The Joy of Reading!

Are reading logs killing the joy of reading in your students? “Reading is important!”  That is not up for debate!  But stealing the joy of reading from young children and families does not have to be part of the experience! 

So here’s the scenario: 

It’s 7:00 and your kiddos are winding down.  You’ve established a wonderful bedtime ritual of reading before bedtime.  Your children are in their cozy pajamas and you’re snuggled up together reading some great books.  You finish the last book and your children may or may not remind you to complete the reading log.  You don’t want them to miss out on the reward!  (Yes, I’ve even been THAT teacher!)  Now, the search for the backpack or the reading log begins!  Maybe you complete the reading logs and put it right back in the backpack.  Maybe you complete the reading log and leave it on the kitchen table and then it gets tossed in the recycling when you collect the newspapers.  Now it’s the next morning and you’re rushing to get ready for work and school and your searching for the backpack and the reading log. 

As a mother of 4 daughters, I have completed my “unfair” share of reading logs.  That’s right, “I have completed them!”Typical reading logs are all about the parents, right?  The parents write down the title and the minutes read or record the page numbers.  All of this usually happens right at bedtime which disrupts that moment of connection between parent, child and book!

And this is supposed to encourage our students to read?!

As a teacher for 20 years, I've assigned the weekly reading log.  I've even had parties for reading minutes and celebrated those recorded minutes!  You know...the celebration for the parents that had it all together and completed the reading log!  Well all that's in the past...

I want to encourage reading not make it a chore.  I created reading logs for my students that are fun and kid-focused!  Students take ownership of "logging" minutes and are responsible for completing the reading logs!

I want my students to read every night.  I start by asking them to read for 10 minutes a night.  But soon they realize that they have built their "stamina" and like to read longer!  These reading logs allow for students to record their reading in increments of 10 minutes.  Students, not parents, color one picture for every increment of reading.  In the picture below, students would color one Christmas light bulb for every 10 minutes!  Then after coloring five bulbs, they would have read 50 minutes!  

It's easy for them to add their own minutes (counting by 10s)  and record the weekly total!  I like how they are practicing counting, as well as reading lots!  I have several students asking for extra reading logs each week!  They love being responsible and seeing their success!  The results in my class have been great!   

Tips for Success

• I teach my students how to set the timer on our iPads at school.  I encourage parents to show their children how to use a timer that's available at home...phone, tablet, kitchen timer...anything that the child can use INDEPENDENTLY!  
• Practice at school first!  When I introduce Read to Self, we color in our reading logs for practice!
• Encourage your students to read to younger siblings, pets, or stuffed animals!  It's fun to have an audience!
• Celebrate class success instead of highlighting individual minutes!  Everyone gets to enjoy a celebration after the entire class reaches a goal.  This removes the competition!

If this sounds like something your students would enjoy,  click on the picture below for a free reading log to try!  

Spring Writing

This is a fun writing prompt for Spring!  I make jelly bean templates and put them in my writing tubs with colored construction paper.  The students trace and cut out a jelly bean shape.

This shape becomes the focus of an illustration that CANNOT be a jelly bean!  It's so fun to see the wheels start to turn and watch my kiddos use their creative juices!  We then write to one of these prompts...

A jelly bean is not a jelly bean when it's a _________________.

This is not a jelly bean! It's a ______________.

Then we had to decide what our jelly bean, wasn't!  Each child created a picture using the shape and completed the frame sentence:

My kiddos had so much fun with this little writing assignment that I'm thinking about adding to independent literacy tubs for the remainder of the year.  I'll add different shapes each week and let their imaginations go wild!

 And of course, my personal favorite....MARIO!

The Magic Egg!

I want to share a little art project I enjoy doing with my kiddos every Spring!   Like most great projects, we start with a wonderful book!

After reading about Babushka and her beautiful eggs, we make our own! 

We start with a plain circle and draw shapes and squiggles.  Then we colore each shape or space a different color.  We try not to have two touching spaces be the same color. 

Then we carefully cut the circle into strips about the same width as our pinky fingers.  We make about 6 cuts, which gave us 7 strips!  We cut the strips over our background paper so they fall in order on the paper.  Then we glue them down onto the background paper, leaving small spaces in between each strip!

Viola!  A circle becomes an egg...like magic!

These cuties wanted to make a second "magic egg" and work together!

 

I'd love to know if you try this art activity and how it goes for your students!

Spring Writing

I'm so glad you joined the Blog Hop!  I absolutely love Spring!  It's my favorite season!  I have a fun little freebie for you below!  I like to use "Fix-its" for daily practice in my classroom!  My firsties need all the practice they can get with capitals and punctuation!  (Sometimes I definitely feel like a broken record!)

I like to use "Fix-its" for the conventions practice, handwriting and illustrating components!  I often put these in my Word Work tubs since they take a bit longer than a quick morning activity!  But like I said, my firsties need lots of practice so.....

I created these little "Quick Fixes"!  These are intended to be quick morning work...just read and copy the sentence adding missing capitals and punctuation!  No illustrating!  I've only created a few themes, but have plans for insects and rainforest before the end of the school year!  Check them out here!  These are on sale during the hop, too!

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