October 15

Reading is Thinking

What does reading look like in our classroom? What should it look like?

Reading is a very special time in our day. Reading is thinking, afterall. We read to learn and we read for pleasure. We fall in love with our characters, we get to travel to distant lands, and it is fun!

In our class, we’ve talked about 3 types of reading: reading by ourselves, reading with a partner, and reading in groups. When by ourselves, we agree that we should read quietly, save talking for later, and stay in one spot. Many times, we get to pick a spot to read anywhere in the class. Other times, we read at our desk.

There are soooo many benefits to reading such as stress relief, it exercises our brain, increasing vocabulary, improving our writing skills, and more! The list goes on and on.

Our first official Book Tasting event is this coming Friday and I get the sense they’re pretty excited. Stay tuned for pictures and a recap of the event.

By the way–parents, if you’re reading this, your child is never too old to have a book read to them. Reading together, no matter how old anyone gets, can be an amazing shared experience. Snuggle up with your child under the covers with a flashlight or on the couch with a bowl of popcorn. Reading is a blast!

What is your favourite place to read if you could pick

anywhere you wanted?

Category: Reading Workshop | LEAVE A COMMENT
September 30

Drum Roll Please…..

Today we officially began the Global Read Aloud for this year called Stella Diaz Has Something to Say by Angela Dominguez.

We are SO excited to be involved with this chapter book. We made plenty of predictions about what this book could be about with the following photos in our slideshow:

We brainstormed new words (some were Spanish!), characters, setting details, questions we have, and so on and jotted them in our Reader’s Notebook.

What’s so neat about Global Read Aloud is that we are reading the SAME book as so many other students around the world! We will be connecting with a class…somewhere in the world. The exact location will be revealed in the coming days! Geographical clues will be given in class and we’ll have to guess where our partner class is located. Stay tuned.

 

Category: Reading Workshop, Teacher Talk | 2 Comments on Drum Roll Please…..
September 22

Shhhh! It’s a Whisper Phone

Independent Reading time is a critical part of our daily literacy learning at school. If you’ve ever been to our classroom, you may have noticed our whisper phones which have a special spot on our reading table.

A Whisper Phone is a tool that can be used to help hear your voice very clearly just by whispering into it. It amplifies your voice. You use it like a telephone. Whisper phones allow students to hear themselves while speaking quietly into their phones. This allows them to focus on what they are saying and how they are saying it.

Have you ever used a whisper phone before?

Category: Reading Workshop | 3 Comments on Shhhh! It’s a Whisper Phone
June 17

A Visit to Hogwarts

It was a special day for our students as they handed in their tickets and traveled to Hogwarts, passing through Platform 9 & 3/4 and into the wonderful world of Harry Potter.

Students embraced their characters, posed for photos, ate some delicious goodies, drank some Polyjuice Potion, and enjoyed the movie for the afternoon. We left with certificates in hand as graduates of Hogwarts and will go home to talk about our fun for days to come.

A celebration like this couldn’t have happened without the help and support of parents, so a BIG thank-you from all of us!

 

Category: Reading Workshop, Teacher Talk | 3 Comments on A Visit to Hogwarts
April 10

Book Tasting: Part Deux

Our last book tasting in November was a big hit, so it only made sense to do it again! Last week, our students came in hungry and left STUFFED with ideas for books to read.

What was on the menu this time around? Well, Chef Sully, who flew in all the way from Paris, complete with a fancy French accent, was serving up some delicious genres that included:

  • Books in a Series
  • Nonfiction
  • Poetry
  • Fantasy
  • Picture Books

What’s on YOUR reading menu these days?

Category: Reading Workshop, Teacher Talk | LEAVE A COMMENT
April 4

Let’s Make S’more Inferences

What better way to celebrate our learning about inferences than to EAT?! We’ve been exploring several short stories and have been using paper s’mores to break apart the pieces of an inference:

  • graham cracker = Background knowledge
  • graham cracker = Text clues
  • marshmallow = inference
  • chocolate = another inference

We remember that BK +TC =I and that we make inferences all the time and don’t even know we’re doing it. Way to go grade 3s!

Aren’t edible inferences delicious?

Category: Reading Workshop, Teacher Talk | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 28

Mystery Reader…Revealed!

Today, our special guest was…Mrs. Cheeseman! She read to us a book called JoJo the Giant by Jane Barclay. It was the story of a boy who is eager to grow bigger. He wants some new running shoes after seeing them in a store window, but they are too expensive. He decides to enter a race to see if he can win the pair, but is racing against bigger boys, including a bully. In the end, JoJo learns about believing in himself and that we can grow in more ways than one!

 

A huge thank-you to Mrs. Cheeseman for reading with us today! We loved the story of JoJo the Giant and thought you were a great reader.

Category: Reading Workshop, Teacher Talk | 2 Comments on Mystery Reader…Revealed!
March 18

BK +TC = I

What does BK + TC = I mean? It looks like a math equation but really it means

Background Knowledge + Text Clues = Inference

Today we talked about inferences and specifically looked at 4 different commercials where we could practice making inferences.

Did you know that we make inferences all the time without even knowing it? You can make inferences walking down the street, in the grocery store, when watching a movie, and so on. Sometimes adults refer to it as ‘reading between the lines’. Others refer to inference as an ‘educated guess’. In general, an inference means that someone can make a conclusion on something based on their own experiences and other information. We will be working on transferring that skill to reading text over the next several weeks…and beyond.

Have a look at these commercials and see what you can infer. Some of them are quite funny!

Category: Reading Workshop, Teacher Talk | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 13

Biographies

When setting up my classroom each September, I get the inevitable question from at least one person that asks…

My answer is: a teacher can never have enough books! We had the pleasure of adding even more new books to our class library. After opening the packages, the students noticed a theme with these new books…Biographies!

We were introduced to what a biography is and read one together. After several days of reading and sharing the books, students have finally selected one person they are interested in learning more about. The goal is to complete a presentation called Biography in a Bag and teach the class all about their person of interest. Check out the students exploring the huge selection of biographies…

 

Category: Reading Workshop, Teacher Talk | 2 Comments on Biographies