This week's blog post is all about reading!
On Wednesday, Mrs. Velez surprised the class by being our first mystery reader. The students were so excited and enjoyed the story Pinkalicious, Mia's favorite. Thank you Mrs. Velez!
This week we enjoyed our first book as part of Global Read Aloud. Global Read Aloud was started in 2010 with the goal of using one book to connect the world. Since then over 1 million children around the world have participated. Global Read Aloud runs for 6 weeks and during that time we try to connect with other students in different classes, schools, states, and countries if possible.
Our first book was Nana in the City, written by Lauren Castillo. It was a wonderful story about a boy whose Nana lives in the city. At first the boy finds the city a scary place but after his Nana shows him the beauty of the city, he can't wait to go back.
After reading the story, we talked about the elements of a city and answered the question: Is Middleton a city? No, the buildings in Middleton are not tall or close together. A city has lots of people and cars, Some children made a connection to the story by talking about going into Boston.
We then looked at pictures of city skylines during the daytime and night time and created our own city skylines. It was a lot of fun.
Finally, I am excited to share with you how we are doing with our first Daily 5 activity: Read to Self. The students are doing a great job building their stamina and we are up to 12 minutes of sustained readimg. During the past couple of weeks we have been working hard to practice this important skill. Each day the students get their book baggie and find a comfortable spot in the classroom. This spot must be a place where they will be able to do their best reading and not distract or be distracted by others.
Next week will will add to our Daily 5 activities by beginning our practice of: Work on Writing.
Stay tuned......
