Reading Our Way to Thanksgiving!

 

As I was writing earlier in the week, November is the start of the literacy magic of Kindergarten! We begin our slow journey into Guided Reading this time of year. There are three important facets of reading I try to instill before we can dive really deep into Guided Reading: a love a reading, sight word recognition, and tracking print.

Sometimes during Guided Reading, I like to just read to the students. We can all have the same book in front of us and practice the critical skills of concepts of print. We hold our books the right way, turn pages, follow the story across pictures, and most importantly, develop a love of reading!

This adorable foldable book is perfect for all of these skills. The kids can fold the book themselves (building independence!), turn the pages correctly, follow the story across pictures to help retell, and then, the pièce de résistance: color in the illustrations! Plus, talk about a great cross curricular with Social Studies. Get it here.

At this point in the year, we have begun learning our sight words. I usually teach two a week, beginning with number words and color words. Then, I like to start with some basics that will help construct sentences well in writing as well (I, see, have, like, can, you etc.) Recognizing these sight words during authentic reading time is a HUGE success for kids. This is the magic I'm talking about- the twinkle in their eyes and pride in their soul when they are "reading" and find a word they know! One of our first reading strategies is to use the picture clues to help read unknown words. After reading about The First Thanksgiving in our foldable book, children are able to identify much of the picture clues from the book. Download it here.

This book is available with and without tracking dots to help students beginning to learn how to appropriately track print. It's great for differentiation.

While it's great for students to practice these pattern books and know what to expect as they begin to read, I often find when they first begin to track print, students aren't looking at the make up of the words or reading with one to one correspondance. They often point as they recite the memorized pattern, but are not matching their words to the print correctly. That's why I LOVE this interactive sight word reader. 

I like to have kids create their own book based on their true likes and dislikes of traditional Thanksgiving foods. Then, after they create and read their own book, they can swap with a friend. This is a fantastic quick assessment of print tracking because without the pattern and without knowing their friend's likes and dislikes, they are forced to put their skills into actions without relying on the pattern. I love doing this book the week I teach do and not as sight words. Learn a little more about these interactive sight word readers here.

You can download all three of these books in one product here: Interactive Thanksgiving Sight Word Readers

What skills are you working on this time of year? Let me know in the comments below!

Keep your head in the clouds!