Chapter 4 of Daily 5 READ TO SELF

READ TO SELF
My first thoughts about asking a 5 year to read to self for more than 5 minutes is "IT CAN'T BE DONE!"  But after reading the experiences of other kindergarten teachers who have students who HAVE accomplished this feat, I am becoming a believer!

As with any new experience in kindergarten, reading to self needs to be taught. Krissy Miner from Mrs. Miner's Kindergarten Monkey Business wrote that she did not start the process until November and it was not fully in process until January. Whew! That relaxes me! It takes so long for my little kinders to get rolling with our schedule and truthfully, it isn't until the middle of October before they have a good feel for how school works! That said, though, I do intend to initiate the process the first few weeks of school. I thought that we would have "Good Book Time." In order for my students to find a good fit book, they need to be aware of the choices in the classroom. So I intend to SLOWLY introduce book categories and then allow the children some time to just explore. It really is not important to me if they are reading books that are at their level right away. I just want them to feel excited about spending some time with books. As the days and weeks progress and they become more competent with their reading skills, we will begin the process of how to pick a Good Fit book.

I LOVE, LOVE "3 Ways to Read a Book" and we will start that process right away.
Here are the 3 ways:
1.  Read and talk about the pictures (I love the idea of teaching kids that you are reading even when you are just looking at the pictures! As you know, I firmly believe that pictures/illustrations are the beginning foundation for reading and writing!)
2.  Read the words. (There are always 1 or 2 kiddos that come to school being able to read.  Most kiddos that come to school reading LOVE to read, so this will probably end up being one of their favorite parts of the day!)
3.  Retell a previously read book. (Kids love to retell stories, so I know they will enjoy this part of Read to self. We will have to practice and model proper noise levels, though, so that this does not become a distraction to others.)

I still am in the thinking process of how to arrange my classroom. I won't be able to get into it until the first of August, so all my planning must be done on paper right now. I want my library to have a warm, cozy feeling and I want my books easy to locate and return when finished.  There are so many awesome ideas floating around from other wonderful teachers. What I need to do now is take an afternoon with pen and paper and record ideas I like and then refine them into something that will work for me!

Make sure that you click on the image above to read Krissy's awesome thoughts on the Daily 5 as well as the other teachers who have linked up for this chapter.

Until next time!

3 comments

  1. I am your newest follower and have nominated you for an award which you can pick up at my blog here http://kindergardenseeds.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am your newest follower and am reading Daily 5 now. Although I teach 4th grade, I loved reading your ideas because I have a 5-year old at home who will be starting Kindergarten this fall! Thank you for the inspiration!!
    ~Holly
    Fourth Grade Flipper

    ReplyDelete