots of it, wherever they go. What can we do?

 

  • Stock your bathroom with reading material such as magazines, favorite books, and joke books.
  • Read while waiting—in line at the grocery store, the dentist’s waiting room, the karate lesson. Readers fill the smallest pieces of white space in their day with reading.
  • Read in the back of the car going from one place to another.
  • Taking a trip? Read about the place you’ll visit through travel brochures or online reviews.

 

No matter what you’re doing, try to read along the way!

 

Writing Small Moments at Home

Writing activities that strengthen reading skills

Writing activities help strengthen reading skills.

Encourage your child to write ideas, sentences, or stories on a regular basis will help them appreciate the value of printed word.  Students have just finished the unit on writing small moments. This is a story about one moment which is described in detail. Here is an anchor chart in student friendly language to explain what a small moment is:

small moment

 

At home, you can ask your child to write about a small moment that occurred over the weekend. or have your child write:

  • their own thank-you notes
  • party invitations
  • letters/note to family
  • write a grocery list

Important: writing skills develop slowly and at different rates for different children. Encourage your child to share ideas. Don’t worry about mistakes in grammar, spelling, or punctuation until your child has finished writing and is ready to jazz up their writing (publish it).

September Super Readers!

For the month of September, Discovery students read a total of 128, 696 minutes!  The class with the most minutes read was Mrs. Worley’s with 16,665 minutes! Each student chose a book to keep as their own and continue the awesome reading.

In addition, each classroom had a shining super reader that read the most minutes. The student received a certificate for Being a Un-“Bee” lievable reader, a bookmark, and a shiny medal!

September